A few weeks back Surfer Magazine had a contest for some lucky reader to win a Mega prize pack from Jamie Sterlings sponsors. Well it seems that one of our boys on the east coast knows the winner and sent me over a picture of this lucky winner Bradford Andrews from Charleston. Bradford has enough wax for a lifetime of surfing and enough Red Bull for a month if hes anything like me.
I just finished a week long adventure in the Midwest. I was flying all over the Great Lakes doing recon for a Red project called “New Wave”. We utilized John Shoffner’s Gunmen Albatross Red Bull branded Sea plane. I never knew the Great Lakes had waves. After flying 25.2hrs, and 3528 nautical miles I’ve come to the conclusion that the mid west has some nice setups for surfing. I’ve always been curious about the Great Lakes of North America. Some of the setups out on the vast Lakes looked like Tahitian reef passes. No the waves were not tubing like Teahupo’o but the water was crystal clear and the waves were rolling in with uniformity. We didn’t expect to get waves on this trip. This first expedition purpose was to only look around and plot GPS coordinates. We did plenty of searching and scored a little out of season swell that I stand up paddled. The locals greeted us with open arms and welcomed us back anytime. The private flights on the Red Bull Albatross were mind blowing. Talk about a high end adventure. VIP….Thank you RED BULL!
I’ll be coming back to the Great Lakes in the middle of winter on the next big Northeastern storm. Yes parts of the lake will be frozen and I’ll be bundled up in snow gear. Why, because I live for the adventure and the water is fresh.
P.S. Water landing’s rule! Its so smooth to land on a silky lake…John Shoffner thanks for flying the plane and making it a smooth flight!
Aloha,
Jamie Sterling
Photo: Brian Nevins
Photo: Brian Nevins
Photo: Brian Nevins
Photo: Brian Nevins
BIG KAHUNA JAMIE STERLING WINS BILLABONG PICO ALTO INVITACIONAL 2010
August 20th, 2010
This Thursday August 19th, the wave of Pico Alto showed why it deserves to be part of the Big Wave World Tour. The Billabong Pico Alto Invitational 2010 presented by Sony, was the second date for this important World Circuit.
The atmosphere surrounding the competitors was filled with energy and adrenaline. The grandstand full of spectators was shocked by the size of the waves. The generous force of nature gave us waves of more than 35 feet high, peaking during the semi final heats where the wave of the contest, a perfect 10 by Grant Baker from South Africa, was scored.
The local surfers demonstrated a high level of performance as well. Gonzalo Velasco, Billabong team rider and Sebastian De Romaña arrived to the semi finals competing along side twelve of best international big wave riders, including current world champion Carlos Burle from Brazil and defending Billabong Pico Alto 2009, winner Greg Long from the USA.
Various surfers experienced extreme moments, the Peruvian Rafael Velarde lived through the intensity of Pico Alto in his first heat, when a wave of 24 feet high broke the board that he ridden to two previous Billabong Pico Alto finals (2006 and 2009). The eventual winner, Hawaiian Jamie Sterling and South African Chris Bertish, both endured two wave hold-downs, Bertish coughing up blood and unable to finish the heat.
Water Patrol provided by Ocean Riders, the local Peruvian team and Tim West from the Big Wave World Tour, insured not only the surfers security in these huge waves but also provided them transport from the beach to the line up with the use of PWC´s.
The grand final was highly contested between Anthony Tashnick (USA), Carlos Burle (BRA) and Jamie Sterling (HI) with Jamie taking the title. “I’m very emotional since this is the first time I have won a Big Wave World Tour event” expressed the smiling Hawaiian.
The collaborated effort of our fellow sponsors: Sony, Burn, Powerade, Cosas Hombre, Lan, Von Zipper and Nixon made the realization of the event possible for everyone.
Atwaters Jamie Sterling is passing off some of his gear to one lucky winner and its quite a prize pack. You have to answer 3 questions to win the booty which includes Atwater gear and Red Bull cases.
Q1 How old was Jamie in his first published magazine photo?
Q2 Which legendary Pipe Surfer was Jamies’s Mother engaged to?
Q3 When was Jamie born?
Send all answers to giveaways@surfermag.com
Atwaters Jamie Sterling will be on Fuel TV’s Daily Habit tomorrow talking shop with guest host Chris Cote. So If you don’t have Fuel TV already may I suggest getting it installed tonight so that your all ready to watch Jamie ham it up on the Habit tomorrow. If your out of school just laying around then your fine just make sure you wake up from your afternoon nap at around 2:25 so you can stretch and turn the tv on. If your like the rest of us and have to work then may I suggest a DVR player to record this sort of stuff, its a life saver. But hey if you don’t have a DVR don’t you worry because you can catch it again tomorrow night at 5:30 which still might be a little early which brings me back to the whole DVR conversation we were just having a moment ago.
Way to go Jamie!!!
Jamie just placed 4th in the contest down in Chile and is on track to handle some of the largest waves the planet can roll his way. We will be getting more shots from Chile in a few days so stay tuned for more.
