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GERLACH WINS BILLABONG XXL AWARD
Chilean Medina wins Monster Paddle and Dorian takes Monster Tube

By: Marcus Sanders
April 15, 2006

Big waves are easy to love. More than wacky surfing personalities, more than three-to-the-beach competition, more than boardshorts or deck grip or the latest cool-bad-boy fashion trend -- gigantor, death-defying walls of water give everyone chicken skin, from the guys out there pushing the Unridden Realm to the moms on the boardwalk pushing doublewide strollers.

<>And it's also why almost 2000 frothing big-wave riders and voyeurs packed into the Grove of Anaheim tonight; to honor and cheer on the soldiers who're out there at the slightest hint of a big swell, regardless of where, when, and however many family members and friends they happen to flake on as soon as LOLA starts lighting up all reds and purples.

And nobody's been more on it than Brad Gerlach. After seven years of searching out and riding the world's biggest surf with partner Mike 'Snips' Parsons, the 40-year-old former world number two finally took home the $68,000 winner's check for his December 21st Todos Monster. (Which he's splitting in half with Snips, who split his 2001 $66,000 XXL check with Ger, after Ger towed him into a monster at Cortes Bank.)

"Like my mom says: 40 is the new 20. I'm a youngster. I'm just getting started in this big wave stuff."
~ Brad Gerlach

"You don't really look behind you on a wave like that," Ger explained after the awards. "It's like a racecar driver -- you don't know all the cars behind you, as long as you're winning the race, you're ahead. And if you're ahead, you win."

"More than anything," Ger continued, "it proves that Mike and I are competitive, and we want to ride the biggest waves in the world. I'm 40 and he's 41 -- we're not rookies anymore, but we're at our peak. Like my mom says: 40 is the new 20. I'm a youngster. I'm just getting started in this big wave stuff."

Story courtesy of Surfline.com