HUGE
TAHITI SWELL
LAUNCHES BILLABONG XXL BIG WAVE AWARDS FOR '08 WINTER SEASON
NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- (November 2, 2007) -- The arrival of the northern
winter may be seven weeks off, but the eighth-annual Billabong XXL Global
Big Wave Awards presented by Monster Energy is well underway, thanks to a
number of enormous Southern Hemisphere swells -- including massive tubing
waves ridden just yesterday at the legendary break of Teahupoo in Tahiti.
The brand-new XXL event website is now chock full of photographic evidence
of what is turning out to be a remarkable year in the big wave realm. All
the latest entries from around the world may be viewed at
www.BillabongXXL.com.
The Teahupoo session was lead by a number of past Billabong XXL and Monster
Tube contenders, including Hawaiian Shane Dorian, Australian Dylan
Longbottom and local Tahitian
Manoa Drollet.
Because of the size of the swell, the top pro surfers were towed into the
huge barrels by personal watercraft, with the dramatic day of action
producing a number of candidates for the Billabong XXL Ride of the Year
Award. Brazilian Maya Gabeira (winner of last
year's award for best overall big wave performance by a woman) shocked
observers by launching into several of the heaviest waves ever attempted by
a female. And Frenchman Benjamin Sanchez represented
Europe on the XXL front by successfully claiming one
of the biggest waves of the entire swell.
The twelve-month XXL event period is barely at the halfway point with the
prime season in the North Pacific and Atlantic just starting to get rolling,
but so far entries have been arriving from the Southern Hemisphere at an
unprecedented rate. The current event window continues through the Spring
Equinox on March 19, 2008, with the annual gala awards ceremony scheduled to
take place in Southern California on April 11, 2008.
Entries in the Ride of the Year and the XXL Biggest Wave Award categories
have been steadily filling up the website with video and photos from a wide
array of locations around the globe. Dungeons, the notoriously
sharky break on the Cape Peninsula in South
Africa, produced enormous gray walls for Californian Greg Long and locals
Grant Baker, Andrew Marr and Mike Schlebach this
June. Long captured the XXL Biggest Wave award last year at the same venue
with a 65-footer.
Meanwhile, the Outer Bommie, a break south of
Perth in Western Australia, came through with some treacherous wind-bumped
faces for Australians like Alfy Cater and
visiting Hawaiian Jamie Sterling. Added to the mix this year are the first
entries ever from Papatowai on the South Island
of New Zealand, along with some spectacular images from Punta de Lobos,
south of Santiago, Chile. The Chilean walls, ridden by Ramon Navarro and
Cristian Merello
just last month, are among the biggest left-breaking waves ever challenged
along the entire Pacific coast.
The Monster Tube category is already thick with its own batch of contenders,
featuring barrel shots from the famed Mexican Pipeline along with terrifying
brand-new spots in Tasmania, West Oz and the latest from Tahiti. Entries in
the Monster Paddle division showcase a diverse number of colossal
human-powered takeoffs ranging globally from South America to Africa to
North America, thanks to some early season bombs at Maverick's in California
in the last few weeks.
The format for the 2007/08 Billabong XXL Awards will remain consistent with
last year's major revamp, with the top prize in the XXL Ride of the Year
category going to "the individual surfer who -- based on review of available
video images by a panel of experts -- demonstrates the most advanced and
committed level of big wave surfing performance during a single successful
ride during the annual event period." The winner is decided by a vote of a
large "academy" of experts including top surf magazine editors,
photographers, videographers -- and the surfers
themselves.
Last year, the $50,000 Billabong XXL Ride of the Year Award was captured by
Ken "Skindog" Collins of Santa Cruz, California
for his stunning tube ride at Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Total event
prizemoney exceeds $120,000.
In addition to all the latest entries in each category, full event details
including formats, rules and archives of past XXL years can be seen at the
event website at
www.BillabongXXL.com.
The Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards are presented by Monster Energy
Drinks. Verizon Wireless is the official
communications provider and Surfline.com is the official surf forecast of
the XXL. Supporting sponsors include Honda watercraft, Hawaiian Airlines and
Surfing Magazine.
2007/08 BILLABONG XXL GLOBAL BIG WAVE AWARDS
CATEGORY SUMMARY
Billabong XXL Ride of the Year Award
(Greatest big wave performance on a single wave as captured on video and
voted by large judging academy)
Surfer Prize: $50,000
Second Place: $5,000
Third, Fourth and Fifth Place: $1,500
Videographer Prize: $5,000
Billabong XXL Biggest Wave Award
(Biggest tow-in wave ridden based on available images showing maximum face
height)
Surfer Prize: $15,000
Photo/video prize: $4,000
Monster Paddle Award
(Biggest paddle-in wave ridden based on available images showing maximum
face height)
Surfer Prize: $15,000
Photo/video prize: $4,000
Monster Tube Award
(Best big-wave tube based on votes of large judging academy)
Surfer Prize: $5,000
Photo Prize: $2,000
Surfline Men's Best Overall Performance Award
(Best yearlong big wave performance at a variety of spots as voted by large
judging academy)
Surfer Prize: $5,000
Billabong Girl's Best Overall Performance Award
(Best yearlong big wave performance at a variety of spots as voted by
large judging academy)
Surfer Prize: $5,000