RIP CURL SEARCH WCT TAKES PRO SURFING BACK TO REUNION ISLAND

News provided by ASP World Tour on 11 June 2005

http://www.ripcurl.com/reunion

Saturday, June 11, 2005 (St. Leu, Reunion Island): The Foster's ASP World Championship Tour (WCT) has been absent from Reunion Island since 1996, but on June 23 the Rip Curl Search WCT will re-introduce professional surfing to the island's world-famous left hand reef break of Saint Leu.

The Rip Curl Search WCT event holds a first-of-its-kind "ASP Floating License", that allows Rip Curl to schedule the event in a different location every year, if it sees fit. A company built on the true surfing Search philosophy, Rip Curl has developed this event so it can travel the planet, delivering the world's best waves to the world's best surfers.

Reunion Island, a French territory situated in the Indian Ocean off the south-east coast of South Africa, has been selected for Year 1. For a surfer there is no better Search destination. Often called "the intense island", Reunion is a small volcanic island with an excitingly active coastline.

Through the swell months of May to October, Reunion's surf breaks hold long swells that deliver fortunate surfers with some of the highest quality waves in the world.

Rip Curl has a special relationship with Saint Leu, hosting the last WCT event there in 1996. That contest was won by Kelly Slater (Florida, USA), who this year goes into the event as favourite, courtesy of two dominating WCT wins in Tahiti and Fiji. The current WCT ratings leader is vying for his seventh World Title and hoping to break the three-year stranglehold Andy Irons (Kauai, Haw) has had on the trophy.

The Rip Curl Search WCT also provides 33-year-old Slater with an opportunity to achieve a unique milestone. In the Foster's ASP World Tour's 30-year history, only four surfers have previously won three or more consecutive WCT events.

Australia's Tom Carroll won four consecutively in his 1984 World Title winning season, the United Kingdom's Martin Potter won three in his 1989 World Title winning season, American Tom Curren won three in his 1990 World Title winning season and Slater won three in a row in his 1996 World Title winning season (the first win of the triple being his victory at Saint Leu).

A win at this year's Search WCT will give Slater the honour of being the only man ever to win three consecutive events twice in his career and will put him in a strong position atop the 2005 World Title race.


Rip Curl Search WCT Live Webcast & Full Screen Highlights powered by Vividas

The Rip Curl Search WCT Live Webcast will give surfing fans around the world "on the beach"™ access during competition hours. Live webcast commentary will support live scoring and video streaming, with guest announcers, promotions and replays heightening the experience.

The time zone for Reunion Island is GMT + 4 hours, meaning it will be an akward time for many in different parts of the world. To cater for these surfing fans, Rip Curl will be posting exclusive Full-Screen Video Highlight packages powered by Vividas online at ripcurl.com

The Video Highlights will feature the action in and out of the water at St. Leu, headlined of course by the WCT competition.

To allow users to familiarise themselves with the Vividas technology, Rip Curl is featuring five exclusive video clips on the Video section of ripcurl.com during the lead-up to the Search WCT. Jamie O'Brien's Freakshow, Inner Visions from the Search, Tom Curren's Red Search Part 1 & 2 and a special Reunion Island teaser are the clips currently being offered.

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