When Waves are Caverns - Giant West Oz Slab

The boys in West Oz have been charging this slab underground for a while now. You will have probably seen some more famous guys with footage, but these are the "Locals". They charge hard and take absolute beatings on some of them. Prepare to drop jaw...


Roar Power from Darren McCagh on Vimeo.

XXL Biggest Wave Nominees 2012

There are some gnarly entries for this year's XXL Biggest Wave category. The two irish entries are definately super big and heavy waves, but neither of them was ridden out. The entries from Spain are both big, but pretty flat and lumpy kind of waves. My vote goes to the Oz entry from Damien Warr. that is a huge wave and he even gets the cover up at the end. Who do you think should take it?



The five nominees for the XXL Biggest Wave category of the 2012 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards are put forth for your analysis: Andrew Cotton at Mullaghmore Head, Garrett McNamara at Nazaré, Axi Muniain at Agiti, Ollie O'Flaherty at Mullaghmore and Damien "Taco" Warr at Cow Bombie. For more details and to view all the still photos see the event website at www.BillabongXXL.com.

XXL Ride of the year Nominees 2012

Ryan Hipwood on one serious Cloudbreak Nomination!

The 2012 "Ride of the Year" nominations are in for the XXL Awards. My choice for this year is the wave above, Ryan Hipwood, at massive paddle Cloudbreak. That has to be one of the biggest grab rail tubes ever and it had the timer running for a solid amount of time. Greg Long's huge tube at Puerto was also solid and Jeff Rowley's Jaws Bomb was pretty amazing.

Interestingly, the 2 Tow nominations don't really deserve to be there in my opinion. While Nathan Fletcher's massive tube at Teahupoo is simply insane, he did not ride it out. Surely the "Ride of the Year" winner needs to be a made wave? Garret McNamara's giant wave in Portugal, while huge, looks pretty slow and flat. (This is the opinion of a couple of big wave chargers I have questioned on the subject.) It may have had the wave height, but it was not a great wave.

Have a look and let me know your thoughts!

Saffa charges Mullaghmore Tow Session

One of the Irish crew charging.

 South African expat in Ireland, Barry Mottershead, joined the rest of the Irish heavy water brigade and got an incredible 20ft tube and an entry into the Billabong XXL Awards.

Mullaghmore went for broke during a gap between two storm systems on Monday, December 12th. "Well what a day, it had it all, we all agree it was some of the hollowest nastiest 20ft plus barrels we have ever had out there" Said Richie Fitzgerald.