Cape Fear

[Dantheman]

Day 2 goes live in 40 minutes, FYI.
http://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1KNH6D...bull-cape-fear

I caught Heat 2 live last night and it was gnarly. Only two made waves in the heat and numerous brutal wipeouts. Heats 3 and 4 were postponed to today after yesterday's conditions were deemed too large and unsafe.

Pics here
http://www.theinertia.com/surf/red-b...a-gallery-2087

Pretty average wipeout during the heat I saw. Wrecks like this were going down left and right

[btmacken]

Thanks for the heads up. Tuned in now.

[Dantheman]

This is mental. Final starts in a few minutes.

[leftfield]

I was here doing ops and some photography for the event, I'll try and post some pics in a few days.
If there's anything more intense you can see in person, i don't need to know about it. Monday was fucking insane.

[Dantheman]

That is rad! Can;t wait to see the pics. It must have been incredible watching that live. The announcers were talking about how the ground would shake when bigger waves hit the rocks.

Seriously, watch the replay if you missed it.

[Atrain505]

Yep. This was an insane watch. You can't look away, but at the same time you don't want to watch. No other way to describe it. The first day was completely bonkers.

[skideeppow]

I was here doing ops and some photography for the event, I'll try and post some pics in a few days.
If there's anything more intense you can see in person, i don't need to know about it. Monday was fucking insane.

Where the pix? I watched this live, total insanity. Amazing no one got seriously hurt.

[leftfield]

Where the pix?

Sorry, i forgot. So Red Bull contracted my friend's event company to help with running the Cape Fear surf comp. He called me and asked if i could work setup/ops and take some pics for his website. It's closed to the public so of course i said yes. We were there on Sunday supervising setup(what little could be done) in a friggin hurricane. To help give you an idea, the tv crew had set up a big $8k scaffolding down on the rock shelf on saturday (at the same level, off to the side of these pics). Even during Monday's comp swell, this area stayed bone dry. The storm swell on sunday was so big that the rock shelf was underwater much of the time and the scaffolding got swept away, we never saw it again.

Red Bull of course had their own photogs there so i doubt i have any pics that you haven't seen somewhere else. It's hard to get a real appreciation of how heavy this wave is from the front, the best shots i saw came from the skis on the side of the wave. Don't think it was broadcast but very soon after the comp started, one of the sets caught the ski crew by suprise. The driver went vertical just to clear the top of the wave and lost the camera guy off the back of the ski. He subsequently got sucked over the falls and copped two waves on the head. Had to be rescued, lost an expensive camera and waterproof case as well.

Interestingly, a lot of bigger names were invited to this event but since it wasn't a WSL-sanctioned event, they weren't allowed to go without facing threats/penalties from the WSL. Really lame but it was cool to see Fanning post on IG from Namotu watching this event instead of their own. I haven't seen other big wave comps in person but i imagine what makes this break exceptional is how close it breaks to the shore, as a spectator you can get right up to it. And feel the sets through the ground as they detonate on the rock shelf.

Apologies for the watermarks, just did a quicklink from my website. These are some of the better ones, there are more at this link: 2016 Red Bull Cape Fear



Monday morning


Blake Thornton was the first to make it out of one...


...but got annihilated on a subsequent wave


Justen Allport was getting some really impressive waves...


...until he cracked his head open. Scary.


MMA fighter Richie Vaculick was getting more waves than anyone else, he could really take a beating


Eventual winner Russell Bierke




Comp was called early when the wave started mutating horribly on the low tide


Next day, Riley Laing warming up


Kirk Flintoff...


...gets blown out the front door


Koby Abberton


Dean Morrison has still got it


Laurie Towner

Perth Standlick


James Adams


Ryan Hipwood actually made it out of this one


Trophy ceremony

[skideeppow]

Thanks, great shots.

[ate'em]

I watched it live but seeing the stills is a great refresh. Must have been unbelievable to feel those bombs slamming into the shelf. Great pics, thanks for sharing-