JEFFREYS BAY, South Africa (Monday, July 13, 2009) – The Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay will commence this morning at 7:30am in clean three-to-five (1.5 metre) surf at South Africa’s iconic pointbreak.

Stop No. 5 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay has seen the ASP Top 45 survive through four consecutive lay days, but today’s improved conditions will have the world’s best surfers in the water.

“We’ve got the ning of what could turn into a really good day of waves out there this morning and we’ll be getting underway at 7:30am,” Mike Parsons, Billabong Pro Contest Director, said. “Recent swell projections have prompted us to activate the new competition format so we can make the most of the conditions on offer, but we will not be running the dual-heat tem today.”

The new ASP competition format will see man-on-man, elimination heats from the outset of competition this morning, resulting in a day of dramatic match-ups.

First up this morning with be 2009 ASP Dream Tour rookie Tim Boal (FRA), 26, up against compatriot Michael Picon (FRA), 30.

The Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay will be web LIVE via www.billabongpro.com

For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com

The Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay can also be followed via your mobile phone. Anyone with a 3G or GPRS enabled phone can log onto asptogo.com from their mobile browser. Content is updated real time as per the web – event status, results, live scores, news, photos and video highlights along with ASP World Tour ratings tables.

For more information go to http://aspworldtour.com/2009/aspmobile.asp

BILLABONG PRO JEFFREYS BAY ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Tim Boal (FRA) vs. Michael Picon (FRA)
Heat 2: Jay Thompson (AUS) vs. Nathaniel Curran (USA)
Heat 3: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Nic Muscroft (AUS)
Heat 4: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Phillip MacDonald (AUS)
Heat 5: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Marlon Lipke (DEU)
Heat 6: Chris Ward (USA) vs. Torrey Meister (HAW)
Heat 7: Dustin Barca (HAW) vs. Sean Holmes (ZAF)
Heat 8: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) vs. Ryan Payne (ZAF)
Heat 9: Tim Reyes (USA) vs. Devyn Mattheys (ZAF)
Heat 10: Dayyan Neve (AUS) vs. Heath Joske (AUS)
Heat 11: Heitor Alves (BRA) vs. Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 12: Chris Davidson (AUS) vs. David Weare (ZAF)
Heat 13: Aritz Aranburu (EUK) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 14: Jihad Khodr (BRA) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 15: Tiago Pires (PRT) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 16: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Drew Courtney (AUS)

BILLABONG PRO JEFFREYS BAY ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. TBA
Heat 2: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. TBA
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. TBA
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. TBA
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. TBA
Heat 6: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 7: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 10: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 11: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 12: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. TBA
Heat 13: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. TBA
Heat 14: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. TBA
Heat 15: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. TBA
Heat 16: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. TBA

original story from ASP

Monday 29th June (Burleigh Heads, QLD) AUSTRALIA’S best 16 year and under surfers along with a few outstanding internationals are heading to the Gold Coast for the annual Billabong Occy Grom Comp which begins this Saturday July 4th.

Named after Australia’s greatest ever grommet Mark Occhilupo and now in its sixth year, the Billabong Occy Grom Comp is recognised internationally as a premier event for aspiring young surfers aiming to become the next generation “Occy” of Australian surfing.

“I love seeing all Australia’s young , talented and super enthusiastic surfers participating in my grom event,” said the events name sake Mark Occhilupo.

“There are so many exciting youngsters appearing from every surfing region around Australia and it’s great to bring them together here for an enormous week of quality competitive surfing combined with a lot of fun free surfing, – I’m looking forward to checking out our future talents and I’m sure they’ll be ripping!”

Mark will be active throughout the event beginning on the opening day this coming Saturday with a formal beach signing session between 12 and 1pm.

Read more at Surfing Australia

Surfwear retailer Billabong will cut its debt and improve its working capital position after raising $291 million from institutions and retail investors in a rights issue.

Billabong spokesman John Moffat today declined to specify how much of the proceeds from the oversubscribed rights issue would be applied to its $650 million of net debt.

“There were a number of options with the cash, and they included paying down some existing debt and generally extra cash for general working capital requirements,” he said.

In May Gold Coast-headquartered Billabong said $200 million of the fresh equity would be used primarily to reduce net debt to $450 million.

Billabong’s oversubscribed 11-for-two share retail rights issue raised $61 million, with around $230 million raised from institutions.

New shares were priced at $7.50 each, and the oversubscription will prompt a 15,000 cap to the number of new shares allocated, or three times that of the shareholder’s entitlement under the rights issue.

Billabong shares were trading down 16 cents at $8.44 at 11.10am.

read the rest of the story @ thewest