ASB MAGAZINE: Eleven of Australia’s iconic competitive male surfers will open up old battle scars in an innovative three month, 13 consecutive episode TV series set to air on Channel Nine from 12 pm on Saturday the 8th August 2020. This will be the most-watched event in Australian surfing history.

 

After hundreds of heats over years of competition, intense rivalries are formed. These guys have won pretty much everything with world titles, pipe masters, triple crowns & almost every event on the world tour circuit. Surfing Australia Studios and mySURFtv have used testing times in 2020 to create a way of reigniting the competitive fire still burning within the eleven former World Tour surfers in their new series ‘RIVALS’.

 

Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Dean Morrison, Bede Durbidge, Josh Kerr, Danny Wills, Shaun Cansdell, Jay Thompson, Glen Hall, Kai Otton and Nathan Hedge have two hours at their ‘local’ wave to surf however they want, on as many waves as they want, with their best three rides to be scored by the public via online platform www.clippero.com and Olympic Surfing Head Judge Glen Elliott.

 

For surf fans, all the memories will come flooding back of these mighty competitors. The speed, style, power, innovation and aggression this group of surfing greats displayed in their heyday hasn’t gone anywhere. With a forty-five-day competition window, there will be no shortage of barrels, big turns and crazy moments.

 

All contestants with the exception of Shaun Cansdell have already locked away their two-hour heats. The ‘Cooly Kids’ Mick Fanning, Dean Morrison and Joel Parkinson chose to pull the trigger on their time slots together at the famed Snapper Rocks.

 

“Surfing with those two for so long (Joel and Mick), when there’s no heat on, there’s a heat on! We have always fed off each other in that way and that’s a big part of how we all got so good.” – Dean ‘Dingo’ Morrison

 

“To see Dingo at the start, he seemed so nervous and I am sure Joel was nervous too he couldn’t sleep. I was just pumped to go surfing with my mates. Once I got out there I was just surfing with my mates.” – Mick Fanning

 

Each surfer has their own episode in the thirteen week series on Channel Nine, something the free to air broadcaster is excited about having never aired anything like the series before.

 

“Nine and Wide World of Sports are thrilled to be continuing their association with Surfing Australia. RIVALS is an exciting and innovative concept and we look forward to bringing all the action to Surfing fans across the country.”- Brent Williams, Director of Sport – Wide World Of Sports 

 

Having travelled the world together, some for more than ten years, the group hadn’t lost any competitive drive when the challenge was thrown their way via official invite.  So far, five of the eleven have already pushed go on their two-hour heats with the other six waiting on swell events to get in the water and the hunt for bragging rights.

 

“It’s funny, we talked about this for years when we were on tour, you know, how good it would be to have a two-hour heat and just surf the way you surf, rather than the thirty-minute heats we all were used to.” – Danny Wills

 

“You see his performances from Teahupoo, Cloudbreak, Pipeline and places like that, he will get a ten or something and blow us all away” – Mick Fanning on Kai Otton.

SURFERS AND LOCATIONS: 

MICK FANNING – Snapper Rocks – Queensland

JOEL PARKINSON – Snapper Rocks – Queensland

DEAN MORRISON – Snapper Rocks – Queensland

BEDE DURBIDGE – South Stradbroke Island – Queensland

JOSH KERR – Duranbah Beach – New South Wales 

DANNY WILLS – Broken Head – New South Wales 

SHAUN CANSDELL – Coffs Harbour – New South Wales 

JAY THOMPSON – Burleigh Heads – Queensland

GLEN HALL – Avoca Point – New South Wales 

KAI OTTON – South Coast Slab – New South Wales 

NATHAN HEDGE – North Narrabeen – New South Wales

 

VIA PRESS RELEASE