Adam Melling wins the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach

Adam Melling putting his rail on the line for the win at Sunset. (Photo: ASP)

It was old school versus new school at Sunset as guys like Adam Melling, Ace Buchan and Kiren Perrow fought off the charge from the young guns like Perth Stanlick, Gabriel Medina and Sebastien Ziets. When the VOG (Volcanic Smoke Mist apparently.) had settled though, it was Melling who came out on top and took the win, confirming his place on the World Tout for 2013 in the process. Ziets made his second final in the Vans Triple Crown, putting him way out in front for the title and earning him a wildcard for Pipeline. Travis Logie made it to the Round of 32 and Jordy Smith got one round further to the Quarter Finals.

Who is JOB 2.0 Episode 8 - Soft Top Surfboard at Pipeline

JOB messing around at "fun" 8ft Pipeline & Backdoor.

JOB buys a soft top board from the local supermarket and takes it surfing at Pipeline and Backdoor, just to make sure we all know how bad we surf! Then he tries out his hand at the SUP World Cup at cooking 10ft Sunset Beach, where he is brought down to earth again...

Pro surfer and wild man Jamie O'Brien buys a soft top surfboard and tries his luck at Pipeline before entering last minute into a standup paddle board competition that proves harder than expected. Want more JOB?

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Wave of the Winter - The best of the 2012 North Shore Season

Ian Walsh making a play at big Pipeline during the Masters. (Photo: ASP)

For the 2011-2012 Winter Season, Surfline and Nike put up $25'000 for the "Wave of the Winter". This was a pretty big carrot for the crew on Oahu and saw many go for broke moments over the course of the winter. Check out the winning wave, that went down at Off the Wall, as apposed to Pipe or Backdoor - its a mental tube! A great 20 minute surf movie.

The King of the North Shore - John John Florence

John John very calm and relaxed on a Pipeline Bomb.

By now you all know who John John Florence is, but it may not have sunk in yet how much he rules the North Shore line up at the tender age of 20. As if winning competitions from Sunset to Pipeline and Backdoor were not enough, he just won the Performance of the Winter award in Hawaii. Just watch the video and its not hard to see why! I cannot wait for this kid to surf the WCT events at Teahupoo and Cloudbreak, it's going to be mental. Have a listen to Shea Lopez's predictions of John John's 2012 WCT future in the second video.



 

Rebel Sessions 2011

There were some good sessions! (Photo: Rebel Sessions)

Rebel TV came to the party in 2011 for the Cape Town big wave scene, after the departure of the Red Bull left a large gap in the calendar. Though it was not the best big wave winter Cape Town has ever seen, there was one huge tow day and a couple of pretty hefty paddle days. More importantly some of the Cape's big wave chargers have got some well deserved travel budget for the Northern Hemisphere season. Well done to all involved, we look forward to next year's edition.

The inaugural Rebel Sessions 2011 awards winners were announced at a packed invite only ceremony held at La Cabane restaurant in Hout Bay on Friday night. The four award wining big wave surfers each pocketed a share of R110 000 in prize money for waves ridden at the Capes premier big wave venues this winter.
The Rebel Sessions is a unique big wave surfing awards event that ran for the first time this year from 15th July to the 22nd October. Over 100 days of winter the Rebel Session cameras filmed six sessions surfed with waves over 15 foot, the photographs and footage taken were used to judge the waves surfed and award prizes in four different categories.
The main award for the best-surfed paddle wave went to popular Kommetjie local Michael Schlebach who pocketed R50 000 for a long walling wailer he skillfully surfed at Dungeons. Michael has been charging big waves off the Cape peninsular for many years and was a standout surfer in every session he surfed through the winter. Accepting the check, trophy and framed photograph from the head of Rebel Media, Christian Herles, the broadly grinning surfer said that he was planning on spending the money on new surfboards.
Kommetjie surfer Andy Marr received R30 000 for the biggest tow wave of the season while Jeremy Johnson from Hout Bay got R20 000 for the biggest wave paddled into, and James Taylor received R10000 for the worst wipe out. The winning waves were all surfed at world-renowned Dungeons reef off Hout bay when the biggest swell of the winter hit the Cape of storms on the 21st and 22nd August.
Christian Herles also awarded a surprise "Surfer of the Sessions" award with R5000 going to young Durbanite Josh Redman for the commitment and skill he displayed in the water. Josh based himself in Cape Town for much of the winter and his fearless assault on the Capes big waves showed that he's a big wave talent to look out for in the future.
Awarding the prizes Christian said that Rebel Media would be back with the event next year because Cape Town is "one of the few places in the world that has a real big wave community and thats why (Cape Town) deserves the event and thats why Rebel Media bought the event here.".
The footage filmed will be edited into a documentary that will be distributed and aired worldwide by Rebel Media through their Rebel TV sports channel.


Rebel Sessions 2011 Big Wave awards winners (L-R) Best surfed paddle in wave Mike Schlebach (R50000), Sessions Surfers award, Josh Redman (R5000), Biggest Tow Surfed wave (R30000), Andy Marr (R30000) and Biggest paddle in wave, Jeremy Johnson (R20000) receive their awards at the prize giving in Hout Bay, South Africa 04 November 2011.

Rudy Palboom Jnr Rips into Sunset - Saffer Power

Hailing from the Bluff, on the south side of Durban's harbor, The Palmboom family are an institution. Rudy Snr has long dominated in the world of heavy waves and his son has taken over the mantle. Not surprising really, when you consider their local wave is Cave Rock and they come from an area that's motto is rough and tough and from the Bluff!

Rudy Palboom Jnr Giving it to Sunset

The ASP had the following to say on the event website -

South African Rudy Palmboom, 22, claimed a whole new fan base in Hawaii today, trumping the scores in the opening round of the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing, the second stop of the annual Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.
Palmboom found perfect rhythm and placement in the double-overhead surf to close with the highest individual wave score (8.67 points out of 10) and two-wave heat total (15.34) of the men’s opening day. Sunset Beach leaned more towards playful today, as opposed to its reputation of being one of the more punishing surf spots on the planet.
“It’s pretty fun out there and a lot bigger than I thought it would be,” said Palmboom. “I got an 8.67, a nice little barrel. I lucked into a good wave straight after the siren. It’s more spread out and there’s a lot of waves coming through, which makes it a lot more fair.
“I’ve been coming to Hawai’i since I was 15, 7 years now, and this is my third Triple Crown. I do surf here quite a bit and I’ve started to enjoy this wave. I haven’t had too many heats actually, which is quite a bummer, but I’ve learned to love it.”

Check out Rudy's heat - Rudy's Sunst Heat
Lets hope Rudy and the other Saffers continue the roll!