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Words by Ben Mondy
"I swear on my mother's grave, that's what I saw, why would I make that up? I couldn't even begin to make that up." I'm in the passenger seat being driven down from LAX to Huntington by Red Bull Rising coach Andy King. And I'm incredulous. Kingy had just told me that only an hour ago, in a mall, he had watched slack jawed, widemouthed and freaked out, as a dog came walking through carrying a cat. Now that, possibly, is weird enough, but not only was the dog carrying a cat, but the cat was carrying a rat. He was too stupefied to even take a photo. The dog, the cat, and the rat just walked by, no owner (or owners) in sight, off into the fluro lit distance.

"I love coming to California, I really do. You know it's a good place to prove yourself and even if the waves are sloppy, it's still such a good place to do well. To me, down here, it feels like a real sport. There's the infrastructure and the hype and just the interest, so I'm always excited to come to California and try and win.

Before here I'd been home back in Kauai for a little while, I went home to work on my boards and my surfing and gather my marbles and just get ready for this event, the Honda US Open. I came in about a week and a half ago - I came early as there was no waves in Hawaii and I heard there was swell here, so I got here as quickly as I could.

Well folks, we're off and running. The U.S. Open is back for another go and we've got ourselves a week's worth of mayhem, parties, and even a bit of surfing...and if this last weekend's warm-up was even a hint of what we're in for as the main event gets cracking, it's going to be a hell of a ride. Julian Wilson, who's been in the States for over a month now and recently won the Nike 6.0 Pier Pressure, is in blistering form. From Round One of the Honda Junior Pro all the way through the semis, Julian's proven to be the man to beat. The final is coming up this weekend. And as for the main event, well, considering it's the only six-star WQS on the U.S. Mainland, it's safe to say everybody's amped out of their gourd. The Red Bull Rising crew just moved into their temporary digs up on 15th Street. "The house is sick," noted Hawaiian representative Gavin Gillette. "The surf's been pumping, it's definitely summertime in California." That being said, the first Red Bull Rising installment's coming up tomorrow, so tune back in for fresh videos, photos, and the ever-classic blog by Rising's own Ben Mondy, as well as the surfers themselves.

Words and Photos by Greg Weatherall

Check out Final Day photos right here...

...and don't miss the video highlights either.

Another epic day in South Africa, for the Billabong Pro at Jefferys Bay, with Super Tubes providing an amazing playground for the surfers to battle it out in front of a huge local crowd.  The swell was around for another day, and with light offshore winds for the majority of the heats, those watching on the beach and around the world on the web cast were treated to a truly world class show. The Red Bull crew were a huge part of the final day of competition, with Bruce, Andy, Fanning and Adriano all still in contention at the beginning of the day.  Brucey got to surf the first heat of the day and got some of the biggest waves seen at J-Bay in quite some time, but Fanning the eventual runner-up, got the better of him. Andy boosted some huge airs, showcasing more of his free surfing prowess, than his usual competition style surfing.  He rounded out the event in fifth place, not quite what the 3x world champion was looking for, but still a solid result.  Adriano De Souza continues with his best season on the World Championship Tour. The rising star of the of the 2008 season, put his current 6th place ranking, down to consistently making it to the quarters and semi's, his fast, smooth style is getting solid recognition from the judges, the crowds and his fellow surfers.

Last season Fanning had a stare of confidence and determination that saw him take out the world title. The event in J Bay, along with the Quiky Pro at Snapper, are the only two times this season, Mick's had that same look in his eye and the result followed. Fanning was the man to watch throughout the contest, posting high score after high score, crushing the majority of his opponents on the way to the finals. He faced off against eight time world champ, Kelly Slater in the finals.  Slater has been untouchable all season, not loosing a single heat to a WCT competitor.  Mick Fanning, gave it his best shot, but struggled to get the waves that converted into high scores rounding out the event at J-Bay in second place.

Red Bull Surfers & The Current 2008 ASP World Tour Rankings
1 Kelly Slater
2 Joel Pakinson
3 Bede Durbidge
4 Mick Fanning
5 Taj Burrow
6 Adriano de Souza
7 C.J Hobgood
8 Andy Irons
19 Bruce Irons
26 Ben Dunn
34 Royden Bryson
39 Tiago Pires

Update and photos by Greg Weatherall

Super Tubes is living up to its name. A full day of round three and several heats of round 4 went down today, with perfect 4-5 foot offshore walls peeling down the line. The South African locals turned up to support and watch the heats go down, as well as enjoy some beautiful mid winter sun. Adriano is killing it, and will not be surprised to see him make the semi's or finals, Brucey had a slow heat, but showed moments of brilliants to scrape through.  Fanning is Fanning, 'White Lightening' and with this wave being the closest resemblance to his home break of snapper rocks, he tore it apart.  Andy also made it through to round four, but was not looking his best. The swell is meant to hang around tomorrow although the winds will be onshore.  Hopefully just lightly, and if all goes well, the event will wrap up, tomorrow afternoon. See BillabongPro.com for further details.

After 10 years in the making, Red Bull South Africa is proud to announce the prize money for the ten year anniversary edition of the Red Bull Big Wave Africa. Over the last nine years the contest has only been run three times, but this year expectations are high that good conditions at Dungeons will be forthcoming, and the required conditions met.

First prize for Red Bull Big Wave Africa is R100,000 (US$12,500), second prize is R50,000 (US$6,250) and third prize is R30,000 (US$3,750). After this, every single one of the 24 invited surfers will receive prize money on a sliding scale related to their placing in the event. The prize pool is R300,000.

Congratulations goes out to Gabriel Villaran who was crowned Champion of the National Surf competition last weekend after winning the seventh stop of the tour hosted by Chevrolet in Punta Roquitas Bch, two stops before the end of the championship. This means Gabriel off the hook and doesn't have to complete the tour which finish this month in Huanchaco. Villaran beat Sofia's brother, Matias Mulanovich, German Aguirre and Red Bull grom Cristobal de Col (15 years old)  in the final accumulating 4,980 points making impossible for the other competitors to catch him in the overall ranking. "I'm stoked of being here, I thought I was not going to be on time for this competition because I was in Indo. This victory comes in good time, I am going to Huanchaco with no pressure, thanks to all my sponsors, Quiksilver, Red Bull, Movistar, Motorola, DC & Oakley for the support and the trust they put on me"

The Billabong Pro's coming to J-Bay here in just a couple of days, and after a nice little rest since the South Pacific leg the boys are fired up and ready to get back at it. Andy Irons is an obvious favorite, and after a slew of quarterfinal results he's more than eager to go a bit further...and by that I mean win the whole damn thing. Mick Fanning's in a similar boat. After making the final at Snapper at the start of the year he's intent on getting back in the saddle. And then there's the surging Adriano De Souza, it'll be interesting to see if he can keep his streak alive. He lit everybody up in Tahiti and Fiji, and now it's time for some quality point-surf. And of course you can't for get about local boy Royden Bryson. Royden, along with the entire South African contingent, have a good chance of knocking anybody out in any given round. And rounding out the crew is rookie sensation Tiago Pires. Stay tuned, shit's going down on the Dark Continent.

It was time to clear out. "Let's go free surfing, let's go find some waves, that's as good as it gets in surfing," frothed Kauai's Gavin Gillette, and he was spot on. Competition wise everything may have not gone exactly to plan, but with the swell switch seemingly stuck on "four-foot and pumping," and with foam fringed coral reefs sluicing in every direction, it was time to find some waves and unleash some free surfing action.

Aboard the Teate, we set sail for north, away from the tropical resorts with their aqua marine bays and blinding white beaches and up to a few hidden waves in the northern atolls. A couple of hours later, we motored into a large channel and almost screwed our collective necks, frantically looking between a perfect reeling left, and a spitting hollow right on either side of the channel.