The 21-day waiting period for the 2005 edition of
Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing event drew to a close in Cape Town on
Sunday without a champion being crowned.
Even though Dungeons, the deep water reef near Hout
Bay that is the venue for the event and home to the largest surfable waves
on the coastline of Africa, did not produce the four hours of 15 foot (5
metre) plus swells required to run the contest, all of the 14 competitors,
two alternates and four special guests got to feel the power of the
internationally renowned big wave break during free surfing sessions and
an official practice.
In arguably the best line-up of local and
international big wave chargers in the seven year history of the event,
Grant Washburn from California, Brazilian Carlos Burle and Sean Holmes (Jeffreys
Bay) won the three specialty awards with Washburn pocketing R15 000 and
the Sensi Threads Biggest Wave title for the third time for an enormous 18
– 20 foot drop at Dungeons during the official practice session last
Tuesday.
Holmes collected R5 000 and the Canon Best Tube
award for the second successive year this time for cleanly exiting an
incredibly deep barrel in solid two metre surf at Wilderness beach break
yesterday. Burle, known as ‘Star One’ due to his legendary status in his
home country, charged at Dungeons and at the various other breaks surfed
by crew during the three weeks to be unanimously awarded the Von Zipper
‘Deep Throat’ title and R5 000.
Fellow internationals Darryl ‘Flea’ Virostko and
Anthony Tashnick from Santa Cruz, California, Jamie Sterling (Hawaii) and
Greg Long (California), the 2003 event winner, all left their distinctive
mark during the seventh renewal of the event.
Durban’s Jason Ribbink, who dislocated his shoulder
when he was crushed while in the tube at Dungeons, fellow Durbanites Grant
‘Twiggy’ Baker and John Whittle and Capetonians Mickey Duffus and Andrew
Marr, along with local alternates David Smith and Thomas Kleynhans, all
benefited from the experience of hanging out with the international
contingent.
Kim Hamrock (California) became the first woman to
challenge Dungeons while the other special guests, Beau Emerton (Aus),
Carlos ‘Coco’ Nogales (Mexico) and Durban based magazine publisher John
McCarthy all sampled some waves at the notorious break.
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