From:  Surfing New Zealand
Sport: International Big Wave Surfing
Event: Red Bull Big Wave Africa

Date:   7^th – 27^th June 2004
Location: Dungeons, Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

New Zealand’s Doug Young (Christchurch) has won the ‘Deep Throat’ award at the 2004 Red Bull Big Wave Africa event which finished its waiting period today.  The award goes to the competitor who charges everything including the biggest waves without hesitation.  No matter what the conditions were like Young was in the water riding whatever he could paddle into.  Young’s commitment was testament to him winning the reward.

Doug Young is the first New Zealander to ever compete in the event staged at South Africa’s big wave caldron called Dungeons, located near Cape Town.  The event had a twenty day waiting period.  In this time the surf is required to break consistently at 15ft (five metres) for more than four hours for the event to be run.  Unfortunately the oceans did not come to the party this year and the waiting period came and went without the event being run.

However several days of big swell did occur where surfers got the chance to hold practice sessions.  Waves bigger than the required 15 foot were breaking but not consistently.  Doug Young was noted for his gutsy performances throughout the waiting period.

“It was a good 5-6hr session with plenty of dramas going down.  The waves were a solid 12ft – 20ft” commented Doug Young of the biggest session of the waiting period.  “My legrope plug broke on the biggest set wave of the day so I had to surf for four hours with no legrope!  I had one of the meanest wipe outs that I have ever had out there but it is all good” continued Young.

In New Zealand Young’s big wave exploits have not gone unnoticed after he recently won the ‘paddle in’ section of the Oakley Australasian Big Wave Awards’.  Young now returns to New Zealand for the remainder of winter.  He hopes to hunt out the huge swells that the Otago coastline is renown for.

Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2004 ends in Cape Town

Africa's most extreme surfing event ended in Cape Town on Sunday when the 21-day waiting period for the 2004 edition of Red Bull Big Wave Africa drew to a close.

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 12 of the invitees and both the alternates got to feel the power of the internationally renowned big wave break during free surfing sessions.

In arguably the best line-up of local and international big wave chargers in the six year history of the event, Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker from Durban, New Zealander Doug Young and Capetonian Mickey Duffus won the three specialty awards with Baker pocketing R15 000 and the Sensi Threads Biggest Wave title for an enormous 20 foot drop in the Dungeons bowl on the morning of Thursday June 24.

Duffus collected R5 000 and the Oakley Best Tube award for a deep barrel at the incredibly hollow ‘Slab’ section of the Dungeons reef earlier in the waiting period while Young, making his debut at the event, charged everything from the smallest to the biggest waves and even the social activities to be adjudged a worthy recipient of the Grommets Surf Café ‘Deep Throat’ award and R5 000.

Fellow international debutants Carlos ‘Coco’ Nogales from Mexico and Darryl ‘Flea’ Virostko, the three time champion of the Mavericks (California) ‘Men who ride Mountains’ event, left their distinctive mark on the sixth edition of Red Bull BWA. Jamie Sterling (Hawaii) and Grant Washburn (California), both in their fourth edition, Greg Long, the 2003 event winner and Brazilian big wave legend Carlos Burle all improved their knowledge of the break and expressed their enthusiasm to return for next year’s event.

Durban’s Jason Ribbink, Capetonians Duffus and Justin Strong and 2000 Red Bull BWA champ Sean Holmes from Wilderness in the Southern Cape have all participated every year since 1999 and their experience showed in the lineup at Dungeons, with Holmes experimenting with a camera rig on the nose of his surfboard.

Baker, Kommetjie’s Andrew Marr and newcomer David Smith (Camp’s Bay) benefited from another year of interaction with the internationals while several young and aspiring local big wave riders took advantage of the safety and medical facilities in the lineup Dungeons every time it broke to sample some waves at the notorious break.

For more detailed information on Red Bull BWA 2004 and its previous five editions, visit the comprehensive website at www.redbullbwa.com that provides a daily log, images and video clips of the action throughout the waiting period and a host of other information on the location, participants and big wave surfing in general.

/ends

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