Recently in Red Bull Big Wave Africa Category

By Miles Masterson
Read the whole story and see the photos here

Sat 26 July 2008 1530h- Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2008 is done and dusted. What an insane contest, the 15 to 20 foot sets and clean conditions a fitting way to celebrate the event's 10th year. The unofficial results are Twiggy Baker (RSA) in first, Carlos Burle (BRZ) second, Greg Long (USA) third, James Taylor (RSA) fourth, Anthony Tashnick (USA) fifth and Mark Healy (HI) in sixth.

South Africa's Baker, who hails from Durban, dominated the half hour final with two bomb waves, scoring 8.2 and 9. Burle spent the latter half of the heat chasing Twiggy's scores but couldn't quite find the big sets he required. Same counted for 2003 BWA victor Long, who scored a perfect 10-point tube ride earlier in the day and caught the first wave of the final, taking off deep on a massive wall and riding it high and critical in the pocket, but spent the rest of the time scratching around trying to find a back-up wave. Continue reading...

Hout Bay, Cape Town - There is a strong groundswell approaching Cape Town, and this Friday and Saturday are looking like prime days to run the Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2008. Event organizers only need one day of optimum surf to run the event, and Saturday is looking best. Organizers have called an Amber Alert and the event is currently on 24-hour standby.

"It's going to be very difficult to not call the event on Saturday judging by what the charts are showing," said official event forecaster Steve Pike. "The swell looks really good throughout the day."

Co-contest director Gary Linden from California is also upbeat about what the swell charts are revealing. "The swell is looking really good for Friday and Saturday, and we're all ready to go," said Gary. "We'll be on the mountain at first light Friday to have a look."

Attention: Should we have a green for go this weekend there will be a live webcast of the entire event at RedBullBWA.com, as well as image and video uploads throughout the event.

After 10 years in the making, Red Bull South Africa is proud to announce the prize money for the ten year anniversary edition of the Red Bull Big Wave Africa. Over the last nine years the contest has only been run three times, but this year expectations are high that good conditions at Dungeons will be forthcoming, and the required conditions met.

First prize for Red Bull Big Wave Africa is R100,000 (US$12,500), second prize is R50,000 (US$6,250) and third prize is R30,000 (US$3,750). After this, every single one of the 24 invited surfers will receive prize money on a sliding scale related to their placing in the event. The prize pool is R300,000.

After a nine-year on-off relationship, Red Bull BWA and Dungeons are about to embark on their celebratory ten-year anniversary in true big wave style. Having grown into one of the world's longest running and most respected big wave paddle-in competitions, the event has kept its ardent followers in awe for years, and plans on making year ten the best yet - providing Neptune steps up to the plate as he already has with the recent solid, clean early Winter swells.