Another ’round of nice vids:
- OZ, South Coast, Autumn by Alex Wira, a must watch! – https://vimeo.com/44184962
- Amaury Lavernhe in Hawaii – https://vimeo.com/44321278
- Around The World Part I by Jon Aspuru – https://vimeo.com/44209159
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Winny is the man this year! Another win on the tour! Congratulations Winny!
From the IBA site: “He held out a determined Guilhereme Tamega to secure his second win of the year and has made it very hard for anyone else to take the world title off him”.
The next event will be in August in Mexico. See you there !
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The 4th stop on the IBA Tour 2012 just got started with DAY 1 yesterday (trials). You can watch the action here: http://youtu.be/x_gFjhRTgYA
and follow the rest of the event, vids, etc. on the ibaworldtour.com ! Stay tuned !
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Sorry for the lack of update, Spongercity.com is currently on a roadtrip!
Winny just won the Arica Challenge ! Congrats Winny ! Crazy final against Tamega !
Excerpts from the IBA website:
Arica, Chile – Sunday, 27th May 2012 – Australia’s Dave Winchester has won the 2012 IBA Stealth Arica Chilean Challenge Grand Slam presented by BSC, in glassy 6 foot (2 meter) waves at El Gringo today. Winchester topped last years event winner Guilherme Tamega (BRA) in the dying seconds of the final. Needing a 6.84 with 30 seconds remaining a solid set approached, offering Winchester who was in first priority one last opportunity to come out victorious. The Australian paddled into the last possible scoring wave of the heat, drove off the bottom and launched a clean invert onto the open face, a clean spin in the pocket and finished it off with strong close-out roll to score a 9.17 and take out the final.
“I am so happy to beat Tamega today. I just wanted to get him back for beating me in the final here last year. It was even better that it all happened in the last few seconds, because he thought he had it.” Winchester added, “Now I am excited to head to Brazil. Something different, a beach break and a it’s a wave most of us have never surfed before.”
On his way to the final, Winchester defeated fellow countryman Andrew Lester in the quarterfinal and an in form Mike Stewart (HAW) in the semifinal. With two 3rd place finishes and a win here today, Winchester is in a commanding lead on the 2012 IBA GSS rankings, 900 points ahead of number 2 seed, Jeff Hubbard (HAW).
The Brazilian powerhouse, Guilherme Tamega was looking like a strong contender for the win today, taking out 2010 world champion, Amaury Lavernhe (FRA) in the quarterfinal and 2011 world champion Pierre-Louis Costes in the semifinal, but eventually fell short to Winchester in the final.
Event 4 of 4 on the IBA GSS tour will be held in Itacoatare, Brazil from June 7-17. Marking the halfway point of the 2012 GSS, the beach break hosting this event is renowned for its powerful wedges and consistently big swells, the perfect recipe for another action packed IBA Grand Slam.
For more go to: Ibaworldtour.com
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Arica, Chile – Thursday May 17, 2012 – Today’s Press Conference officially kicked off the 2012 IBA Stealth Arica Chilean Challenge, hosting the largest field of competitors ever to compete in the trials of an IBA GSS event. With over 100 riders in the trials draw, event organisers have set aside four days to complete the trials and decide the top six riders who will secure their slot in the 32 man GSS event. The strong Chilean contingent along side other South American riders from Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela will be standing their ground against Hawaiians, Australians, French, Basque, Portuguese, South Africans and riders from as far as Morocco and Reunion. Event organizers are expecting to start competition at 7:30 am. With a flurry of big swells expected throughout the waiting the 2012 IBA Stealth Arica Chilean Challenge presented by BSC is bound to be action packed.
Follow the event, news & official releases on the IBA site: http://ibaworldtour.com
As usual we’ll be giving a couple updates as the event goes on but it’s always best to follow the event LIVE on the IBA site and read all the news & event posts on the IBA site directly.
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Mitch Rawlins is the 2012 IBA Box Pro champion! Congrats Mitch ! A well-deserved win ! Rawlins surfed consistently throughout the event and outperformed South African Mark McCarthy in the final in onshore six foot conditions – as written on the IBA World Tour latest news post. This is Rawlins’s first win since 2005. Yeah Mitch !
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The BOX event in WA just started (sorry we suck and should have warned you before) with the trials and 2 days of contest already. Watch the event live and check all the latest info here on the IBA site: ibaworldtour.com
We’ll keep you updated as it goes.
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Isabela Sousa, from Brazil, is the 2012 IBA Pipe Challenge Womens champion. The former world champion clenched her first Pipe title in fun three to four foot waves. Defeating Karla Costa-Taylor, Minami Hatakeyama and Neymara Carvalho in a close fought final.
Sacha Specker is the new 2012 IBA Pipe Challenge dropknee champion. The South African took top honours, defeating three Hawaiians- Bud Miyamoto, Miles Kauhaahaa and Kainoa McGee- in fun three to four foot waves.
Congrats guys !
Follow the tour, the videos, the recaps etc. on the ibaworldtour.com
Next stop: THE BOX, in west Oz ! yewww
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Jeff did it again ! Yeah Jeff ! Jeff Hubbard – who we interviewed here just a few days ago – is the 2012 IBA Pipe Challenge champion ! Congrats Jeff ! The Hawaiian won the first event of the 2012 world tour / season in flawless 6-8ft barrelling waves, in what people are calling the best Pipe event in 15 years.
Defeating fellow Hawaiian and 11 times Pipe Champion, Mike Stewart in second place, Dave Winchester (Mullumbimby, AUS) in third and 21 year old Sam Bennet from Port Macquarie, Australia in fourth. The flawless 6-8 foot Pipe and Backdoor waves made for one of the highest scoring finals in the history of the IBA.
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Cool highlight from Day 1 at Pipeline (yesterday). Can’t wait for today as the swell got bigger and conditions should be insane ! Stay tuned and check the IBA site coz the contest should definitely be ON later today, in a couple hours !
From the IBA:
IBA 2012 Pipe Challenge
Event 1 of 8, Mens Grand Slam Series
Pipeline, Oahu, Hawaii
Feb 15-24th, 2012
ibaworldtour.com
Wednesday, 15th February 2012, Ehukai Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii – Day one of the 2012 IBA Pipe Pro started off with two Rounds of Women in flawless 4 foot waves at Pipeline and Backdoor. Emma Cobb (AUS) was a standout amongst the ladies, drawing clean lines and negotiating through a long barrels, showing that she deserves a spot in the quarter finals. By mid morning the top 16 Women had been decided as a new Northwest swell started producing a constant flow of bigger sets. Round 1 and 2 of the Mens got under way in building 4-8 foot offshore waves.
Working his way through the trials and into the main event, Lewy Finnegan (AUS) managed to scoop into a perfect Backdoor barrel, exiting cleanly to earn him the only 10 point ride of the day.
“It was pretty unreal, I was just lucky to get onto that wave, it pretty much did it for me.” Finnegan commented. “To get a 10 in a comp like this…I am pretty happy. I can’t wait for tomorrow to get some big pits.”
Other standouts and heat winners included, Nick Ormerod (AUS), Micah Oh (HAW) Bud Miyamoto (HAW), Tim Hamilton (HAW) and JB Hillen (HAW).
Tomorrows forecast is calling for a large bump in the swell with clean conditions, the perfect recipe for a show-stopping three rounds ahead.
Records were broken today as 12 year old Tanner McDaniel (HAW) became the youngest rider ever to compete in the Pipe Challenge main event. Although blitzing his trials heats, McDaniel was unable to keep his momentum in Round 1 and was eliminated by Ruben Quinones (PUR) and Micah Oh (HAW).
During his post heat interview, McDaniel commented: “I got a couple good waves, not the best, but it was so much fun. I am so glad I got to do this.”
Tomorrows event is scheduled to start with Round 3 of Mens and will run to the end of Round 5 of the Mens, completing 24 heats from 8 am until 4pm Honolulu time.
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