Big Wave Surfing Icon Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker Joins The Search

It’s hard to understate the impact Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker has had on big wave surfing.

He’s pioneered spots, broken limits at every venue, won more XXL awards than just about anyone, and has won 3 x WSL Big Wave world titles. The guy is a beast.

He’s now also officially on The Search.

After signing a deal with us, he’ll now be exploring, pushing boundaries and documenting his adventures with Rip Curl riding shotgun.

Twiggy’s relationship with Rip Curl goes a long way back. He almost signed with us a decade ago, has organised Search trips behind the scenes in his home continent of Africa, and always has a high five for the crew at events. The most recent of those events was the Rip Curl Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, where we started chatting about making things official properly this time.

“It’s been a dream of mine to be on the Search forever, since the days of Tom Curren and my friends Frankie and Byron finding those new waves in Indo,” says Twiggy. “The Search instilled in me a sense of adventure and showed me the possibilities of what was out there, closer to home, around Africa. I spent the last 30 years of my life rustling up enough money to go out and explore these places, so when JT approached me in Hawaii this year and asked if I had anything up my sleeve for Rip Curl, I smiled, nodded and here we are.”

The agreement will see Twiggy doing what he does best.

“This is an opportunity to go back to surf spots around Africa and document the adventure properly,” Twiggy continues. “Something I didn’t have the budget to do in the past, as well as do first trips to places that I have always wanted to visit and see what the surf potential is. It also gives me the chance to continue to surf big waves during the Northern Hemisphere season and to start being more of a mentor and coach to the next generation of big wave surfers, helping push the sport forward in a positive way.”

It will also give him the scope and focus to achieve a lifelong dream of potentially winning the most prestigious big wave event on the planet - The Eddie.

“I have dedicated the past 20 years of my life to building my surfing up to a level to make this possible and right now I feel, if it runs again soon, I will have my best chance.”

We’ll see if it runs or not. Either way, Twiggy will be throwing himself headlong into adventures and headfirst over steep ledges and heaving slabs. That’s exactly what the Search is about. In Twiggy’s own words: “freedom, adventure, fun, barrels, perfection and the ultimate lifestyle.” It’s incredible to have you on the team, Twiggy.

Can’t wait to see where you go next.