Red Bull Rising: Live From The Maldives

That free surf session had ended with Clint Kimmins steaming out of the horizon, getting towed behind the Red Bull jet ski at warp speed, slicing through his mates and scoring the wave of the day in some type of apocalyptic Water World scenario. The only man missing in the water was Red Bull Rising coach Andy King, who, as ever, was diligently filming the session on land, ready for analysis on board the boat that night. His hard work over the last two days documenting both competition heats and free surfing sessions, heck over the last 12 months, had already paid off, with Clint winning his last two heats and progressing through to the last 64. “It’s cool having the backing of the Red Bull Rising, even yesterday I was going through the footage with Kingy trying to pick the right board to ride,” said the man universally known as Clipper. “We went through all my boards, looking at both free surfs and competition from the last couple of months and chose the right board, and it went sick, so the hard work payed off immediately.

And I suppose that’s the essence of what is happening out here right now, in these tiny specks of coral in the middle of the India Ocean. While these athletes are living the surfing dream, surfing incredible waves in a beautiful location, playing high stakes poker (the loser, last night it was Clint, who had to then jump off the a 30-foot mast into the pitch black ocean) cruising with their mates, and yet when it comes to performing and succeeding in pro surfing, nothing is being left to chance. Every turn is captured, every board scrutinised, every session on the fitball is about progressing their surfing and their chance of success. As Gavin Gillette said, “We’re here to surf, and have fun, but to compete at the highest level is the goal, and the Red Bull Rising is helping us do that.” With that he then proceeded to scale the side of the boat like a spider monkey, reach the 25-foot high platform and perform a perfectly executed back flip. “He’s like some action man,” said Tim Boal smiling and watching. “You’ll be walking down the road and then, bang, Gav has just disappeared, and you look up and he’ll be up a tree, or he’s spotted a ledge and he’ll be doing a back flip off it. He’s the full action man.”

He’s in the right spot then, as this place is just about to kick into more high performance, high speed action. I’ll be here, trying to keep up. Stay on redbullsurfing.com, and there’ll be more blogs, web clips and interviews to let you know just what freakily good surfing is coming up next.