Thursday, July 12

Billabong Odyssey to Seek World's Biggest Waves

By Business Editors & Sports Writers
Business Wire

Top Surfing Talents Join Multi-Year Adventure into Unknown Waters

IRVINE, Calif.--July 10, 2001--International surfwear leader Billabong today announced its three-year global expedition to find and ride the biggest waves in the world.

Named the "Billabong Odyssey," the unprecedented project will combine the world's best big wave surfers, jet-powered watercraft tow vehicles and cutting-edge weather tracking technology to chase down the biggest swells the earth's oceans have to offer.

The Billabong Odyssey is an outgrowth of January's Project Neptune expedition to the Cortes Bank, a legendary mid-ocean sea mount 100 miles west of San Diego. Billabong team rider Mike Parsons' successful ride of a 66-foot monster at the never-before-surfed break, not only won the Swell XXL $60,000 prize for the year's biggest wave, but proved that publicized breaks like Maui's Peahi (or Jaws) and Northern California's Maverick's are only the tip of the high-seas iceberg.

The legendary Cortes Bank break

"So far, the history of big wave surfing has been written at a handful of spots around the world that are convenient," said Billabong Odyssey organizer Bill Sharp. "But we're now realizing that the oceans are filled with breaks that regularly have bigger waves which no one has ever surfed before. Going after them is the ultimate man-against-the-sea adventure."

Since surfers began using personal watercraft to tow each other into giant waves in the Nineties, size limits have virtually evaporated. While traditional paddle-in surfers continue to struggle to catch waves with 40-foot faces, top tow-in surfers (using short, narrow surfboards with sailboard-style footstraps) are not only regularly riding waves with faces more than 60 feet, they are pushing high-performance boundaries forward at a pace never before seen in the sport.

"After Cortes Bank, everyone is convinced that there's a 100-foot wave out there somewhere," said top tow surfer Ken "Skindog" Collins of Santa Cruz, Calif. "If we can find it, I know it can be ridden. I know I want to give it a try."

Billabong Odyssey plans call for three expeditions each year, two in the Northern Hemisphere between October and March and one to the Southern Hemisphere during its winter, June-August.

Project organizers have invited an elite group of renowned big-wave surfers to participate on various legs of the Odyssey, including Californians Peter Mel, Ken Collins, Brad Gerlach and Darryl Virostko, Hawaiians Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Ken Bradshaw, Brock Little and Brian Keaulana, and Australians Tony Ray and Ross Clarke-Jones. Even current world surfing tour stars are anxious to take part; Australia's Luke Egan has confirmed as has Hawaii's Shane Dorian, who has recruited six-time World Champion Kelly Slater as his tow-surfing partner.

Although specific Odyssey targets will remain secret, the maiden expedition will take to the seas in October 2001 and will focus on some key locations in the Pacific Northwest between San Francisco and Canada's Vancouver Island. Preparations are under way for future excursions to other coastlines rich with high-surf potential including the Hawaiian Chain, Chile, South Africa, Ireland, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Isles.

Big wave rider Mike Parsons

Although these are expeditions in the true sense of the word, the Billabong Odyssey will reward the surfer who rides the biggest wave of each year with a cash bonus of $1,000 per foot of face height. There will also be a substantial prize for any surfer successfully riding the legendary 100-footer.

"This isn't about the prizes," said Parsons. "Most of the surfers would probably pay to come along on something like this. The Billabong Odyssey is about going where no one has ever gone before. A thousand people have climbed to the top of Mt. Everest, but how many people have ridden an 80-foot wave? This is something special."