On Thursday 6th August 2009, the new Kelly Slater film CLOUD 9 will be premiered at the 2009 Relentless Boardmasters, on Fistral Beach in Newquay.

The 52 minute documentary film featuring footage and in-depth interviews with Quiksilver pro surfer and 9 times World Champion Kelly Slater, also stars skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and fellow surfers Mick Fanning, Dane Reynolds, Jeremy Flores, Jeff Hakman, Mark Richards, Miky Picon, Stephen Bell, Adrian Buchan, Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow, CJ Hobgood, and Tiago Pires who bear witness to Kelly’s incredible career. The four times World champion Mark Richards narrates the journey. 

With 8 world titles to his name by 2006, Kelly Slater was considered to be the Tiger Woods or Tony Hawk of surfing.  When Kelly, who was the youngest ever World champion at just 20 years old, decided to seek an historic 9th World title at the age of 35, his place in the sporting hall of fame was secured.  CLOUD 9 follows the two-year campaign leading up to Kelly Slater’s historic 9th world title.

The captivating story follows Kelly Slater’s battle for the title and takes the audience back to his humble roots in Cocoa Beach, Florida, offering a spectacular insight into the mindset of the young Kelly Slater and what drove him from an early age, to succeed. Kelly reveals what still drives him on to compete across generations and reach such peaks of performance. As well as seeing some of the best waves at some of the most beautiful locations on the planet, CLOUD 9 takes us backstage, capturing the highs and lows of life on the World Tour. 

In the first leg of the Rip Curl Pro Women’s Event at Croyde beach, Gabi Rowe from Port Issac defeated the rest of the field to take the advantage. Second place went to Gwen Spurlock of Swansea and third Lucy Campbell of Woolacombe, in her first Women’s event.

The Rip Curl Girls Tour will now move on to the second and final leg at Porthmeor Beach St Ives. It will take place over the next two days and with a good forecast for swell will be an exciting finale to the UK Rip Curl Women’s Tour. 

This year the tour featured a series of Women’s surfing contests in England and Wales. Two of these events; Croyde and St Ives combined to make a two star event on the Women’s UK Pro Surf Tour, with £1,000 prize money available. The surfer who accumulates the most points over these two competitions will win the only two star women’s event on the UK Pro Surf tour.

In addition to the Pro events each venue has hosted a Newbie event. If the girls have not competed in a surf contest before they have had the opportunity to compete for the first time against surfers with the same experience as themselves. The finalists of these events went into these events went into the draw against the top Pro Surfers in the UK along with winning prizes from Rip Curl and the other sponsors.

An elite group of high-stakes tube riders is set to gather at Bali’s most revered wave this weekend. The opening ceremony for the Rip Curl Cup Invitational at Padang Padang will he held on Saturday, Aug. 1, the first day of the month-long event waiting period.

Rip Curl International team riders Dean Brady (Australia), Bruno Santos (Brazil) and Koa Smith (Hawaii) are slated to compete in the event along with such international stars as Bruce Irons (Hawaii), Ry Craike (Australia) and Jamie O’Brien (Hawaii).

All 32 surfers invited to compete in this year’s event will be on hand Saturday for the official heat drawing ceremony. Each surfer will choose a number out of a hat to determine who he will surf against in the opening round. Once the draw has been set, it’s simply a matter of waiting for a massive Indian Ocean swell to stir the mythical wave at Padang to life. Following is the official list of invited surfers.

International surfers: Bruce Irons (Hawaii), Mikala Jones (Hawaii), Dean Brady (Australia), Bruno Santos (Brazil), Jamie O’Brien (Hawaii), Ryan Turner (California), Timmy Turner (California), Koa Smith (Hawaii), Ry Craike (Australia), Koby Abberton (Australia), Takayuki Wakita (Japan), Marlon Gerber (Switzerland) and Danny Fuller (Hawaii).

The International Surfing Association welcomed more than 34 nations to the World Surfing games today in Costa Rica at a press conference hosted by a panel of participants and organizers.

Australia’s Mick Campbell, an ASP professional surfer ranked 13th in the world and ISA Gold Medalist in 1998, California’s Courtney Conlogue, a Silver Medalist and winner of last week’s US Open, Costa Rica prodigy Carlos Muñoz who recently won the Open, Junior and Under 16 division in the National Surfing Tour and Sofia Mulanovich, 2004 ISA and ASP World Champion, were among the famous stars leading the press conference. They all spoke of the country´s beauty, and the excitement they felt competing in ISA events in the past. Seated along side them was the President of the ISA, Fernando Aguerre, the President of the Costa Rican Surfing Federation and Billabong´s Latin America representative Chris Evans.

“All the members of the panel very happy to be part of an event in the warm water and perfect Costa Rican waves,’ said Fernando Aguerre, the ISA President, "This is the first time a World Surfing Games has been held in Central America, we have been all over the globe, but never here. Being in Costa Rica is amazing.”

"I am really very glad to be here in Costa Rica,” commented Sofia Mulanovich, the 2004 ISA and ASP World Champion. “The truth is that generally I choose the countries I like when I compete in an ISA contest. It is always a joy to be in Latin countries. I love Costa Rica, the people are beautiful and Pura vida!”

Harley Ingleby (AUS), 25, won the Yumeya presents Oxbow ASP WLT at Tahara, over Duane de Soto (HAW), 32, in peaky two-to-three foot surf (1 metre) after a marathon day of competition at Long Beach in Tahara Aichi, Japan.

The Yumeya presents Oxbow ASP WLT at Tahara marks the first of two events on the ASP WLT calendar, which crowns the undisputed ASP World Longboard Champion at year’s end. The next contest slated on the 2009 season will be the Oxbow ASP WLT in the Maldives which will be held in October.

After battling through five heats today, Ingleby found the leftover endurance to finish up strong, jumping out to an early lead over de Soto and carrying the lead throughout the 35-minute final to take out the Yumeya presents Oxbow ASP WLT at Tahara.

“It’s just the best feeling in the world,” Ingleby said. “It was pretty hard out there and Duane is such a good surfer. I’m just so stoked I don’t even know what to say, I’m lost for words.”

Ingleby was in an identical situation last year after the ASP WLT in France and is hoping to put together a second solid result to take out this year’s ASP World Longboard Title.

“You couldn’t dream of a better start to the year,” Ingleby said. “Hopefully I can put together a stronger second event this year”.

The Spanish Surfing champion Iker Acero has been arrested by the Civil Guard in the Basque Country (Spain) following suspicions of cooperation with the armed group ETA.

In the centre of the problem is the website "Gaztesarea", run by Alberto Martínez Gutiérrez.

Iker Acero and Gutiérrez are being interrogated by the Spanish authorities.

The Spanish surfer was arrested in the Vizcaya region and later moved to Martin de Ugalde, Guipúzcoa, the place from where the website is run.

The arrests occurred on the same day that ETA had exploded a bomb outside the Civil Guard barracks, in Burgos.

After a long holding period throughout the morning, the opening round of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Longboard Tour (WLT) Yumeya presents Oxbow WLT at Tahara completed 10 heats in the one-to-two foot (.5 mete) surf at Long Beach and saw the event’s top seeds display impressive performances despite the trying conditions.

The Yumeya presents Oxbow WLT at Tahara is the first of two events on the ASP WLT on the 2009 schedule, with the second ASP WLT event, also sponsored by Oxbow, scheduled in the Maldives at Pasta Point in October. The two-event series will crown the undisputed ASP World Longboarding Champion at year’s end.

Antoine Delpero (FRA), 24, who finished in second on the ASP WLT last year, had a strong start to his 2009 ASP World Title campaign when he convincingly smashed the day’s highest single wave score of a 9.50 out of 10 en route to logging the day’s highest heat total of 17.75 out of 20.

“I think I was lucky because the waves were better in my heat,” Delpero said. “There were two sets that were bigger than the others in any other heat and I had a few good waves and got some good scores.”

The stage is set for the best surfing talents in the country as the Australian Surfmasters Titles prepares to glisten again in 2009.

Running as a part of the Country Energy Australian Surf Festival this August, the Australian Surfmasters Titles will see the best 164 ‘shortboard’ surfers from across the nation converging upon Port Macquarie.

With 10 prestigious national titles, and the opportunity to represent Australia at the ISA World Surfmasters Titles, up for grabs, Surfing NSW’s CEO Mark Windon predicts the surfing on show to be of the highest order.

“There will no doubt be some outstanding performances taking place as competitors in all divisions fight for the opportunity to represent Australia on the international stage.”

Featuring an eclectic combination of competitors, the Australian Surfmasters Titles is an important competitive outlet for surfers spanning all ages.

“This event marks a competitive opportunity for competitors of all ages,” Windon continued.

Stemming from the unparalleled success of the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships, ASP International will be instituting the world’s first ASP World Junior Tour, commencing in 2010.

The proposed, three-event ASP World Junior Tour will following January’s Billabong ASP World Junior Championship (which will crown the 2009 ASP World Junior Champions).

“The expansion of the ASP World Juniors is a direct result of the continuing global surge in ASP Pro Junior events,” Brodie Carr, ASP International CEO, said. “When we partnered with Billabong in 1998 on this concept, we had just 12 global junior events, and through our joint vision, it has grown to over 50 events as recently as 2008.”

Joel Parkinson (AUS), 28, two-time past ASP World Junior Champion (1999, 2001), knows all too well the benefits that development through the ASP Pro Junior tem can provide. The Australian is currently holding down a runaway lead on the ASP Dream Tour ratings and is en route to his inaugural ASP World Title.

"The Billabong ASP World Junior Championships has been a major stepping stone to the highest levels of surfing for over 10 years now,” Parkinson said. “It started me on my career path, and if you look at the guys who have won it from Andy (Irons) to Jordy (Smith) to Adriano (de Souza), they’ve all made major impacts on professional surfing."

Plans to open the first full time surfing museum in Europe have taken a major step forward. North Devon District Council has approved planning permission for the Museum of British Surfing to be established in Braunton.

"I'm delighted the council has given us their blessing," said founder Peter Robinson, "6 years of hard work have finally paid off and we stand a real chance of opening in 2010."

The surf museum is working with North Devon Plus to get the core funding in place to fit out the building as a 21st century event-based visitor attraction at the old Saltrock factory outlet building on the Vellator Industrial Estate.

"Money is obviously tight everywhere, but already several companies and individuals have already offered their help. It's important the surfing community gets behind us now to help create an exciting and fun venue we can all be proud of," said Peter, "we're looking for investors and founding partners - no amount is too small - but we urgently need to raise the money for the charity to complete the project."

As a taster of things to come, the museum's travelling exhibition 'an art history of British surfing' will be opening in Braunton later in August to help raise funds and increase the project's profile - more than 13,000 people saw the display while it was in Thurso, Scotland, over the last 3 months. Details will be published on the museum's website in the near future.

"The support of North Devon Plus and the local district and parish councils has been vital in getting the surf museum this far, and this has been backed up by promises of support from surfing brands and surfers working in other businesses offering their skills," said Peter.