Surf Travel 34

The world’s top 45 ranked professional surfers will be heading for the renowned waves of Jeffreys Bay in July for the 24th edition of the Billabong Pro, Stop No.5 of 10 on the 2009 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour and the first South African surfing event to make a concerted effort to reduce its impact on climate change.

Supertubes, the 300 metre stretch of coastline universally acknowledged as one of the planet’s top 10 high performance surf breaks, will again be the venue for what has become Africa’s most prestigious and lucrative surfing tournament.

Scheduled for 9-19 July, the 11-day window period allows organisers to select the best possible conditions to guarantee spectacular action during the three days of competition required to determine the champion.

Billabong is taking another step on its environmental sustainability journey by utilising the immense interest in the event to heighten awareness of local and global surf communities to the challenge of climate change, and how we all need to become part of the solution

“At the 2009 Billabong Pro it’s not just the waves at Supers that will be green, we will be making sure our event is too,” says Peter Nicholson, Marketing Manager for Billabong South Africa. “Together with our partners Cleaner Climate we’ve calculated our carbon footprint and have identified and implemented numerous green initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of the event.”

These initiatives include using renewable energy, biodegradable food and beverage containers and paper not plastic bags along with waste and wetsuit recycling. The remaining emissions will be offset using Kyoto compliant carbon credits to ensure that the 2009 Billabong Pro is a low carbon, climate friendly event. More about climate change and what it means to surfers can be found at cleanerclimate.com/billabongpro”