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Ishmael Grant wins the Extreme Big Wave Bodyboarding 2007

posted by Riaan du Preez on 6th February 2008

After months of gathering all the footage from all the camera men and happy snappers, the date was set to have the Extreme Big Wave BodyBoarding 07 (EBWBB), judging done on Thursday 24 Jan 2008. The event, which took place in July 2007, was a cracker with many solid rides and a couple of hard knocks in between. A couple of days before the judging was due to take place the paw-paw split open and sent the seeds flying. My brand new external hard disk went south with all the data on it. Not funny!

I contacted all the guys that I knew would be there and asked them to bring the raw data with them so that the winner could be declared. Not much help, it took the 5 riders, Peter Lambert, Ishmael Grant, Aadam Grant, Paul Morkel and Jared Houston over 2 hours to decide on the rating/seeding. And than there was also a tie, here came another 45min discussion.

Before I get to how it was done and who took it, thanks must go to Len Bradford (Science/Reef SA), Dino and Tinus (Corner Bar), SMC Constructions, Wildekrans Cellers, Gateway fitness studio, Pionier Custom Made Furniture and CSI Solutions, without them the planning and event would have been so much harder to get where it is today. All they wanted to know is when is the next one?

Why was the judging not done on the day you may ask? Well due to many factors and some research, I felt the best way to get the correct rider in the correct position was to have the riders judge the event. And that is what they did. All got to Corner Bar in one piece and had something to cool down after the chaotic peak traffic. Once everyone had relaxed we began the ominous task of sifting through the footage and deciding on a winner.

Big "einas", "oes" and "Ahs" came from the crowd in the bar and the boys started with the standards;

1. Biggest wave, not easy all the waves were big!
2. Length of ride, here a few got knocked down the rankings.
3. Madness factor and a few moved down again.

After that there was still a bit of a problem and it went to a voting ballet that ran into a tie between Jared and Aadam for one of the positions. This was broken by the madness factor, Aadam did a spinner on his biggest wave, DONE!

This is what Aadam Grant had to say about the EBWBB event for 2007.
"First of all I'd like to thank Riaan Du Preez, Len at Science, the Reef family and The Corner Bar for all their support, for if it were not for them this sport that we love so much could not be taken to the next level of holding a Big Wave Bodyboarding Contest. I must say, to all the brothers that paddled out the day of the contest, well done and we are all winners at the end of the day, much love. See you all at this years Big Wave Contest... Willing is not enough, you must do; Knowing is not enough, you must apply."

The final results are as follows:

1. Ishmael Grant - Biggest wave and madness.
2. Aadam Grant - Big wave and madness.
3. Jared Houston - Big wave, but the biggest one he ducked out of way too early.
4. Paul Morkel - Big wave, and brass balls.
5. Peter Lambert - Most Big Waves ridden, just not the biggest ones.

"I just want to say thanks for the whole event and I look forward to competing in this years comp! I am stoked to take 1st place. All the guys came in 1st place in my eyes - brass balls! Hopefully next year we can get more of us mullets out there. Thanks again to all the guys that made it happen and hopefully this year we can get more guys involved", commented Ishmael on his victory.

Beast wipe-out went to Dino, from Corner Bar, who creased a brand new 44 inch and snapped his leash taking a beating from some of the bigger sets that come through.

A big congrats to all the riders and an even bigger thanks to all the sponsors and partners that made this event possible.

See you in the line up.

Cheers, Riaan.

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