It started in a remote corner at edge of the world where the Southern Ocean pounds the isolated Tasmanian shoreline. The O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series then moved up to the northern town of Thurso in Scotland for its perfect but freezing reef breaks.

The southernmost and northernmost events in professional surfing brought together exploration and competition within the depths of nature.

And now come the wilds…

Cape Town with its selection of treacherous waves around the Cape Peninsula under the towering cliffs of the Table Mountain Range, is home to the third stop on the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series.

From June 20 until June 24, the world’s best surfers, including South African World Tour star and event ambassador, Jordy Smith, will venture to the rugged surf spots scattered around the Cape Peninsula to brave the elements.

With water temperatures around 10 degrees, heavy winter storms generating consistent and potentially huge swells, the prevalence of bull kelp around many of the surf spots and the threat of Great White Sharks (against which precautions will be taken), the O’Neill Cold Water Classic South Africa can rightly claim to be the ‘wildest event in professional surfing’.

“It’s going to be an incredible event,” says Jordy Smith, winner of the inaugural Cold Water Classic Series event in Tasmania. “Cape Town offers an amazing variety of waves. There are both sides of the peninsula to choose from, which can hold all types of swell – but it can get pretty extreme out there.”

Keeping the event mobile as with the rest of the series, there are a huge variety of waves to choose from during the week for the 4 Star ASP WQS event.  Misty Cliffs, a favourite wave of Jordy’s in the area, is just one of the world-class beach breaks on offer with fast, hollow waves.

A few of the other options include Outer Kom – an open ocean left hand reef break featuring a radical drop outside a giant kelp bed and a great barrel section, Crayfish Factory – a heavy right hander with a ledging reef takeoff before running down a kelp infested point, and Kalk Bay – a dredging left hand barrel across a very shallow slab of reef that provides potential 10 point tube rides.

“The Cape Town event is going to be awesome,” says Australian surfer Jarrad Howse, just one of the top name surfers who is following the entire Cold Water Classic Series. “I’ve been there once but never surfed, so I’m looking forward to getting there early and exploring the variety of world class reef and beach breaks on offer before the rest of the competitors arrive.”

Paul Canning, O’Neill’s South African marketing manager is eagerly anticipating the Cold Water Classic Series’ arrival in Cape Town. “The standard has been set pretty high with the opening two events especially in so far as surf,” he said. “I hope we get some nice big storms over the week of our event so we are able to continue this high quality.”

Living up to its promise to explore the wilds and venture into the unknown, the CWC Series has so far exceeded all expectations.

“The surfers all love it,” says Jarrad Howse. “It has created an experience that’s so different to the typical warm water, junky surf, hotels on the beach style,” he said. “It has incorporated travel, exploration and discovery and tested us all with freezing water – but with the opportunity to surf good waves in amazing locations.”

In addition, with its own Series ranking list, there is also $50,000 up for grabs for the winner.

Currently leading the Series is the CWC Scotland winner Lord Adam Melling. However with the Series well and truly underway there is going to be some stiff competition in South Africa including the likes of former World Tour Champion Sunny Garcia as well as young Hawaiian talent John John Florence and local legend Sean Holmes.

A 4-Star event on the ASP World Qualifying Series, the CWC South Africa still rewards the surfers with just as many CWC Series points as the other six star CWC events – bringing them ever closer to that $50,000 prize money as the series winner.

Adam Melling is closely followed in the rankings by Joan Duru, Yuri Sodre and Nathan Hedge and Scotland’s runner up Lord Luke Munro.

Despite winning the inaugural Cold Water Classic event in Tasmania, the South African WCT star Jordy Smith was forced to miss Scotland with clashing events, but still sits in 6th place on the rankings list – and will be one of the favourites in his home country.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

Rating: 4-star World Qualifying Series
Prize-money: US$ 85.000
Event Ambassador: Jordy Smith

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Quiksilver Thailand Surf Series

Kalim Beach in Phuket
12 – 14 June 2009

Quiksilver Thailand Surf Series 09 to Kick Off at Kalim Beach in Phuket from June 12-14

Bali — The first event of the inaugural Quiksilver Thailand Surf Series 2009, named the Monsoon Riders, will kick off at Kalim Beach in Phuket Thailand on June 12 for three days of competition surfing with four divisions; Shortboard, Longboard, Women’s and Juniors.

Over 100 surfers from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hawaii, USA, France, the Philippines, the UK, and Japan have already registered to participate in the three day event that will start off on Friday morning the 11th of June with on-site registration and an opening ceremony before getting right into the competitive surfing.

Saturday and Sunday will be full days of competition and the event will wrap up with an awards party on Sunday night from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm at the Jungceylon Shopping Center in Patong. The evening’s agenda will include a live band, Thai dancing, dinner, the awards presentation and a fashion show.  Trophies, cash and non-cash prizes will be awarded to the top four finalists in each division.

Organized and presented by the Phuket Boardriders Club, the Monsoon Riders event at Kalim Beach is the first of the three international surfing competitions that will be held this year in the Phuket area of Thailand.  The second event, named The King of the Jungle will be held at Kamala Beach from 14-16 August, and the third and final event will be the Island Crown at Kata Beach from 4-6 September.

Kalim Beach is located at the curve of the coastline on the northern end on Patong Beach, a beautiful strip of white sandy beach that at low tide reveals a mass of coral right off shore. The northern half of the beach is exposed to the monsoon winds, and from June to September large storms in the Indian Ocean can generate enough swell to create surfable waves up to 6 feet in height.

According to Phuket Boardriders President Chanin “Joob” Aiyarak, “Already this early in the season we’ve had some very good days of surf, and so we are very confident that over this three day period we’ll have waves that will give the competitors in all divisions great conditions in which to compete.”

The Quilksilver Thailand Surf Series is the first Asian Surfing Championship tour event to be held in South East Asia, and is the first major surfing event in Thailand to be presented by a large international surfing brand.  Quiksilver SE Asia CEO Paul Hutson was delighted to be selected as the presenting sponsor and instantly committed to a three-year deal.

“From our point of view there is great potential here, so we’d like to assist in both the development of surfing in Thailand and to promote issues that are important to us as a company, namely keeping the beaches and water in pristine condition so we as surfers can enjoy them for years to come.”

Attending the event is ex pro surfer Jake Paterson, Quiksilver’s Sports Marketing Manager based in Bali.  He will be joined by Quiksilver Pro Surfer and Indonesian Surfing Championship Tour (ISC) CEO Tipi Jabrik, founder of the Asian Championship Tour, along with ISC/ASC Media Director Tim Hain.  Together they will assist the Phuket Boardriders Club in running the event according to ASC contest guidelines.

The Quiksilver Thailand Surf Series is hosted and supported by the following:  Quiksilver SEA, Phuket Provincial Office, Thailand Tourism and Sport Department, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Patong Municipality, Kamala OBT, and the Karon Municipality, with media Sponsors Phuket Gazette, PG TV, Blue Wave 90.5FM, B95FM, Phuket Bulletin, MTV, and the Phuket Neo Photo Club, as well as Jim Beam, Nok Air, Coca-Cola, Kingfisher, the Jungceylon Shopping Center, and the Patong Paragon Hotel.

For more information about the Quiksilver Thailand Surf Series and how to register for each event, please see thaisurfseries.com

About the Phuket Boardriders Club: The Phuket Boardriders Club is a non-profit organization formed in 2002 to strengthen local surfing talent and create camaraderie and friendship between local and visiting surfers. The management of the club consists of Thai office bearers and local expatriate volunteers, and over the past 7 surf seasons the Boardriders have held numerous surf contests in Phuket including the Kalim Surfing Contest, The Kamala Surfing Contest, and the Kata/Karon surfing competition (also known as The Phuket Surfing Contest).  For more information, see phuketboardriders.com

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Vans releases their first-ever book ‘Vans: Off the Wall’

It’s been talked about for many years and now is finally coming to life. On June 1, Vans released its first-ever book, Vans: Off the Wall, featuring 20-some-odd stories that collectively tell the story of the brand: from Rowley to Warped Tour, from Customs to Joel Tudor, from Alva and Cab to artist collabs.

The book is 208 pages in hardback, with more than 350 full-color photos, and published by Abrams, world renowned for high quality pop culture books. Vans is rolling out lots of bonus content and book info all of which can be tracked at vans.com/vansbook

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