WHO:
The top surfers from San Diego County-area high schools, including Carlsbad High, Point Loma High, San Dieguito High and Torrey Pines High

WHAT:
Red Bull Riders Cup, the nations’ premier high school surfing competition. Red Bull and the National Surf League partnered to create Red Bull Riders Cup to help bring the sport of surfing to a new and exciting level. The nationwide event brings together 34 high schools from eight regions to compete in a single elimination “March-Madness” style tournament. The Series utilizes the National Surf League’s “The Game” format, which was modeled after team sports such as basketball, football, and baseball. The Game format serves to bridge the gap between individual sports like surfing and more fan-friendly team sports. This revolutionary format includes two teams competing against each other, only one team in the water at a time, three periods, timeouts, coaches, referees and substitutes

Full Competition Schedule: (West Coast start time: 4:00pm)
Mar 16-19 Santa Cruz Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz – Winner: Aptos High
Mar 24-26 Golden State Seaside Park, Ventura – Winner: Malibu High
Mar 31-Apr 2 Central FL Pelican Beach Park -Winner: Satellite High
Apr 15-16 South Bay El Porto 45th St., Manhattan Beach
Apr 21-23 North FL New Smyrna/Ponce Inlet
May 4-9 New Jersey 3rd-9th street, Ocean City
May 19-21 Orange County Huntington Beach Pier
May 26-28 San Diego Seaside Reef
June 6-7 Championship Upper Trestles

WHERE:
Seaside Reef
Cardiff State Beach, CA

WHEN:
Tuesday – May 26th, 4pm Start
Carlsbad High Vs. Point Loma High

Wednesday – May 27th, 4pm start
San Dieguito High Vs Torrey Pines High

Thursday – May 28th, 4pm start
Final

CONTACT:
Scott Houston, (310) 740-7099 or scott.houston@us.redbull.com

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St Mikes, the power point break on the Southern KZN coast will host the 2009 South Coast Tourism South African Surfing Championships, which gets under way today, Thursday (May 28) and ends on Sunday (May 31).
Over 100 surfers representing six provincial teams will be action in four different divisions for Men and Women and they will be competing in South Africa’s longest running event.

All the participating surfers have been selected for their provincial teams after competing in rigorous trials and will not only be focused on achieving individual glory in one of the four divisions but will also be surfing for team honours and the winning of the 40 year old Presidents Cup.

This will be the seventh time that the Southern KZN Surfing Association will be hosting the premier championship on the Surfing South Africa calendar and the sixth time that St Mikes will play host to the event.Southern KZN Surfing Association hosted its first ever SA Championships at Trafalgar in the mid 70’s.
Although the talented Southern KZN surfers have never won the Presidents Cup they came a close second to neighbours KZN in 2003 when the event last took place on the shores of St Mikes.

Southern Natal has produced a couple of Men’s and Women’s champions in Mark Brodowicz, who won the National title in 1978 in East London, the year his brother Ant won the World Championship title at the same venue and Brian Jacobs, who took honours in 1983.
Southern KZN home grown products, Heather Clark, Kay Holt and Sarah Maritz have won a bunch of Women’s titles between them but of the three only Clark, the defending champion will be competing. As usual she is in the Southern KZN team and her local knowledge, experience and determination must make her the favourite to successfully defend her crown.

In 2003 when the SA Championships was last held at St Mikes, Quintin Jones of Western Province won the Open Men’s title but he is not competing this year.
2008 Men’s champion Shaun Payne will be back surfing for provincial champions Eastern Province this year and the Cape St Francis local is out to make it two in a row.

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The 2009 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards presented by Monster Energy is coming to the ESPN networks this week across the USA. Known as the Oscars of surfing, the ninth-annual XXL show is scheduled for the ESPN2 channel this Thursday, May 28, at 9:30 P.M. Pacific Time, 7:30 P.M Hawaiian (1:30 A.M. late-night on the East Coast). Check your local listings for the correct channel in your area and set your TIVO or DVR now.

For a preview of the show:

The hour-long special features the biggest waves and most spectacular rides from around the world over the last year. Highlights of the high-surf action include Californian Greg Long’s unprecedented paddle-in barrel at Dungeons in South Africa which earned him the $50,000 XXL Ride of the Year prize. Long finished just ahead of a stellar list of other nominees including Australians Ryan Hipwood and James Hollmer-Cross at Shipstern Bluff, Tasmania, Hawaiian Garrett McNamara at Teahupoo, Tahiti, and Californian Brian Conley’s point-of-view tube ride deep in darkest Mexico.

Topping out other categories were Grant “Twiggy” Baker for his 60-foot-plus XXL Biggest Wave bomb at Cape Town’s ominous Tafelberg Reef and Derek Dunfee’s Monster Paddle Award winner at Maverick’s in Northern California. Also appearing in the ESPN show are Billabong GIrls Best Performance Award winner Maya Gabeira of Brazil, Monster Tube champion Mark Healey of Hawaii and Surfline Performance winner Grant Baker. In total, over $130,000 in cash and prizes — including a new Honda watercraft — were handed out at the gala presentation at the Grove Theater in Anaheim, California.

As always, one of the most visually entertaining segments of the show is the Verizon Wireless Wipeout of the Year Award, which was determined for the first time this year by the text-in voting of the surfing public. Winning by a wide margin was Australia Ross Clarke-Jones for his spine-bending detonation within the guts of a huge cavern at the newly discovered Pedra Branca break in the open ocean off Tasmania’s southern coast.

The list of presenters at this year’s XXL show was a who’s who in surfing from today and yesteryear. Celebrities announcing the prize winners with hilarious and heartfelt speeches ran the gamut from three-time ASP world champ Andy Irons and 1999 champ Mark Occhilupo to legendary big wave waterman Greg Noll to Maverick’s Pioneer Jeff Clark right through to Linda Benson, the first woman to ride Waimea Bay in 1959.

The Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards show was produced and directed by David Stanfield. Executive Producers are Mark Hall, Graham Stapelberg, Bill Sharp and Sam Pontrelli. The XXL Awards are presented by Monster Energy Drinks. Verizon Wireless is the official communications provider, Surfline.com is the official surf forecast and Honda the official watercraft of the XXL. Additional support for the event comes from Air Tahiti Nui and Surfing Magazine.

Tune in to the show this Thursday night to see it all. Until then, check out the highlight clips and still photos from the 2009 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards at www.BillabongXXL.com. For more information on Monster Energy, please go to www.MonsterEnergy.com.

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