Excited about the new big wave challenge Red Bull are planning to hold at Ours this year? You will be after you’ve watched this new drone edit of Sydney’s/the world’s gnarliest right-hand slab from last weekend. Just one week after the announcement of the new event, swell showed up Cape Solander to give everyone a little taste of what could be in store.

The Red Bull contest website is now live at www.redbullcapefear.com and the all-star cast of heavy wave loons reads as follows: Shane Dorian, Ian Walsh, Jamie O’Brien, Bruce Irons, Mark Mathews, Makua Rothman, Dean Morrison, Koby Abberton, Laurie Towner, Alex Gray, Dave Rastovich, Jesse Polock, Richie Vaculik and Ryan Hipwood. Now try to tell us you’re not frothing. Nevermind the new big wave world tour, how about the ASP get with the programme and set up a giant death slab tour!

Being in the southern hemisphere, the most active time of year for these parts is April to August but it’s worth noting that Ours is a pretty fickle wave (only breaking perhaps 5 to 6 times in the course of the Australian autumn/winter), needing a sizeable east to south-east swell pulse rather than the more consistent Southern Ocean southerly swells. And these are hard to forecast so if you don’t want to miss out then you’d do well to sign up to Red Bull’s email alerts.

More On The Format:

• Six one-on-one battles
• Each battle will consist of the two best-matched surfers
• Like a boxing card, the first five battles are on the under card for the main event. Consider it six consecutive finals if you will.
• Each battle will consist of approximately 20-minutes of paddling in and 20-minutes of towing in
• Surfers will be judged by wave size and difficulty
• There will be four surfers in the water at all times – two contesting the paddle-in element and two contesting the tow-in element
• Each battle will crown a winner