Gallery: Red Bull Cape Fear 2014

Yesterday at Cape Solander, Mark Mathews and Ryan Hipwood’s two-years-in-the-making Red Bull Cape Fear event was held in slightly-below-forecasted conditions on the last day of the Australian winter. While the swell was four to six foot, the power of the wave makes it feel at least two foot bigger, and across eight battles the 16 competitors got busy in clean but thick tubes.

Some highlight battles? Ryan Hipwood and Jamie O’Brien, first thing in the morning, in which Hippo hammered through some absolute bombs to scoop the award for Best Barrel of the Day. “This event has been a massive roller coaster ride,” said Hippo. “I’ve been planning on doing something like this for six or seven years and for it now to be finish is a massive weight off my shoulders. I’m really stoked with the event and that all these international surfers came. Hopefully this is the beginning of a lot of exciting events to come.”

“This is the heaviest six foot wave I’ve ever surfed,” said Jamie. “I can’t really imagine what it’d be like at 10 to 12 foot. I surfed here for the first time yesterday and it’s a super fun wave. I didn’t win my heat but it was definitely fun. It’s a new school way of doing a contest, you’re in the water with your buddy, but you also really want to beat them.”

Mark Mathews vs Shane Dorian was always gonna be excellent. The event mastermind and the last-minute fly in from Hawaii went at it straight out of the gates, with Mark just finding the edge at the end. “This has been a day I’ll never forget,” said Mark. “I got to surf at one of my favourite spots, against who I believe is the greatest big wave surfer of all time – Shane Dorian. I’m really happy with this event, the surf is not big enough to tow, but still one of the best days of the year out there and everyone has been going for it.”

“I’ve been wanting to surf this place for 10 years but it’s never been on when I’ve been in Australia,” said Dorian. “I’ve seen so much crazy footage of Mark, Koby (Abberton) and Ryan (Hipwood) and it was great to get out there for myself. It was really cool to get the invite into this event. I was in a Battle against Mark and he’s a really competitive dude and there was a great atmosphere in the water. This is a powerful wave, just before the event started I was out there for the first time and my first wave got me in the head and drove me all the way to the bottom, into the reef and I got pounded. This wave has a lot of power.”

Results:
Battle 1 – Ryan Hipwood (AUS) DEFEATED Jamie O’Brien (HAW)
Battle 2 – Mark Mathews (AUS) DEFEATED Shane Dorian (HAW)
Battle 3 – Laurie Towner (AUS) DEFEATED David Rastovich (NZL)
Battle 4 – Koby Abberton (AUS) DEFEATED Bruce Irons (HAW)
Battle 5 – Dean Morrison (AUS) DEFEATED Ian Walsh (HAW)
Battle 6 – Richie Vaculik (AUS) DEFEATED Evan Faulks (AUS)
Battle 7 – Kirk Flintoff (AUS) DEFEATED James Adams (AUS)
Battle 8 – Jesse Polock (AUS) DEFEATED Sam Macintosh (AUS)