All time Kirra

Empty Perfection amongst the madness! (Photo: Dunbar)

Its a dredging sandbank in the heart of the chaos that is the Gold Coast. It's bred multiple world champions and countless super stars. The day after the Quiksilver Pro it turned on for the many that had been waiting and what a show it was...

K I R R A 13 from THEMADHUEYS on Vimeo.

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!

An Irish Boat Trip with DC Shoes

Crab Island is just one of the great spots you could surf off the boat in Ireland.

I know Ireland is not top of most surfer's trip calendar, but it really should be. The place is magical and the waves are epic!

In 2012 Captain Matt Knight, an accomplished surfer, sailor and adventurer finished working on his 52' Wharram Catamaran, converting it from a warm climate pleasure cruiser to a hardy and protected cold climate exploration vessel.

In the Autumn of 2012, the DC shoes U.K team chartered "Hecate" on her first cold water surf adventure.
The surfers on board were Luke Dillon, Jobe Harriss and Matts son Taz Knight.
This is the story of that first trip, and what is set to be the start of some great adventures.

The Search for One Eyed Jack - A cold water surf adventure by boat. from Mikey on Vimeo.

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.

Who is JOB 2.0 - Mentawai Island Dreams

Been a while since we caught up with Jamie O'Brien and his mad life surfing epic waves. The Who is JOB crew head to the Mentawai Islands in Sumatra for some epic waves, great spear fishing and general mayhem...

The Perfect Storm - Billabong Pro Jbay 2012

Wok and I hard at work! (Photo: AVG)

First things first, I arrived in Jbay on the back of a 41 hour trip from LA. To say I am broken would have been an understatement. Never the less, I woke to perfect waves at the best point in the world and a contest site frothing for what was going to be one of the best 6 Star events of all time. The biggest storm of all time was on the horizon and contest director, Luke Egan, wanted the event done before it arrived. Enter 3 days of 24 heats per day and a crew of workers and surfers who went full tilt to the finals, where the most full tilt surfer of them all was awarded victory in the form of Brazilian, Adriano da Souza. While this was all going on I found myself in the holy grail of seats for a person dedicated to talking about surfing, the Billabong Pro webcast booth, along with my main man Wok. We were given an opportunity and we both grasped it with open arms. My feeling is that we brought something fresh to the webcast and hopefully that will be rewarded with more time in the booth at big contests. We snuck the event under the storm radar and then got thoroughly bolted by what must be the most insane storm I have ever seen at Jbay. It was ok though, we were happy to chill indoors with a glass of Red wine after the best contest in a very long time!

Here is my radio show with fellow commentator, Greg Long, contest director, Luke Egan, Billabong SA main skiet, Chad da Arcy and Billabong Events manager, The Heff! Have a listen and understand fully what went down at this momentous event!

SoundCloud Link: Listen Here

If for some reason you were living under a rock, check out the video highlights.

The Friday Mix - Distant Shores Trailer, Erzberg Enduro and California Summer Surf

Welcome to my Friday Mix, fresh from the hi speed bandwidth of the West coast of the USA. It has been a trip having such unfettered and fast internet access and I have been making the most of it. First up check out the trailer for Surfer Magazine's "Distant Shores" film, which will be free to download shortly. Then we have the highlights video from the Red Bull Erzberg Rodeo, the craziest enduro race on the planet. Next up I thought I would show you some summer waves in California, though I have yet to find waves this fun, as the June Gloom bites and the swell continues to be tiny. Enjoy the mix...


 
 

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...

 

Billabong SA Champs 2012 - Wrap Up

Max Armstrong with a big Slob Air, winning the Zigzag Blowing Up Award (Photo:AVG)

Lets get one thing straight off of the bat, South Africa has plenty of surf talent. Over the 4 days of the SA Champs in Cape Town I saw plenty to make us positive about the future of this countries surfing. From gale force onshore and rainy Long Beach, to shifty and difficult Misty Cliffs, the surfers in this contest were ripping. I know, because I was there for every minute of every heat - I was commentating.

In the Girls it was Tanika Hoffman who really impressed me the whole event. She ran out of steam in the finals, but that's ok. A bit more international experience and a little more killer instinct and she can go far. (She is a super nice, maybe to nice. She needs some aggro out in the water.) In the Woman's competition Nikita Robb was in a league of her own. Even in the free surf before Day 4 got under way, she was the only woman out in the line up at Misty Cliffs mixing it with the guys. She won hands down and I hope she takes that win on the road to France with her and back to the WCT.

In the boys division one guy stood way above the others. Mikey February is looking the full picture. Big power turns, the full air repertoire on demand and he simply makes surfing a heat look casual and easy. Like a mix between Parko and Jordy. The kid has a big future ahead of him. Max Armstrong is also worth looking out for. The kid was swinging with guys 2-3 years older and holding his own. I also enjoyed watching Jared Veldhuis surf and will be worth keeping an eye on him.

In the men it is hard to start. The old guard of Greg Emslie and Shane Thorne, still ripping and giving it hard to the younger guys. Ryan Payne called it when named Greg, "The Wave Whisperer". Dan Redman was on fire. He kept it simple, by which I mean he treated waves with disdain, power carving and snapping their lips into annihilation. Beyrick de Vries is the complete package. He busted some of the biggest and cleanest airs I have seen in competition and backed this up with solid turns and tube riding. Casey Grant flew a little under the radar, but he certainly made it count when it mattered. Casey is awesome to watch surf!

So have no fear - we have the surfers, now we just need them to get the right support to go out there and take over the world.

Results:
In the team awards it was Western Province continuing their undefeated series of victories on home soil. WP have yet to be beaten whenever the SA Champs are held in Cape Town.

In the U20 Girls Heidi Palmboom from KZNC is the new champion. She beat Tanika Hoffman (WP), Emma Smith (EP) and Nikita Kekana (SKZN) into second, third and fourth place respectively.

The U20 Boys was an air-off between Mikey February (WP) and Dylan Lightfoot (EP), with local boy February getting the nod and beating Lightfoot into second. Jarred Veldhuis (EP) was third and Steven Sawyer (EP) came in fourth place.

Nikita Robb from Border was the eventual winner in the Open Women’s division, retaining her title in the process. She beat Chantelle Rautenbach (Bol) in second, Tarryn Chudleigh (WP) in third and Krystal Tavenor (Bol) in fourth place.

The 2012 Open Mens Champion is Casey Grant (SKZN). Dan Redman (KZNC) was a close second, ahead of Beyrick De Vries (KZNC) in third and defending champion Greg Emslie (Bor) in fourth.

The VonZipper Air Show was a punt-fest into the cross shore conditions, with Diran Zakarian (Bol) taking it, and the R1000.

One of the new awards, the Kustom Kustomized Maneuver, went to Jared Veldhuis (WP) along with the R1000 prizemoney.

The DaKine Highest Heat Score Award and R1000 went to Dan Redman for the highest heat score of the event with 17 points.

The Zigzag Blowing Up Award and R3000 went to Max Armstrong (WP).

The BuchuLife Performance Award and R2000 went to Nikita Kekana (SKZN)

The final team placings were:
1. WP – 43950
2. KZNC – 38782
3. EP – 37418
4. BOR – 36840
5. BOL – 35528
6. SKZN – 33990
7. SC – 24660
8. Zul – 19736

Kelly Slater's Secret Atoll

Kelly Slater, who is missing the Billabong Pro in Rio, due to a tropical reef cut on his Heel, went on a little exploration holiday for Surfer Magazine just before that and discovered a new wave. The wave is a super long right hand barrel and it looks like Kelly made the most of it...

Meet Big Wave Hellman, Ryan Hipwood

Not scared of a massive keg then mate!

Ryan Hipwood is one of the new breed of Ozzy Big Wave Hellman. He basically spends his life chasing rather large swells around to tow and paddle into very scary waves. Some of his exploits at massive Cloudbreak and the secret slab in West Oz, almost beggar belief. I might have soiled my wetsuit in his position to be frankly honest...

Surfing Rivers - China's Silver Dragon

The Silver Dragon seems quite an apt name for this river bore - except that the water is literally poo brown... Still, it looks pretty fun to ride and gets pretty meaty size wise. I really like the urban sky scape in the backgrounds. Check out how many giant cranes building skyscrapers you can check in the background during the video.

Jeff Rowley ‘paddles-in’ to historic 50-foot plus waves at “Jaws”

Big wave surfer Jeff Rowley ‘paddles-in’ to historic 50-foot plus (15m+) waves at Peahi “Jaws” and becomes the first Australian to ride the waves without Jet Ski tow-in. Our very own Grant "Twig" Baker was there too and you can check some great photos at Surfline - HERE  
 

Crazy Summer

Well, it has been!

How else does one describe a summer where we have had multiple big waves sessions, tubes galore and hardly any gale force winds? Its simply been a crazy summer!

For years the Cape Town surfing fraternity have languished like sharks in a bathtub, just waiting for someone to get in - but almost always the water has been freezing, the wind has howled like a demented dragon and the waves have been small to non-existant! What changed? How did we end up with the exact opposite?

We had a 2 week period in February that could have rated with one of the best periods of surf on the planet! The water was warm - ok, it was warm for the Cape - and guys were getting so tired of being blown out of barrels we all thought they had been for a perm at the hairdresser. Many of the out of towners must have been wondering if they had stumbled upon nirvana, or if the surf press had simply been lying to them about Cape Summers all that time.

What caused it? Gobal warming, El nino, Cows farting the atmosphere away or simply absolutely random weather patterns that the Incas actually predicted before being blown up by aliens. We simply don't know. Will it keep happening? Will the winter still be epic? Again, we simply dont know. 2009 was probably one of the best big wave seasons in history. The guys got more big wave time than anywhere on the planet - this is backed up by the crew dominating every big wave event over the last year. Twig, Greg Long, Chris Bertish and the rest of the crew got more training than the rest of the planet, hence it makes sense that they were more well prepared! But what of this winter - will it happen, or has the unseasonal cooking swells this summer meant that winter will suck?

Who knows, who can tell - perhaps we are in for a glut of waves the entire year. Or, maybe the flatest winter in history. What are your thoughts? Did you score this summer? Let us know!

If you don't believe me about our summer, just check these out:
http://www.zigzag.co.za/db_images/block_images/80x55_7efe1c35ef942adbe080bfc5cd7cd81f.jpg
or
http://www.thebombsurf.com/thebombsurfslideshows/361/fresh-cape-shots
or
http://www.wavescape.co.za/surfing-lifestyle/slide-show.html

Lukka
Captain Kai