PENICHE, Portugal (Wednesday, October 21, 2009) – No shortage of action at the Rip Curl Pro Search as high seas and heavy storms destroyed the event structure at the primary site of Supertubos last night before dealing out unruly six-to-eight foot (2 metre) surf at the backup site of Lagido.

Event No. 9 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Rip Curl Pro Search went on hold this morning after salvaging the wreckage of the primary site structure at Supertubos and opting to wait out the onshore eight-to-ten foot (3 metre) surf at Lagido. The wait would not prevail and event organizers opted to call competition off this afternoon.

“We really wanted to run today, but the site structure at Supertubos is too badly damaged today and the conditions at Lagido never materialized,” Damien Hardman, Rip Curl Pro Search Contest Director, said. “We’re still seeing plenty of swell on the forecast and better weather so we’ll be back at Supertubos tomorrow at 8am tomorrow.”

Surfline, official forecasters for the 2009 Rip Curl Pro Search, are calling the current Northwest swell to maintain throughout the next couple of days.

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 8am for a possible 8:30am start.

In the meantime, you can watch a few grainy images of Fanning and Knox towing into bombs just south of the backup contest site in Lagido:

More Surfing >>

For the live webcast go to www.live.ripcurl.com.

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 1: Tim Boal (FRA) vs. Jihad Khodr (BRA)

Heat 2: Heitor Alves (BRA) vs. David Weare (ZAF)

Heat 3: Tiago Pires (PRT) vs. Nathaniel Curran (USA)

Heat 4: Ben Dunn (AUS) vs. Phillip MacDonald (AUS)

Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Marlon Lipke (DEU)

Heat 6: Chris Davidson (AUS) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)

Heat 7: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) vs. Owen Wright (AUS)

Heat 8: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. David Luis (PRT)

Heat 9: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Justin Mujica (PRT)

Heat 10: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. Bruno Santos (BRA)

Heat 11: Chris Ward (USA) vs. Michael Picon (FRA)

Heat 12: Roy Powers (HAW) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)

Heat 13: Tim Reyes (USA) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS)

Heat 14: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Nic Muscroft (AUS)

Heat 15: Greg Emslie (ZAF) vs. Aritz Aranburu (EUK)

Heat 16: Dustin Barca (HAW) vs. Drew Courtney (AUS)

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 1: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. TBA

Heat 2: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. TBA

Heat 3: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. TBA

Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. TBA

Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. TBA

Heat 6: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. TBA

Heat 7: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. TBA

Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. TBA

Heat 9: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. TBA

Heat 10: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. TBA

Heat 11: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. TBA

Heat 12: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. TBA

Heat 13: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. TBA

Heat 14: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. TBA

Heat 15: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. TBA

Heat 16: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. TBA