Format Announced for the Xcel Pro 2010 Showdown At Supertubes

Jeffrey’s Bay – The second edition of the Xcel Pro Showdown at Supers is just around the corner, and the contest organisers have come up with slightly different contest format as to last year. Including a seeding for the 2009 finalists of Ryan Payne, Warren Dean, Deon Lategan and Stanley Badger, and 30 minute heats throughout, the new format is efficient and streamlined, giving all competitors a fair chance in the Supers lineup.

The first round will consist of four heats of three competitors, with the top two going through and the third place surfer being eliminated. This means that after the first round only four surfers will have been knocked out of the contest.

After the first round it will be straight into the quarter-finals. These will be three-man quarters, comprise two surfers from the first round and one seeded surfer, with one person advancing from each quarter. These four surfers will make up the semi-finals, with the rest of the surfers being eliminated.

There will be two man-on-man semi-finals, with the winners going through to a man-on-man final. As stated, there will be thirty minute heats throughout, and this equates to five and a half hours of competitive surfing.

“It’s going to be a fast and exciting day of surfing,” said Xcel’s Koffie Jacobs. “Not too much time to sit around and plan your surfing strategy, just enough time to get your breath back and launch back into the barrels. The event prerequisite is that it is to be run in perfect waves, so the invited surfers probably need to work on wave selection more than anything else. Two good set waves at Supers is all that is needed.”

The first round heat draw will be announced at the opening function on the 29 April at the Mexican Restaurant in Jeffrey’s Bay.

The Xcel Pro will be filmed by Silver Bullet productions. DaKine, Fire Wire, Nixon, Sector 9, Von Zipper, Kustom and Island Pacific are co-sponsors, and JBU will be in charge of event safety. In Step Leather Boots, Power Balance as welll as Red Bull are supporting the event. The media partner is Zigzag Magazine.

The Xcel Pro has a live portal on Zigzag Magazine here Xcel Zag
There is a very popular Xcel Wetsuits South Africa Facebook Fan Page – Xcel FB
Xcel is also on Twitter – Xcel Twitter – this will be a source of heat results and information on the event day.