The yearly winter professional surfing events on Oahu's North Shore have become a recognized institution in surfing's culture, global sport, and it even reaches into the local tourism industry-driven economy.  Often, the ASP's Men's world title is settled in the treacherous surf of the Billabong Pipeline Masters, it being the third and final jewel in the annual Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.  If the swell gets big enough, as El Nino atmospheric conditions ensured in 2009, the infamous Eddie Aikau contest goes, and the buzz and excitement spins right off the charts.  Accompanying the inherent drama of these contests, the big powerful waves, and throngs of rabid spectators, is a tremendous worldwide interest in anything "Hawaii + Surfing."

For all intents and purposes, the Hawaiian winter surf season is thought to end around March, when the North Shore begins to taper off into its summertime hibernation.  The promiscuous wavelust of local surfers then turns to the comparatively harmless reefs of the south facing shores, when deep low pressure systems in the lower hemisphere begin to heat up and deliver swell up to us from the Tasman Sea and South Pacific basin.  In Hawaii, the thirst for top shelf competition still persists, and ASP Hawaii runs it’s only and most prestigious summer professional event in June called the Sponsor Me Hawaii Pro at Ala Moana Bowls.  The event was an ASP 2-star rated qualifier, run during primetime for sizeable south swells that allowed mostly local surfers to keep their competitive chops sharp, earn valuable ratings points towards the WQS ratings, and a chance to win a highly sought after wildcard seeding in the 2010 Vans Triple Crown.  A total prize purse of $25,000.00 was on offer as well. 

The level of surfing was absolutely world class, with veteran Hawaiians Sunny Garcia, Tamayo Perry, Derek Ho, Myles Padaca, Greg Apo, and Liam McNamara mixing it up with Bowls regulars Mike Akima, Randall Paulsen, Larry Rios, and Dwayne Scharsch, along with younger talent the likes of Alex Smith, Billy Kemper, Kawai Lindo, Granger Larsen, Hank Gaskell, Ian Bowman, and 13 year old crowd favorite Taoa Pou of Molokai.  Folks, you’re not going to see stacked heat draws like these were for a regional surfing contest anywhere else in the world, and being able to surf the otherwise insanely crowded Ala Moana Bowls with only three other people in the water offered even more incentive for these surfers to go off!

This summer, Oceanic Time Warner Cable was invited to broadcast the contest live on TV, but as it turned out we didn't have the needed underground fiber cabling to the Magic Island event site.  In comes a California based outfit called Ubiquity Broadcasting Corporation that specializes in wireless video transmissions for internet-enabled devices, and we were able to collaborate with them on a wireless solution called an IP backhaul that allowed the live webcast stream to be transported via wireless link to Oceanic for conversion to TV.  An HD stream was also available to mobile devices such the iPhone and iPad.  Really cool cutting edge technology that made the event a groundbreaking one. Thanks to UBC for saving our bacon on this one.

Contest Director Marty Thomas of ASP Hawaii got competition started in very contestable 1’-3’ surf on the second day of the waiting period, June 15th.  Although some of the competitors weren’t stoked about groveling the smallish conditions, it allows the large volume of opening elimination rounds to be run off and the fat afternoon tidal surge actually did bump up the waves nicely in later heats.  Despite the objections, these talented surfers made the waves look good, and from a programming and technology backbone perspective, Day 1 was a rousing success.

The surf yo-yoed in height and consistency over the next few days, but long range forecasts and surface charts called for a sturdy long period swell at the front end of the following week.  Tuesday, June 22nd dawned with clear skies, stiff trades, building surf, and optimal swell direction … the second and final day was on.  With the taller wave faces and resulting board speed, the surfers really turned it on with blazing high performance surfing in the long perfect waves.  Some of the things these young guys do nowadays are truly amazing and their athleticism and the beautiful waves translated well to TV (wink, wink). It's a different brand of surfing than one would see from the Triple Crown; way less inhibited, a little more technical, a lot more acrobatic, but equally eye pleasing when done right.  In addition to their technical narratives of the live surf action and nuances of competition, the informed and often hilarious event commentary duo of local watermen Rocky Canon and Kaipo Guerrero gave viewers conversant local insight on the physical setup at Bowls, it’s sharply defined social culture, and lots of good laughs with their comical observations and good fun kine pidgin style quips.  As usual, media dude Greg Tomlinson (aka GT) capably manned the microphone for live beach interviews and kept the high energy and stoke going for a modest but engaged beach crowd, as well as thousands of TV and millions of web viewers from around the world who tuned in.

After the all the smoke cleared, the four man final was made up of accomplished Hawaiian competitor Jason Shibata, North Shore fullrailer Pancho Sullivan, and outer island young guns Casey Brown and Kai Barger (watch out for these two pups, they rip!).  By the time the starting horn went off, the waves were thick, consistent, and mostly overhead.  Some of the bigger sets would feather in the notorious Big Bowl section, before backing off, doubling up, and unloading into hunchback slabs on the inside reef.  All the boys ripped, but Shibata's savvy wave selection, vertical rail transitions, nifty floaters, and overall consistency helped him snag the 2010 win, $5,000.00 cash prize, and the mad respect of his peers and surf fans around the globe.  It wasn’t giant 20’ North Shore bomb surf, but a terrific show nonetheless. 

Mahalo to those who helped make the Oceanic live broadcast a success: Marty Thomas and Randy Rarick of ASP Hawaii, Chris Carmichael and Dan Swiney of Ubiquity Broadcasting Corporation. Mandy Schwecherl of Sponsor Me Entertainment, Producer Jeff Doner and his crew, event commentators Rocky, Kaipo, and GT, and the terrific Oceanic Time Warner Cable team.  Special thanks to photographer Mike Rogers for his great action photos.  Visit http://www.rippanics.com/ to see more of Mike's unreal surf galleries.

Next up on Oceanic SURF channel;

Tune to ch.250 in August for retro-90's surf action from Quiksilver's Boarding Pass series, and a live broadcast of the 2010 Duke’s Oceanfest from Waikiki Beach, Queen's surf break (25th -28th).  The annual Oceanfest is a charitable week long festival of Hawaiian ocean sports activities that honor the legacy and Aloha spirit of the great Duke Kahanamoku, and raises scholarship grants for young Hawaii student athletes to further their educations.  Televised events will include the Toes On The Nose  pro longboard championship, the Hawaiian Airlines Legends Surf Classic, stand up paddle, tandem surfing, paddleboarding, and much more!  Also part of the Oceanfest activities are free public showings of the classic 1970 surf film "Pacific Vibrations" presented by MGM HD channel on August 27th, and “The Ride” a fictional story featuring the life of Duke Kahanamoku on August 28th.  Both films will be shown at the Outrigger Reef Hotel on the Beach, 2169 Kalia Rd in Waikiki, poolside.  Validated parking is available, seating is limited.  Call 923-3111 for more information.

Go to http://www.dukefoundation.org/ for 2010 Duke’s Oceanfest event info and to make a donation to the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation scholarship fund.