The waiting period for the Red Bull Big Wave Africa closes Friday 31 August and will see the end of some rather bizarre and unpredictable winter weather patterns. While loads of swell did arrive, most of it on cue over the last three months, the swells have all been weird, fast, wild and unpredictable; all the factors that count against good sessions at Dungeons.

The two contest directors Gary Linden and Johnny Paarman, along with official surf forecaster Spike, have been completely tested this year with regards to their calls and decisions on running the event. Granted there were a few sweaty moments when the pressure to run the event was tremendous, but there actually wasn’t a single day during the window when the event could have been run.

Big wave events have long waiting periods for the very reason that there aren’t many sublime big days out there, and options are needed. There needs to be the opportunity of spotting a big swell on the charts, tracking it over a number of days, getting ready for when the swell makes landfall, and acting accordingly.

Towards the end of the waiting period the weather patterns shifted slightly into a summer pattern, and the last few swells that were looking good tended to slip a little south of the peninsula, dashing the hopes of one final swell.

Knowledge has been gleaned from this year’s waiting period, the contest directors are on their game, more information has been gathered and shared about swell trends, winds and tides. All of this will be put to good use when we start getting things ready for Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2008. See you there.

The Red Bull Team