| Slater, Burrow and Wright confirmed in the Boost Mobile SurfSho at Bondi Beach |
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| Thursday, 11 March 2010 11:36 |
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World-class surfers Kelly Slater, Taj Burrow and Owen Wright will be busting out their best moves for the Boost Mobile SurfSho presented by Samsung, taking place on Bondi Beach this weekend (12th to 14th March 2010). The first international surfing competition to take place on Bondi Beach in over 20 years, the three-day event is free to attend and will see the most exciting aerial surfers from across the globe competing for a $30,000 prize on Bondi’s famous waves. According to Swellnet the conditions are looking great for the event, “ Friday morning should offer solid 3-4ft sets before easing a little during the day. Winds look to remain moderate from the south-east all day, so although conditions will be bumpy, the surf should be quite peaky with good launch pads for aerials. The weekend's also looking pretty good. Wave heights should hold in the 2-3ft range both days, thanks initially to a short-range SE swell, however a stronger S'ly groundswell should push in on Saturday afternoon and hold into Sunday morning offering stronger lines of swell (at about the same size range). Surface conditions will improve into Saturday with light to moderate SE winds expected all day. Sunday morning should offer the cleanest waves though with only a light S/SW airstream swinging E/SE during the day and freshening into the afternoon." Nine time World Champion Kelly Slater said “It’s been a long time between drinks for a contest at Bondi, since ’88. I like Bondi a lot, it’s cool. It’ll be fun to be there and have a contest. It doesn’t sorta happen there very much. Usually its Rod Kerr running around the beach in his Speedos. But the rest of us are going to show up and wear our trunks. We’ll see you there.” The Boost Mobile SurfSho is also the first-ever surfing event at Bondi to be sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals and is expected to attract more than 40,000 spectators including 13,500 from inter-state and overseas. Event spokes person and former pro-surfer John Shimooka said the Boost Mobile SurfSho is a unique, fun-filled event that will appeal to people of all ages. “Bondi is an iconic beach that hasn’t seen a surfing competition for decades and Kelly Slater has never surfed a comp at Bondi before. That alone will attract a massive crowd. Coupled with famous big-air specialists like Taj Burrow and Owen Wright showing off their best tricks, and free music and entertainment all weekend, we anticipate a standing room only event!” Alongside the spectacular surfing action, the Boost Mobile SurfSho will feature a free entertainment program, with Beautiful Girls headlining the live music action on Sunday afternoon. Athlete signing sessions, giveaways and loads of other beach activities will provide fun for spectators of all ages. The Boost Mobile SurfSho will run from 8am to 5pm each day, kicking off with the Junior Surf Sho on Friday 12 March. The weekend will see the world’s best compete in the Surf Sho Open and main SurfSho events, a celebrity surfing competition to raise money for charity and a jet ski tow-in expression session. Sunday’s SurfSho competition follows a unique format in which a wheel is spun at the start of each heat, determining which tricks the surfers must perform. B, O, O, S, T letters are awarded to each successful manoeuvre and the six highest scored surfers who spell BOOST go into the final. The surfing action will be broadcast on giant plasma screens so everyone on the beach can follow the action close up, and will also be streamed live on the web for those that can’t get to Bondi to see it first-hand. Shimooka said, “The Boost Mobile SurfSho is designed to be a competition that everyone on the beach can enjoy, regardless of their surfing knowledge. We chose the wheel format so that spectators know what the surfers are supposed to be doing out there and can judge along with the panel whether they’ve achieved the trick.”
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