Red Bull Tow-At

The 5th Annual Red Bull Tow-At is set to take place Saturday at during the O'Neill Sebastian Inlet Pro

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 January, 2009 : - - This spectator-friendly event features a field of a dozen invited surfers being sling-shot into waves by a Sea Doo personal watercraft at speeds of up to 20-miles-per-hour allowing for deep gouging maneuvers and huge aerials.
 
A field of some of the world's bes aerial surfers is on-hand in Florida and ready to claim victory in this winner-takes-all event with the victor netting a 2009 Sea Doo. The Sebastian Inlet Pro Red Bull Tow-At is the world's first premiere Tow-At contest.  Past winners include:
 
2005 -- Ben Bourgeois
2006 -- Josh Kerr
2007 -- Alek Parker
2008 -- Shea Lopez
 
This year's event will be webcast live on go211.com and includes the following surfers:
 
1) Cory Lopez, Florida
2) Ben Bourgeois, NC
3) Granger Larsen, Hawaii
4) Eric Geiselman, Florida
5) Clay Marzo, Hawaii
6) Ola Eleogram, Hawaii
7) Stirling Spencer, Florida
8) Nate Yeomans, California
9) Collin Harrington, Florida
10) Angelo Lozano, Mexico
11) Manuel Selman, Chile
12)  Alek Parker, Florida
 
The Surfline.com forecast for the remainder of the event follows: We are now on cruise control with the forecast outlook – The center of weakening high pressure moves over the peninsula Saturday into Sunday.

Also, we have strong high pressure covering the Atlantic which will have implications on the surf for Sunday into Monday 1/19 as the E/ESE swell component becomes stronger.

Saturday 1/17 – Better organized NNE windswell/swell as the periods are more spread out compared to Friday's wind chop/windswell fest – Chest/shoulder to head high with plus sets likely pushing 1' overhead (and likely a few inlet enhanced plus sets).

NNE winds around 11-16kts with higher gusts are expected early but should begin to ease a few knots by the afternoon hours and into the 9-13kt range later in the day (and possibly lighter depending on how fast the high pressure weakens and moves over the state).

Sunday 1/18 – 3-4' NE/ESE swell mix. Sets are likely pushing in the head high range and I would not be surprised to see a few overhead waves on the peak still in the mix early in the day. Winds are expected to be variable (and potentially offshore!) around 5kts with the center of high pressure overhead.

Monday 1/19 – Fun sized 2-3'+ ESE swell (and fading NE swell component) to remain in the water. A cold front will be pushing through and knocking on the door around the middle of the day but the precise timing of this is still a little uncertain. This would set up SW winds ahead of the front with NW winds behind the front.

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Mitch Varnes
mitch@boardsportsmanagement.com

WQS Contests - Surfersvillage