Dungeons on Yellow alert

The ASP Big Wave World Tour (BWWT) has placed the Dungeons Challenge in South Africa on Yellow Alert with a projected deep-water swell heading towards the region. Event organizers are closely monitoring a system that is traveling towards Cape Town and ASP will issue a Green Alert 72 hours prior to commencement if the event is called on.

“We are starting to see some storm activity that we are getting excited about,” said BWWT Commissioner Peter Mel. “With only a couple of weeks left in the waiting period these are positive times and it would be great to finish the Southern Hemisphere leg with a bang.”

The 2014/2015 BWWT season is divided into Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere components hosting three possible events within each. With just under three weeks remaining the Southern Hemisphere window, which began on April 15 and runs until August 31, 2014 has completed one event so far, the Billabong Pico Alto in Peru, and has two remaining event options in Chile and South Africa. The Northern Hemisphere window runs from October 15, 2014 to February 28, 2015 with event options in Mexico, the Basque Region of Spain, and Maui.

The first event of the 2014/2015 ASP BWWT season, the Billabong Pico Alto, ran on Thursday, July 3, 2014 and saw Hawaiian Makua Rothman (HAW) claim his first ASP BWWT victory. The ASP wildcard defeated reigning World Champion, Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker on route to victory,  announcing himself as a major threat on the BWWT.

A team of experts track swell systems all over the world waiting for those that will produce waves in the 30-foot-and-larger range for one of the six world-class big wave venues.

Surfline, official forecasters for the 2014/2015 ASP BWWT season, are reporting the following:

The medium-range charts and models are showing something that looks promising for Dungeons, currently on track for Mon-Tue the 18th-19th, from a fetch that will pull together over the next few days. While the swell doesn’t look huge at this time, it does look to be on the threshold of minimum run requirements. 

If the storm behaves as forecast in the next few days we would see an 11-12’ deepwater swell (3.5+ meters) peak during the overnight hours from Monday toTuesday. The largest waves would be found late Monday and Tuesdaymorning, with an easing trend through Tuesday. Wave face sizes would be in the 20-25’+ range and possibly pushing toward 30’ faces on the max setsMonday sunset and Tuesday early. Stay tuned, we’ll refine this over the next few days as we see the storm develop. 

Winds are a bit of a question mark, especially this far out. Different wind models are indicating varying wind scenarios right now so we’re low confidence on any specifics. Best guess right now is for light/variable southerly wind on Mondaywith building NW to W wind Tuesday. Again, this will slowly shake out over the next couple of days and we will be able to fine tune things a bit. 

The 24-man field for the Dungeons Challenge will be comprised of the ASP BWWT Top 12, lead by the World Champion, as well as six ASP wildcards and six local wildcards:
 
ASP BWWT Top 12:
1. Grant Baker (ZAF)
2. Ken Collins (USA)
3. Nic Lamb (USA)
4. Shawn Dollar (USA)
5. Kohl Christensen (HAW)
6. Alex Gray (USA)
7. Greg Long (USA)
8. Ryan Augestein (USA)
9. Anthony Tashnick (USA)
10. Ramon Navarro (CHL)
11. Jamie Mitchell (AUS)
12. Tyler Fox (USA)

Dungeons ASP BWWT Wildcards:
1. Kelly Slater (USA)
2. Shane Dorian (HAW)
3. Mark Healey (HAW)
4. Ian Walsh (HAW)
5. Gabriel Villaran (PER)
6. Matthew Bromley (ZAF)
 
Dungeons Local Wildcards:
1. Mike Schlebach
2. James Taylor
3. Simon Lowe
4. Josh Redman
5. Chris Bertish
6. Andrew Marr
 
The ASP will provide updates as they become available.

The Dungeons Challenge will be webcast LIVE via www.aspworldtour.com.