Unique Experience During Lay Day at ASP WLT Bear Pro presented by Jeep
LEVANTO, Italy (Tuesday, November 15, 2011) – The ASP World Longboard Tour (WLT) Bear Pro presented by Jeep has called another lay day due to no swell at the main event site of Levanto. An excursion to nearby Carrara was held to visit the famous marble caves where the stone for Michelangelos works of art were extracted offering visiting officials and surfers a unique cultural experience during the lay day.
Once again a beautiful morning greeted officials and surfers as they arrived at the event site for the morning call. It was obvious to all that competition would not be able to commence today as the stable weather pattern continues to produce no swell in the Mediterranean Sea.
ASP International Longboard Head Judge Tim Mashall was onsite as always with the latest swell forecasts from the net. The forecast is not showing any real major developments in swell over the next few days meaning the event is running out of time in the waiting period.
“So far the swell forecast for the rest of the Bear Pro WLT is not looking too great. It looked like there was going to be a pulse for the weekend and now the internet is showing pretty much flat conditions. We are hoping the internet may be wrong as there are only two real buoys here in Italy which are at least a hundred miles away from where we are on each side of the contest area. Hopefully they are a little bit wrong and we can still get something out of this event for the longboarders and run some heats but as of today Tuesday it is not looking great for the rest of the week. Mother Nature always has her way of proving us wrong so hopefully she’ll do it again and we will get a successful event away.”
Rusty Keaulana (HAW) was one of the fortunate few who were taken to visit the caves where the marble was extracted for Michelangelos art works in the nearby town of Carrara. The sheer size of the mountain and the amount of marble that is still today cut and shipped to all parts of the world due to its high qualities and colour was an aspect that impacted all the visiting competitors.
“For me it was like history,” began Keaulana. “It was something that I will not be back to see I think. Not all the guys on tour could come and visit so it was a special thing to see Michelangelos arts and the marble from Italy and the type of stone we got to see in the mountain.”
“It was unbelievable. It is hard to explain it. You have to be there to see it but I was lucky because they had three pieces of stone that I am going to take back. Hawaiians we don’t want to take back stones but the guy offered them to me so it is all good. It is totally a thing I can share with my kid about the mountain and how the people work so hard and how cold it is over there.”
“There was marble from the bottom to the top,” continued Keaulana. “We couldn’t believe we were going to go all the way up to the top of that mountain. I was wondering how they get up their but if you got the good four-wheel drive cars it is okay. It was awesome to be part of that show yesterday.”
Highlights from the pre-event free surf sessions and from the previous days of the waiting period can be seen by clicking on ‘videos’ at www.bearpro2011.com as well as the LIVE broadcast of ‘The Morning Show’ each day at 9am with interviews, forecasts and all the latest news on activities at the ASP WLT Bear Pro presented by Jeep.
The ASP Bear Pro presented by Jeep will run from November 10 to 20 and will be webcast LIVE with the ‘Morning Show’, all results, photos and daily highlights seen at www.bearpro2011.com
The Bear Pro presented by Jeep is proudly produced by Reset Communications in association with Area 51, the Liguria Region, the Province of La Spezia and the town of Levanto. For further information regarding the ASP Bear Pro presented by Jeep log onto www.aspeurpe.com
ASP WLT Bear Pro presented by Jeep Round One Matchups
Heat 1: Antoine Delpero (FRA) Vs Matt Aldridge (AUS)
Heat 2: Eduardo Bage (BRA) Vs Mitch Surman (AUS)
Heat 3: Jared Neal (AUS) Vs Justin Bing (ZAF)
Heat 4: Rodrigo Sphaier (BRA) Vs Alessandro Demartini (ITA)
Heat 5: Kai Sallas (HAW) Vs Shohei Akimoto (JPN)
Heat 6: Tim Creignou (FRA) Vs Adam Griffiths (GBR)
Heat 7: Damien Castera (FRA) Vs Bradley Weare (ZAF)
Heat 8: Duane De Soto (HAW) Vs Marco Boscaglia (ITA)
Heat 9: Taylor Jensen (USA) Vs Ben Haworth (GBR)
Heat 10: Ned Snow (HAW) Vs Remi Arauzo (FRA)
Heat 11: Rusty Keaulana (USA) Vs Jefson Silva (BRA)
Heat 12: Amaro Matos (BRA) Vs Yasuaki Higashikawa (JPN)
Heat 13: Harley Ingleby (AUS) Vs Zak Lawton (GBR)
Heat 14: Ben Skinner (GBR) Vs TBA
Heat 15: Edouard Delpero (FRA) Vs Andre Derizans (HAW)
Heat 16: Tony Silvagni (USA) Vs Cole Robbins (USA)
Comments
Category: All ASP News, ASP Longboard News
What a silly idea to have a longboarding tour.
no sense to bring all these surfers from all over the world to surf in Spain, France or Portugal…what a great call to bring them up to Italy…next time could be a great call for any island somewhere between Bosnia and Montenegro!
very good ideia to have a contest in Itali !