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The Cave Rock Gladiator Pit Round 2 - first news

Source: www.sabaonline.co.za

posted by Alistair Taylor on 19th February 2007

THE CAVE ROCK GLADIATOR PIT 2007

PRESENTED BY HOT BUTTERED BODYBOARDS




This year's event however will be run slightly differently to last year's. This year, we are going to try to utilise a super long waiting period of 6 months, and pick off the best day we can in that 6 month period. The window will run from April 1 to September 30. The contest will be one day only, and the minimum requirement for holding the contest will be a solid 6-8ft groundswell, or bigger. Last year we came pretty close to getting that, but the swell kinda fizzled towards mid day. This year, with a waiting period that spans the entire winter, we hope to get a day with solid pumping surf all day long.

Picking the perfect day will of course be tricky, but surf forecasting is getting better and better now, and you can have a pretty good idea of what is coming a good 5 days in advance. Last year, with the help of Spike from www.wavescape.co.za, I was able to let competitors know about 4 days beforehand that we were going to call the contest on for the day it actually happened.

This year, the plan is to have a list of confirmed entrants, limited to 36, and perhaps a list of alternates on standby. Each time a good swell with a good probability of being good enough for the contest is on the horizon, I will send out an alert for everyone to get a heads up. Then, within the next 24-48 hours, if things are looking very probable for a contest swell, I will send out a notice that the event is on, and everyone needs to be in Durban on the set date. The call will be made with at least 72 hours notice. That is a pretty small time frame for guys in Cape Town and so on to make it to Durban, but they will have had at least a warning to prepare, and with 72 hours, it's possible to get to Durban at least by car or bus, or maybe even a flight if you can secure one. Of course this is not a perfect scenario, and not everyone will be able to make it, but the upside is that we can hope to get a really epic day of surf, and overall, contestants may only need to take say 4 days off work or school, as opposed to about 9 days if we utilise a fixed, smaller window that necessitates waiting around in Durban and not even being guaranteed waves.

For this year's contest, so far we have Hot Buttered bodyboards stepping up with a R5000 cash prize sponsorship. So for the time being, the entry fee will remain, as it was last year, at R500 – this money will be used to cover event costs, and the balance will be used for the prize pool, and distributed to the top 16 placers. Also, as with last year, there will be a cash prize in each heat for the best wave ridden.

The plan for heats is that there will be six 6 man heats, each of about 35-45 minutes long (to be determined on the day pending conditions, but the aim is to make the heat as long as possible). Each contestant surfs the same heat 2 times, and your top 2 rides from each heat will give a 4 wave total. No contestant is eliminated from a heat. At the end of the day, all scores are tabulated, and the winner is the one that scored the highest 4 wave total, and all results are derived in that manner.

We will also of course be looking for a day with light winds throughout, sot that no contestant is disadvantaged by being in a heat later in the day. There are a handful of such days in the KZN winter, so it's not out of the realm of possibility to get that perfect day. But besides that, the judges will be treating each heat as a separate contest, i.e. if the first heat of the day has absolutely cranking surf, there might be a lot of 9s and 10s being scored. But say the last heat of the same round has lesser quality waves – even if it is harder to score a 9 or 10 in those conditions, those scores will still (or can be) given out. The judges will adjust the scale from heat to heat, so that everyone has a fair shot at those high scores.

As far as entries go, preference is going to be given to the guys that supported the event last year. After that it's first come, first served. But there will also be an alternate list, as it's likely that not everyone will be able to make it to Durban on short notice.

Also, as far as conflicting dates with other SABA events, the SABA events will of course take preference, being events with fixed dates – so there will be instances where we just cannot run the Gladiator Pit. I will also do my best to avoid times such as when the schools and Unis are running exams, as that would put the contest out of the attendance of some of our country's best bodyboarders.

OK well that is the low-down on the event so far. There will be more updates to come as things progress. For now, if you want to get your entry in, you can email it to me, and I will send you the entry form for you to complete and return. Please note that contestants under the age of 18 may not compete unless the SABA indemnity form has been signed by your parents, and no contestant may compete without the indemnity form signed. The entry fee can be paid to the SABA bank account listed on the entry forms.

Here's hoping to another great event in 07. Last year the Gladiator Pit attracted probably the most media coverage of any bodyboarding event in SA all year (we were covered on SuperSport, SABC 7pm News, The Water Channel in the USA, and some of the country's biggest newspapers), so this year, we hope to go bigger and better, and show the world SA's best waves and best riders going huge.

Good luck and see you in the PIT!!!

Al Taylor

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