First Ever Big Wave World Champ to be crowned at the Surfing Heritage Foundation
The first ever Big Wave World Champion will be crowned on April 24 at the Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente. Results for the 2009/2010 season are based on the finals from contests held in Chile (Punta de Lobos), Peru (Pico Alto), Mexico (Todos Santos) and California (Half Moon Bay, Mavericks).
San Clemente’s Greg Long was among the standout, daredevil surfers pushing the limits of big wave surfing during the BWWT inaugural season and vying for top honors. Long won the Billabong Pico Alto Invitational in Peru cementing his place among the tour’s top surfers. Other season winners included Mark Healey (HI) who won at Todos Santos and placed fourth in Peru, Chris Bertish of South Africa who took top honors at Mavericks, South Africa’s Grant “Twiggy” Baker with the win in Chile and a fifth place finish at Todos Santos and Carlos Burle of Brazil who made the finals in all four events.
Though San Clemente surfer, and Greg Long’s brother, Rusty Long wasn’t on the podium at Mavericks, he played a large part in taking big wave surfing to the next level when he rode some of the year’s biggest waves during a free surf and played a large part in reinventing what the term “big wave surfing” really means.
“The biggest waves ridden during this year’s tour were at Mavericks, and were the largest waves ridden in the history of competition,” said Tour Director Gary Linden. “The term ‘big wave’ now applies to something larger than before.”
Rogue Wave Events was created in 2009 by co-owners Gary Linden and Pierre Camoin to create a ranking system to link international big wave paddle-in events and join them together to create the Big Wave World Tour. Finalists are awarded points based on wave size—bigger waves equal bigger points—counting only waves that meet the set minimum requirement of 12 to 15-foot or larger.
Rogue Wave Events also has planned a round table discussion between the surfers, staff and tour organizers to discuss the future of the tour. So far, next year’s 2010/2011 Big Wave World Tour is planned to include at lease five events—Chile, Peru, California/Mavericks, Mexico/Todos Santos and Oregon’s Nelscott Reef.
The California premiere of the movie “The Find: Claiming Nelscott Reef” directed by Erich Lyttle and produced by Behemoth LLC will also be shown at the event.
For more information on the 2010 Big Wave World Tour Awards, log on to www.bigwaveworldtour.com and www.surfingheritage.org