O'Neill Cold Water Classic South Africa

ASP 4-Star WQS Mens event
Cape Peninsula South Africa
20 - 24 June 2009

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O’Neill Cold Water Classic to be environmentally friendly surfing event that benefits local economy

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 17 June, 2009 : - - Organisers of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic international surfing event to be staged on the South Peninsula beaches of Cape Town from 20-24 June have ensured that it will have minimal impact on the environmentally sensitive coastline at the venues that it uses while simultaneously benefitting the local economy.

“O’Neill has pulled out all the stops to make the Cold Water Classic in Cape Town an environmentally friendly event,” says Paul Canning, O’Neill South Africa Marketing Manager. “We will be implementing a comprehensive Environmental Management Plan to reduce the impact on the various beaches where the event will be run.”

“At the same time we have also hired all labour, equipment, services and accommodation locally to make sure that the economy of the area benefits from the running of a contest that we hope will go on to become one of the icon events on the annual international surfing calendar and a cornerstone of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series,” Canning added.

The 4-Star rated ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) event, which is the third of five stops on the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series, will use a mobile venue format that takes the competition to the beach offering the best available surf on each of the five days.

The event could take place at the tube-riding Mecca of Kalk Bay Reef in False Bay and anywhere from Chapman’s Peak to Scarborough on the rugged Atlantic coast which led O’Neill to commission an extensive Environmental Management Plan (EMP) prepared by the Westlake based Nature Conservation Corporation (NCC), one of the country’s foremost experts in managing major events.

The EMP adheres to the vast range of existing legislation and covers all aspects from environmentally friendly mobile toilets through bins for recycling waste to employing staff from the Kommetjie Environmental Action Group (KEAG) to cordon off sensitive vegetation, place signage to direct parking and public access via established pathways and to collect all refuse and leave each venue in the state in which it was found.

Caterers will dispense food in paper and cardboard rather than plastic and will store grey water for later disposal while some venues will have small scaffolding structures, hired locally and erected by a local contractor, in high traffic areas such as the judging and control centre to prevent any lasting impact on sensitive flora and fauna.

The Emergency, Medical and Contingency plan has been compiled by Geoff Bettison of Medics in Motion whose experience on events such as the Argus Cycle Tour and Cape Epic has been invaluable in taking every aspect of safety into account.  The medical aspects will be provided by Emergency Medical Training (EMT) which is headed by well known local disaster management and NSRI spokesperson Ian Klopper.

O’Neill have also reserved accommodation for all event staff and team riders in the Kommetjie area while out-of-town competitors who are not staying with local surfers have been directed to local accommodation establishments.

A prize-pool of US $85 000 (approx. R680 000) and ratings points on both the WQS and the O’Neill Cold Water Classic rankings has attracted a field of 100 surfers of whom 40 are from overseas. Current WQS No. 18 Dion Atkinson (AUS) is the top seed while SA surfing sensation and current World No. 6 Jordy Smith (Durban) is the event ambassador and highest international ranked competitor.

The balance of the field hail from Australia, Hawaii, Brazil, Europe, Japan and South Africa. Former ASP World Tour campaigners Nathan Hedge (AUS), current WQS No. 8 Travis Logie (Durban), Ricky Basnett (Bluff) and Royden Bryson (EL) will be amongst the top contenders while Kommetjie’s Damien Fahrenfort and Dave Richards the highest rated locals.

With water temperatures around 10 degrees, heavy winter storms generating consistent and potentially huge swells, the prevalence of bull kelp around many of the surf spots and the threat of Great White Sharks (against which precautions will be taken), the O’Neill Cold Water Classic South Africa can rightly claim to be the ‘wildest event in professional surfing’. 

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Previous reports:
# 1 : O’Neill Cold Water Classic hits the wilds of South Africa
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

www.oneill.com
www.oneill.com/cwc
www.aspworldtour.com
www.oneill.com/cwc/southafrica

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