big final : 4 videos

26-year old Australian Adam Melling wins the first and most southern tour stop of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series 2011 in Gisborne, New Zealand! The Cold Water Classic Series is the most challenging and toughest series in professional surfing! It was a nail-biting quarter final between three Australian friends, three Brazilians and two Europeans. But the Australians and Brazilians proved to be stronger and progressed through to the semi finals, kicking Joan Duru (FRA) and Gony Zubizarre...

The 2nd day of competition was cancelled due to heavy fog and small swell. The contest took advantage of an unexpected small push in swell this morning to finish off the Round of 128 in clean 2-to-3 foot conditions at Steamer Lane. And it was once again the local brigade that stole the show. Big wave surfer and Santa Cruz local, Peter Mel, posted the highest heat score of the competition so far with a 14.80. With the Round of 128 completed, the contest went on hold until midday when it was de...

Throughout this series every winner’s trophy has been symbolic of the area and when producing the trophies for the O’Neill Cold Water Classic California and Overall Series Winner it seemed appropriate that the tall redwood trees synonymous with Northern California be the main material in the construction of the trophy. The wood is beautiful and comes in all different colors: black, yellow, white. If it stays on the river, it will also turn purple. All the venues of the event have been pretty...

Jarrad Howse (Australia) was so close to winning last year’s Cold Water Classic Series! He only needed to qualify to the next round to beat fellow Australian Blake Thornton to the prize! This win would have been the pinnacle of Jarrad Howse’s career! But all his dreams were smashed by Puerto Rican surfer Dylan Graves. His score beat Jarrad’s by only two- hundredths of a point! But that was enough to smash the Australian’s dream of becoming the Overall Champion. Who is going to take home the t...