Ripe Surfing

How good was the Search event in Mexico! Rip Curl’s floating licence spices up the tour every year and 2008 will be no different. We’re now only weeks away from the event but Rip Curl are remaining tight lipped about the location for this years event (keen readers will be able to get an idea from the promo artwork). Ripe Surfing caught up with Rip Curl’s International Media Manager, Dane Sharp to get some more clues about the upcoming CT….

Ripe: What type of waves can we expect at this years comp?
Dane Sharp: While we’re still not announcing the location for this year’s Rip Curl Pro Search, I can definitely promise you that the wave where we’ll be holding the event at is A++. The Top 45 is going to go ballistic and we’ll have our webcast camera crew filming everything. The wave is fast and punchy, so you’ll see plenty of barrels and plenty of huge moves down the line. It’s going to be nuts.

The wave is fast and punchy, so you’ll see plenty of barrels and plenty of huge moves down the line. It’s going to be nuts.

What surfers do you think the wave will suit on tour?
The “usual suspects” are going to perform, because they’ll be suited to the wave and all want to win the fourth Rip Curl Pro Search. Andy Irons, Mick Fanning and current ratings leader Kelly Slater will be the top three to watch. I also recommend watching my boy Heitor Alves.

Will Tom Curren have any involvement with the event? Who will the wildcards go to?
Tom Curren will definitely be at the Rip Curl Pro Search with his family. He won’t be competing in the event, but I’m sure he’ll be there to get his share of waves during the free surf sessions. We’re always stoked to have Tom at our events or on our Search trips. He is the ultimate searcher and a true legend.

We haven’t announced who will win the wildcards yet. Two of them are being decided by Trials and Rip Curl will award the third entry to a non-World Tour team rider. Bruno Santos is a front-runner to get the wildcard, because of his amazing win at Teahupoo in Event 3 this year. Owen Wright is another guy that would perform well at the event, as would sponsored freesurfer Dean Brady. We’ll know soon..

Another exciting thing we’re looking at introducing is a live call-in line, where we allow the webcast audience to call the webcast commentators during the event.

What do Rip Curl have in store for the webcast?
The big news is that the high quality Vividas player we used for the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach has been improved yet again. The Vividas crew have been ironing out the bugs that some users experienced during Bells and getting things sorted for July 30. The Vividas player offers Video On Demand and for the Search event these chapters will showcase the highlights of every heat and video made. At the Rip Curl Pro we were offering each heat in its entirety, but we found users only wanted the highlights. That is what they’ll get this time around.

Another exciting thing we’re looking at introducing is a live call-in line, where we allow the webcast audience to call the webcast commentators during the event. We might have a surfer or official in the webcast booth to speak with the audience, or it’ll just be the commentators taking a call or answering questions. There shouldn’t be much downtime during the event, but if there is we really want to have quality content to fill the wait.

What event has drawn the most viewers to your webcasts over the last couple of years?
The Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters was always huge for the three years we sponsored that event. The Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach is really strong and obviously has its time zone advantages for Australia and the USA. On paper, I think the Rip Curl Pro Search in Mexico was our most successful webcast for viewing and audience. Not only was it a huge result to actually have a webcast from that remote little beach, but the amazing waves created such a huge hype and the webcast and video highlights were highly sought after. We’re expecting this Rip Curl Pro Search to have the biggest audience to date though and have made changes and alterations to our webcast plan to suit. It’s gonna be huge.

What locations are on the radar for the future?
We’ve ran with the tagline ’somewhere’ for this year’s event, but it could have easily been ‘anywhere’ because we’ve got people looking for potential Rip Curl Pro Search locations throughout the world. As long as the wave is A+, the locals are happy with us running an event there and we’ve got support from the government, it’s a potential Search Pro spot!

Finally, what has been your best memory from the Search CT’s so far?
Damn, that’s a tough question… There have been too many! In the water, Mick’s win at Reunion was special because it showed that the Rip Curl Pro Search would be a success and because he’s a good mate and Rip Curl team rider. It was a huge achievement - especially after his near career-ending injury the year before.

Mexico was amazing for so many reasons. The vibe was awesome, the wave was insane and everyone was on a massive high because things went so well. The day Andy won was also my birthday and I remember saying to him after the presentation that the party that night was going to be for him, but it was all really about me because it was my birthday. We had a lot of drinks that night and I think we rocked sombreros until midday the following day…

I’ve got plenty of great memories from Chile too, but the efforts of wildcard Bruno Santos was my highlight. The Brazilian nugget is a Rip Curl team rider and a good friend. I highly rate his surfing in big barrels because I’ve seen him perform at Pipe and Teahupoo time and time again. He smashed through the field in Chile and made the quarters, and I was stoked to be there to cover it for the webcast.

The event starts on July 30th so make sure you log on to follow all the action!
Rip Curl Webcast