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Red Bull BWA window period open
24/07/2008 10:20 - (SA)
Hout Bay - Today sees the start of the five-week waiting period for the running of the Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2008.
During this five-week period, 24 of the best big-wave surfers in the world are going to be in Hout Bay, waiting for the big-wave beast that is Dungeons, to come alive for the event. The window period closes on the 31 August, giving ample time for a swell of the required height to rumble over the Dungeons reef.
Invited surfers have already started arriving in Cape Town, and a few big surfboards have been seen getting carried out of Cape Town International Airport.
Greg Long(USA), Anthony Tashnick(USA) and Dungeons first timer Tyler Smith(USA) are already in the Mother City, and Grant Washburn(USA) and Mark Healey(HAW) arrive today, along with the Durban big-wave riding triumvirate of Grant Baker, Jason Ribbink and John Whittle.
Co-contest directors Gary Linden(USA) and Johnny Paarman(SA) are also present and accounted for in Cape Town. The timing is good, as their arrival is set to coincide with a giant swell on Friday that will definitely see surfers out at Dungeons.
Official event surf forecaster Spike is tracking the swell modules for Friday, with conditions looking favourable for a possible practise session.
These 24 invited big-wave surfers from are considered to be the best at what they do, and compete in big wave events around the world. Red Bull Big Wave Africa is the second longest running big-wave event in the world behind the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational event at Waimea Bay in Hawaii.
Over the last nine years the contest itself has run three times, in 2000 the contest was won by Sean Holmes(SA), followed by Greg Long(USA) in 2003, and John Whittle(SA) taking the honours in 2006.
There are a number of prizes on hand for when the contest runs this year. First Prize is a cheque for R100,000, good enough incentive to push a surfer onto a big wave. Then there are the Special Awards, consisting of the Sensi Threads Biggest Wave Award valued at R30,000, the Billabong Biggest Tube Award - R10,000, the Von Zipper Deep Throat Award - R5,000, and the DaKine Ikaika Award of R5,000. Good rewards for going for it.
The event has a revamped and tweaked interactive website - www.redbullbwa.com - which will have a daily blog, fresh images, downloadable videos, as well as the live webcasting portal from the event site when the event runs, enabling interested people from all over the world to watch the contest play out wave-for-wave.
Keep your eyes on Sport24 and the event website for all the latest event details and status updates.
- Sport24
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