Meet Pro Surfer Quincy Davis

Meet young up and coming Pro Surfer, Quincy Davis. This girl has got some pretty mental style both in and out of the water. Spending lots of her time in Puerto Rico, she has the Island Vibe down and knows how to put a board on a rail! This is one girl to keep an eye on!

Meet Pro Surfer, Coco Ho

To say Coco comes from Hawaiian royalty, is not an overstatement! Daughter to Michael Ho, and niece to Derek, this tiny bombshell has grown up in the North Shore sunlight and holds her own on the golden mile! One of the most down to earth and affable surf stars you will ever meet, follow her on Twitter to find out, she is fast making a big name for herself on the ASP World Tour.

John John Florence defends his Volcom Pipe Pro Title

Dale Staples representing for the North Shore Saffas and making 9th!

Pipeline was not at its utmost best, but there were waves and the focus shifted from the lefts to the Backdoor Rights. The lone Saffa, Dale Staples charged hard and ended up making the Semi Finals and a well deserved 9th place. Josh Kerr and Chris Ward were on a hard charge and pushing the limits with super late drops and "backdoor" tubes. But after all was said and done, it was defending champion and North Shore royalty, John John Florence who managed to defend his Pipe Pro title and take the glorious Spartan War Helm Trophy home, which happens to be right there...

The Pipeline Horror Show

While the swell poured into the North Shore, the contest directors at the Volcom Pipe Pro decided not to run the contest, as conditions were to wild and wooly. This did not stop the waiting Pipeline chargers from attacking it all day long. Amongst the horror and carnage there were some bombs, some spit as thick as a Sea Monster's spout and of course some hero making drops!

Volcom Pipeline Pro 2013 - Starts Sunday

The contest season on the ASP World Tour starts with a bang at Pipeline for the 2013 Volcom Pipe Pro. The 5 Star event always brings drama and great action to the start of the year and you can bet that 2012 winner John John Florence will be looking to defend his title! The usual suspects of North Shore chargers and World Tour stars will battle it out for honors, though I am most excited to see how the Saffa boys go. (Well, that's hoping some of them get in...)

The Vanilla Gorilla - Josh Redman launches web video

Josh Redman is a special kind of guy! For example not many young surfers are willing to follow the Captain's example and grow incredible beards. He also laughed off the pro surf racket and decided to concentrate on charging mental waves and tubes. Often mistaken for Skalk Burger when in the Western Cape, he does similar things to waves as Skalk does to people, namely destroy them. Josh, his brother Dan and Brandon Jackson have a new blog going and launched this video today. Go check out the blog at http://maliciousmustache.tumblr.com/

Massive Cloubreak Free Surf on Day 6 - Volcom Pro Fiji 2012

Bede Durbidge winning the 1st of only 2 heats surfed on Day 6. After this the Free Surf began... (Photo:ASP)

The massive swell arrived as expected, but the contest only lasted 2 heats, with Bede and Kai Otton winning the heats and moving into Round 3. The ASP made the call to wait for today to start Round 3, which will probably go down at Restaurants. Once the tour had puled out, the hordes of big wave charges were out there, with some of the more core Tour surfers joining the fray in solid 15ft Cloudbreak. Luckily the contest left the live feed running and we got to watch a rare free surf in giant waves. Enjoy the video...

 

Volcom Pro Fiji - The first 2 Days

Julian Wilson (AUS), 23, ASP Dream Tour sophomore, put in a sensational performance, netting the event high heat total of an 18.57 out of a possible 20, in Round 2 of the Volcom Fiji Pro. (Photo: ASP)

We wanted it back, the surfers wanted it back and Volcom came to the party. The first weekend of the Volcom Fiji Pro did not disappoint as the world's best surfers were treated to solid 8-10ft Cloudbreak for Round 1 and 2. There are still 2 heats left to surf in Round 2, but the focus is now on Round 3. Yesterday is was a lay day, but there is a massive swell tracking towards Fiji and most of the guys will have probably phoned home to order bigger boards.

The surfers to impress so far in Round 1 were Jordy Smith, who in the first heat of the event scored a 9 for a really good backhand tube ride. Enter, Mitch Coleburn, the wildcard, who surfed an incredible heat to beat Kelly Slater and Kai Otton. The kid is not really known as a competitive surfer, being from the new school, free surfing, lifestyle, making video parts, but he out classed the other 2 surfers scoring the highest heat total of the round. He is definitely worth keeping an eye on as the competition progresses. John John, Mick, Joel and Owen all comfortably through to Round 3.

In round 2, the swell dropped a little but got way cleaner and it was Julian Wilson setting the pace with the highest heat score of the event and some amazing tube riding. Matt Wilkinson found himself losing with a heat score that would of won most of the other Round 2 heats, against an on fire Miguel Pupo. Josh Kerr, who tore his ankle the day before, strapped up and grinned through the pain to ride an epic tube and progress to the the 3rd Round. Kelly Slater also made short work of the local Fiji wildcard. Gabriel Medina scored the first 10 Point ride of the event with an incredible tube that had the commentators thinking he had not made it, when he blew out the section with the spit.

Next up is Round 3 and with the swell expected to boom the big question is, will they keep the guys at huge Cloudbreak or shift to Restaurants in front of the Tavarua Lodge? i am hoping for massive 10-15ft Cloudbreak with the best surfers in the world on it, but we will have to wait and see. Match ups in Round 3 to look out for are John John versus Adrian Buchan, Kerr versus Damien Hobgood, Parko versus Coleburn and Kelly Slater versus Freddy P. 

Isenseven "Fools Gold" - Bring on the Winter & Boarding!

The crew at Isenseven are back with a new Film, "Fools Gold". These guys have been responsible for some of my favorite snowboard films through the years and judging by the trailer here, "Fools Gold" is going to be great! With the snow season fast approaching in South Africa, this will be a great video to get your amp on for a trip to Afriski and Lesotho!



Fool's Gold. Yup, that's the name of our 2012 feature length blockbuster film.
A few of our boys have left us, a few guys re-joined and a few new faces will appear this year. But never the less, it's a great mix of the bestest team ever and we hope you love each rider the way we do. Although, they sometimes can be annoying.
Watch our crew hit jumps, hit rails, hit faces and hit hits all over the world, captured on our crispy HD cameras for your viewing pleasure (or pain...)

Fool's Gold will be available September 2012 at your local boardshop and iTunes worldwide. Boom!

ISENSEVEN presents "FOOL'S GOLD"
A film by Alex Schiller, Tom Elliott and Vincent Urban

Edit: Vincent Urban
Motion Graphics: Alex Schiller

Principal Cinematography: Tom Elliott, Alex Schiller, Maxi Seefried

Additional Footage: Julian Pintarelli, Martin Venier, Dominik Fellmann, Karsten Boysen, Elmar Bossard, Priit Paluma, Michel Schmidhalter

Production Assistant: Flo Schöftenhuber

MUSIC:
Wildlife
"Stand In The Water"
From the album "Strike Hard, Young Diamond"
wildlifemusic.ca/
Get their album on iTunes here:
itunes.apple.com/ca/album/strike-hard-young-diamond/id405923301

Featuring Alex Tank, Benny Urban, Tobi Strauss, Fips Strauss, Peter König, Tom Klocker, Luka Jeromel, Marco Smolla, Colin Frei, David Bertschinger Karg, Kevin Bäckström, Ludwig Lejkner, Wojtek Pawlusiak, Dani Rajcsanyi, Christophe Schmidt and some other friendly faces.

This film is supported by Pleasure Snowboard Magazin, Head Snowboards, Burton, Forum, Nitro, Nike, Oakley, Airblaster, Zimtstern, Ride, Vans, Planet-Sports.com, DC, Volcom, Bataleon and Snowstyle.

www.isenseven.tv

The King of the North Shore - John John Florence

John John very calm and relaxed on a Pipeline Bomb.

By now you all know who John John Florence is, but it may not have sunk in yet how much he rules the North Shore line up at the tender age of 20. As if winning competitions from Sunset to Pipeline and Backdoor were not enough, he just won the Performance of the Winter award in Hawaii. Just watch the video and its not hard to see why! I cannot wait for this kid to surf the WCT events at Teahupoo and Cloudbreak, it's going to be mental. Have a listen to Shea Lopez's predictions of John John's 2012 WCT future in the second video.



 

Who is JOB 2.0 - Episode 5, Pipeline Madness

Episode 5 of JOB 2.0, brought to you by Red Bull, and the show keeps up the madness that is Jamie O'Brian's life. From doing transfers on a longboard to short board at massive pipeline, getting owned by his cat, narrowly losing out to John John Florence at the Volcom and caning the Pipeline tube of the day switch foot, JOB is charging on his new web show.

Jamie O'Brien tries a new technique by paddling out on his longboard and then dropping in his short board to ride the wave. Later, despite despite the warnings of his feline friend he goes all the way to the finals of the Volcom Pipe Pro for an epic showdown down to the last second with John John.

Subscribe to this show! http://www.youtube.com/show/whoisjob20?s=1

Ultimate X 2012 - Event Wrap Up & Video

Girls & FMX Bikes are always a great combo! (Photo: Ultimate X/Pierre Marqua)

Now that the dust has settled and we have all recovered from the heat wave that was last Saturday, I can finally put to paper my thoughts on the 2012 Ultimate X. I dont need to get that verbose or even write a whole soliloquy - bottom line is, Ultimate X 2012 was bloody marvelous!

The event has grown every year, but this year saw a massive jump. A large part of this had to do with the new Skate and Bmx park. The levels of riding in the park were simply mind blowing. The best skating and Bmx I have seen in a very long time.  (Dont believe me, just take a gander at the video below!) Many of the local riders were a little intimidated by the course, due to the fact that we dont have a park this size in the Cape. This needs to change in order to up the level of riding. Guys like, Greg Illingworth (Bmx Winner), showed that they have been riding overseas in massive parks, with their flow through the course and utilizing different lines on every run.

Big Park meant big tricks! (Photo: Ultimate X/Pierre Marqua)

Instead of having a huge bunch of riders in the FMX, the organizers chose to keep the field tight and had the two best guys in Southern Africa. This was a great decision. Nick de Wit and Alistair Sayers put on an amazing Fmx display that had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. Multiple backflips, huge extensions and the showmanship only guys who have performed on the World Stage could bring to the event. Ultimate X brought the best and we were all stoked to see it!

The Huge crowd loved the Fmx. (Photo: Ultimate X/Pierre Marqua)

The Wake boys put on a show, but the Jetski is a problem. The wake slows things down and not having a high extended rope certainly limited the size of airs off of the kicker. Rumor has it that their is going to be a cable system for next year. We can but hope, it would be epic. There were no huge problems on the day. We witnessed amazing riding and all in all the event was an incredible success. I am really looking forward to seeing what they come up with for next year. Ultimate X in Jozi? (Who knows what could happen...)

Talk about close to the action! (Photo: Ultimate X/Pierre Marqua)

Captain Kai's World on www.2ov.fm - Show 24 Podcast

With the Ultimate X event coming this Saturday, thats pretty much what we spoke about on the show, with a lot of good tunes for your listening pleasure. I had Dylan - or MR Cape Town - as he is more commonly known, Rupert von T, the commentator on Saturday, Markus from Ultimate X and a short visit by hopeful weather girl, Amy, or Good Guerrilla. Red Bull's Buddy Chellan was supposed to join us, but went missing in action - he probably found a new dirt track line and got distracted.

Really looking forward to the Ultimate X this Saturday and I will have FMX star, "Sick" Nick de Wit in studio next week, for the event wrap up.

Download Show 24 PODCAST HERE

Check out the Ultimate X Teaser from last year...

 

Mutant Pipeline on Day 3 of the Volcom Pipe Pro 2012

Monster Pipe Tubes were the call for the day! Balram Stack from NY charging... (Photo: ASP)

 Day 3 of the Pipe Pro and it was one third carnage to two thirds mutant tubes! The Saffers woke up to monster Pipeline and the chirps were flying thick and fast on twitter and FB between the North Shore and South Africa. We had three guys in Round 3, Shaun Joubert, Brandon Jackson and Rudy Palmboom. None made it through the round, but watching their heats it was easy to see they tried their best. The waves were huge, scary and all over the show and none of the boys let team SA down. Personally, I would have been terrified just sitting on the beach, where a number of spectators got washed into the shore break! The final day will be posted as soon as the web video goes live.

Volcom Pipe Pro Day 2 - swell dropped, but still cooking!

Costa Rican, Carlos Munoz on his way to a 10 Point Ride. (Photo: ASP)

Another day and another tube fest from the North Shore. Costa Rican youngster, Carlos Munoz, came out of nowhere to get a 10 point ride and impress the Pipe community. Chris Ward was back from injury and charging both Backdoor and Pipeline. For the South Africans, Rudy Palmboom Jnr secured a well deserved 2nd place to proceed to Round 3, where he joins Brandon Jackson and Shaun Joubert. The 2 Saffers find them selves in the same Round 3 heat, so we can only hope they lock out the other 2 guys and proceed to round 4. For more on the contest go to the Volcom Pipe Pro or the ASP Website.



These guys need to add some tunes and editing to their video, but some great behind the scenes footage and interviews...

Viscious Pipeline for Round 1 of the Volcom 2012

The Trials and Round 1 of competition went down at macking Pipeline, with warped, monster tubes and massive wipeouts going down. The carnage went on until the organizers realized it was getting to big and wild and they called it off for the day. Check out long time Pipe Master, Derek Ho getting absolutely guillotined! Pipeline took no prisoners!

Durban serves up a weekend of mayhem and Mansions with Volcom

Mansion parties are cool! Goldfish rocking the crowd! (Photo: Volcom)

You have to love being treated like a Pimp Rock Star. I have my fair share of great events and parties I attend through the year, but it is still rare to be treated like this. How was I treated?
Action Sports brand, Volcom, made me feel like the boss! I flew up for the weekend in Durban and was picked up by Jono Channing, the man running Volcom in SA, taken to an amazing dinner of Argentinean steak and beer (Where I immediately became aware of the incredibly large number of single, gorgeous women around and they were all eating steak!). Slept in an awesome B&B, taken for a morning surf in warm water (Was surrounded by calendar quality Bikini clad women), went shopping with the Volcom competition winners at the Volcom store at Gateway, where the winners had the incredibly hard task of buying R12’000 worth of quality Volcom gear and then we arrived at the Mansion…

It could be in Hawaii - really!

My room was bigger than my house - never mind the bed!

First impressions were that I had somehow been teleported to the Playboy Mansion in Hawaii. Gorgeous Promo girls running around, an old house straight out of Donald Trump’s holiday home short list, with lawn and pool area kitted out for the party and finally I was taken to my room for the night. The Room basically looked like it had been taken out of an episode of the Kardasians – Huge four-poster bed, massive bathroom, outdoor shower and of course, the jet bath under the grape vines (My only unhappy memory of this entire weekend was that none of the many gorgeous ladies at the party did ended up in the tub with me and copious amounts of Champagne – bad form Durban girls!) This Captain was thinking things could not get much better and then the party started…

Promo girls were dangerous... (Photo: Volcom)

First off, the weather in Durban decided to go haywire. I am talking high winds, the possibility of rain (Though it never did) and gloomy overcast skies. Having said this it was Durban and it was still warm. Humidity has some advantages it seems, besides causing uncontrollable sweating and rashes in the wrong places.

The skies were gloomy, the view was not. (Photo: Volcom)

The Mansion lawn was the perfect dance floor. (Photo: Volcom)

I was not sure what to expect from the Durban crowds. Would they come out in their droves, would the woman be as hot and scantily clad as their Cape Town counterparts, would I have to deal with an army of self loving cocaine addled agency types? (A regular occurrence in both CT and Jozi.) Happily the Durban crew proved to be incredibly friendly, amped on the party, had zero attitude or dripping noses, there were Mo’s all over the show and the women, shew, the women were gorgeous and very approachable.

Goldfish were having fun... (Photo: Volcom)

 A few hours later and Goldfish hit the decks, the crowd went mental, the dance moves rained down like a “Flashdance” remake and the booze flowed from the many bars on offer. Dom from Goldfish told me over dinner that he had not had that much fun at a party for a long time – I told him to down his drink as the night was yet young.

The kind of ratio Jean-Marc and I both like. (Photo: Volcom)

Choices, choices its good to have choices! (Photo: Volcom)

The girls were having a great time! (Photo: Volcom)

This was followed by a serious clubbing session in the dark back streets of Durban – though the Club, Origin, was incredible!(Jono Channing is very dangerous man late at night at the club - that was my public safety announcement!)

It's good to enjoy your own party! Jono in the swing... (Photo: Volcom)

I woke up in my massive bed with a pounding head and a mouth like a 200 year old Persian carpet. Thankfully the Mansion staff had my greasy, yet top notch breakfast ready to go and I was shortly feeling line a young Magnum PI once again. My clear head would be short lived though as I was whisked off to the Durban Botanical Gardens to watch Goldfish rock out almost a 1000 people in the rain – they really did not seem to notice it – while I Watched from under the Volcom tent and quaffed cold beers and lovely snacks. Pimp rolling really is the way to go when away for a weekend.

Found myself stuck at the airport with Goldfish waiting for our delayed flight back to Cape Town. We were all in agreement that it had been a bloody marvelous weekend in Durban.

I was incredibly impressed with Durban, the people of Durban and of course Volcom, who gave me one of the greatest weekends of the year! Well done, next time I want the Ferrari to go with the mansion. (Higgins is optional.)

Captain Kai

Jono (Volcom), Swanky (the Party Manager) and Dom from Goldfish. (Photo: Volcom)

Wanna get onto the Volcom Vibes? Follow them on FACEBOOK

A Dingo's Tale - the life and surf of Dean Morrison

I still remember the first time I saw Dean Morrison surf. I was paddling up the point at Supertubes and watched this tiny guy get tubed from outside the point all the way through the parking lot section and right by me busy paddling at Impossibles. I was pretty blown away, but there was no way he was going to be making it through impossibles to, shame what a waste. But, as all surfers, I had to turn and watch the back of the wave just to make sure he had not made it. Boy, did my jaw drop when I see him pop off of the back of the wave almost at Tubes. So I sit and wait up top of the point for my next wave and low and behold the little guy paddles up and sits next to me. I can't help myself, "That was the seeeekest tube I have seen for quite some time bro!" He just laughs, "Thanks mate, hope to get some more! I'm Dean but you can call me Dingo." Just like that I have met one of the best surfers ever out of the Gold Coast, one of the greatest tube riders in generations and a bloody good bloke.

Dingo can throw an air or three!

With the release of his movie, I thought it would be a great idea to catch up with Dingo and see what it's all about - 

Kai - Lets start with the basics - why do you surf? 

Dingo - love the feeling of being free in the ocean an riding waves.
 

Kai - What impact did surfing have on your early life - this is a strong theme in the movie is it not? 

Dingo - It gave me a way out of the situation I was in an gave me direction an goals to achieve.
 

Kai - Who were your mentors? 

Dingo - Alot of local surfers from home really inspired me an took me under there wing.
 

Kai - The friendship between yourself and Mick and Joel has been well covered. How has that friendship changed over the years? Has competition altered the relationship at all? 

Dingo - Some ways yes but they are my best friends an every hard time ive gone through in life they're the first ones there, I love them both like brothers.
 

Kai - The three of you made 3 degrees together, Joel and Mick have had there personal videos, what made you wait this long for your movie?

Dingo - It was just the right time to tell the story.
 

Kai - What was the high lite of the production for you? 

Dingo - Just being truth full.
 

Kai - Do we see any South Africa in the movie? 

Dingo - yeah some (Mhhh Cryptic!)
 

Kai - Whats next for the Dingo?

Dingo - Just surf as many good waves as I can!
 

Kai - How much does the WCT figure into your future?

Dingo - At the moment not to sure.

Kai - Message for the fans? 

Dingo - Life has many ups an downs an you dont get to feel one with out the other, so enjoy it embrace it, cause you never know whats around the corner.

Kai - Where can we Africans get the movie? 

Dingo - Not sure mate, VAS Entertainment has global rights to the movie, we really want to ensure that the film hit S.A, these peeps distributed Scratching the Surface and Who is J.O.B, ideally whom ever sold these two titles in S.A will be selling the film.

I personally cannot wait to see the full movie, in the meantime enjoy the trailer -

The pipe Grom who would be King - John-John Florence

This kid has been on the radar on the North Shore since he was 7-8. He's been called a future world champion and many more accolades. What he really is, is the new man at Pipe/Backdoor. Winning both Pipe contests in January, against the biggest names in the business. Watch out for this kid!