Tom Carroll, RCJones take on Tassie's Pedra Banca

Big Wave News

Watch as Tom and Ross face their biggest rival to date, New Zealand

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 August, 2010 : - - Two-time world champion Tom Carroll and Big wave pioneer Ross Clarke-Jones are two Aussie surfing legends who joined forces to create “Storm Surfers”, an elite team developed to track and chase down the most isolated, rugged and colossal waves the ocean can produce.

Following another successful mission in Tasmania to never surfed before Pedra Banca, where they conquered 20 -30 foot waves, the adrenalin junkies decide to raise the stakes. They set their sights across the Tasman to New Zealand where mother nature deals them an unexpected harsh blow. Ride the physical and emotional roller coaster with Tom and Ross.

Tom and Ross’ last Storm Surfers mission in Australia saw them defeat Shipsterns Bluff and Dangerous Banks in Tasmania. Once again, they are on a quest to conquer never surfed before mammoth waves but this time, in New Zealand. Here, Tom and Ross face the unpredictable, inhospitable conditions of the remote Fiordland including frigid temperatures, rugged terrain, snow and Antarctic squalls loaded with hail the size of marbles.

However, despite a hair-raising reconnaissance over the Fiordland in local Hannibal’s helicopter, nothing prepares them for mother nature’s biggest test.

Walshie : photo Stormsurfers

Dealing with the harsh weather conditions if only half the job. Hunting waves the size of four-storey buildings involves strategy, timing, preparation and tracking the largest oceanic storms in the world. That’s where meteorologist and surf forecaster Ben Matson comes in. Using the latest storm prediction technology, he helps Ross and Tom track swells and time their arrival to a matter of hours in a mad, high-stakes race against time and the elements.

Their adventure into the unknown of Fiordland sees them joined by a local big wave surfer, Doug Young, as they deal with the harshest conditions of their careers and come face to face with an Antarctic storm.

The latest HD camera technology captures the Storm Surfers team’s adventures from a 44 kilometre journey on jet-skis from the mainland to the large storm fronts, to the boys ‘tow-surfing’ one another on to the waves, where hundreds of tonnes of ocean can drive them deep below the icy surface if they wipe out.

For the guys, the journey of getting to the waves is half the fun. When asked, why do they go there, Ross answered, “We get off on it…I’m, insatiable, I always want more”. Tom, takes a more philosophical approach to the experience commenting on its unpredictability, “mother nature has no idea of time, we came up with it and tried to impose it on her”.

So what does mother nature have in store for the boys? Will Tom and Ross conquer never surfed before territories in the remote wilds of the Fiordland or will their rival, New Zealand, get the better of them?

Storm Surfers: New Zealand is also a web event where audiences can follow Tom and Ross’ adventures chasing waves around New Zealand through micro documentaries, feeding the appetites of surf-hungry viewers and audiences just simply interested in these superheroes.

www.stormsurfers.tv

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Emma Morris

Big Wave - Surfersvillage