Billabong Pro

ASP WCT Mens Event
Supertubes, Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
12 – 22 July 2006

Surf and music extravaganza at Billabong Pro J-Bay in July

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 21 June, 2006 : - - All of the world’s top professional surfers will be back in Jeffreys Bay from 12-22 July for what is going to be the biggest surf and music extravaganza the internationally renowned coastal village has ever experienced.

The 22nd edition of the US $280 000 (approx R1.9 million) Billabong Pro, the most prestigious and lucrative surfing event on the African continent, will feature the inaugural Malibu Music Festival showcasing an extensive selection of South Africa’s best bands on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, 13-15 June.

While the eyes of the surfing world will be firmly fixed on their heroes going ballistic for cash and points in the fabled waves of Supertubes, the hordes of spectators visiting the event will do likewise, and then party the night away to the sounds of iconic local live acts Fokofpolisiekar, The Rudimentals, Hog Hoggidy Hog and half a dozen more, along with the debut SA appearance of West Australian group Beeva Feeva.

The surf star line-up from the Foster’s ASP men’s World Championship Tour (WCT) brings the crème de la crème of world surfing to a venue acknowledged for 40 years as the planet’s premier performance point-break. 

Watching the likes of seven-time word champ Kelly Slater (Florida, USA), whose dramatic victory in the last 30 seconds of last year’s event is permanently etched in the minds of all who saw it, three-time world champ Andy Irons (Kauai, Hawaii), 40 year-old legend Mark Occhilupo (Gold Coast, Australia) and the rest of the world beating cast shred epic ‘Supers’ is an awe inspiring experience.

Grinding, ruler-top swells peeling down the rocky point in perfect offshore winds are the norm at an event that has an 11 day waiting period but requires just four full days of competition to decide the winner. This allows contest director and big-wave standout Mike Parsons (California) plenty of leeway to choose the best possible conditions before putting the stars to ‘work’.

And South Africans will have more to cheer about this year when for the first time since the ASP adopted the two-tier World Tour in 1992, there are three ‘Zaffas’ ranked in the world’s top 45. Following East Londoner Greg Emslie’s career best third place finish in 2005, local hopes will also be pinned on winning performances from Durbanites Travis Logie and rookie WCT campaigner David Weare.

And it doesn’t stop there! Another six of SA’s best performers are included in the field for the Von Zipper Trials where they will take on six international rising stars in three four-man heats on the first day of competition. The winner of each heat earns a coveted wildcard into the Billabong Pro where they get to strut their stuff on the world stage against the top three seeds in the first round.

The SA trialists are made up of aspirant World Qualifying Series (WQS) campaigners Damien Fahrenfort, who reached the third round of the main event last year, the phenomenally talented 18-year-old Jordy Smith and former ISA world junior champ Warwick ‘Wok’ Wright along with J-Bay standouts the Payne brothers – Ryan and Shaun – and Sean Holmes, considered one of the WCT’s most dangerous wildcards after eliminating then world champ Andy Irons from the event two years in a row.

Add to this scores of the world’s A-list surf media; a dozen international TV crews including MTV, Fox and Fuel; a webcast on billabongpro.com that provides live video, scoring and commentary in four languages and now the ‘seriously easy going’ three-day Malibu Music Festival and you have an event that is not only the biggest happening in the Eastern Cape, the country or the continent – the Billabong Pro J-Bay will be the centre of the surfing universe from 12-22 July this year. Be There!

The 2006 Billabong Pro is proudly supported by South African Airways; Von Zipper; Kustom; Kouga Municipality; True Technologies; Blackfoot Productions; Dirk Ellis Motors; Canon; Telkom SA; Bonaqua and Malibu

www.billabongpro.com

Previous reports:
# 1 : Coming soon
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

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