The WSL Desk looks at the rules of the 2015 GoPro Challenge and submissions from last year's contest outside the contest in Fiji.
Last year's GoPro Challenge produced incredible footage of the world's best surfing some of the world's best breaks and now the contest-within-a-contest is back, starting at the Fiji Pro and Fiji Women's Pro. The GoPro Challenge will also run during Championship Tour contests in Tahiti and Hawaii.
The Challenge asks competing World Surf League (WSL) athletes to submit their own GoPro videos from the competition venue and surrounding areas, with clips accepted two days prior to the contest window and no later than the conclusion of the event.
The winning video is selected by a panel of five judges -- three from the WSL staff and two from GoPro -- based on cinematography, degree of difficulty of shooting, perspective and overall beauty and lighting. Each requirement holds equal weight.
The winner at each stop scores US$15,000 if the clip was captured during official CT competition and US$10,000 if it's from a freesurf. In every case, it's the shooter who wins and not the subject, though they are often one and the same. The 2014 GoPro Challenge doled out cash for event winners at Margaret River, Fiji, Tahiti, Portugal and Maui.
The 2015 WSL GoPro Challenge submissions window opened two days before the Fiji Women's Pro, and closes at the end of the men's event, which could run until June 19.
Check out the 2015 GoPro Challenge Fiji Submissions:
2014 GoPro Challenge Winners
Margaret River
How good was Josh Kerr's barrel at The Box? The answer is on C.J. Hobgood's face.
The WSL GoPro Challenge debuted at the 2014 Drug Aware Margaret River Pro with 25 submissions. Judges selected one of two from Josh Kerr (AUS). Each of his videos showcased maneuvers from The Box that looked almost effortless.
Fiji Pro and Fiji Women's Pro
Women's Fiji Pro wildcard Tatiana Weston-Webb locks into a Cloudbreak barrel, fighting through a few sections before getting clipped.
Tatiana Weston-Webb (HAW), then a replacement surfer for the injured Courtney Conlogue (USA), made it to Round 4 of the Fiji Women's Pro. But it was a deep Cloudbreak tube during the event's expression session that topped all other submissions in the GoPro Challenge. Will she prevail again -- this time as a member of the Top 17?
Billabong Pro Tahiti
Nat Young (then in his second year on the CT) took off on a drainer running toward Tahitian peaks.
As if it couldn't get any better than surfing triple-overhead barrels with just one other person, Nat Young (USA) took home an extra $10,000 for winning the Billabong Pro Tahiti edition of the GoPro Challenge.
Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal
A low-light barrel gives Adam Melling the vision in vibrant yellows and oranges.
Aussie Adam Melling's GoPro clip of a perfect sunset barrel won the Portugal edition of the GoPro Challenge.
Target Maui Pro
Conlogue bookends a perfect barrel with big carves for a winning GoPro clip.
Courtney Conlogue (USA) returned to competition after injury and finished her 2014 season with a bang: Not only did she climb her way back into the Top 10, but she took home the top prize for the final GoPro Challenge of the year, at Honolua Bay, Hawaii.
Check out all the clips from 2014 Challenge and watch the Top 17 LIVE here and on the WSL app in the Fiji Women's Pro starting May 31.
2015 GoPro Challenge Kicks Off in Fiji
WSL
Last year's GoPro Challenge produced incredible footage of the world's best surfing some of the world's best breaks and now the contest-within-a-contest is back, starting at the Fiji Pro and Fiji Women's Pro. The GoPro Challenge will also run during Championship Tour contests in Tahiti and Hawaii.
The Challenge asks competing World Surf League (WSL) athletes to submit their own GoPro videos from the competition venue and surrounding areas, with clips accepted two days prior to the contest window and no later than the conclusion of the event.
The winning video is selected by a panel of five judges -- three from the WSL staff and two from GoPro -- based on cinematography, degree of difficulty of shooting, perspective and overall beauty and lighting. Each requirement holds equal weight.
The winner at each stop scores US$15,000 if the clip was captured during official CT competition and US$10,000 if it's from a freesurf. In every case, it's the shooter who wins and not the subject, though they are often one and the same. The 2014 GoPro Challenge doled out cash for event winners at Margaret River, Fiji, Tahiti, Portugal and Maui.
The 2015 WSL GoPro Challenge submissions window opened two days before the Fiji Women's Pro, and closes at the end of the men's event, which could run until June 19.
Check out the 2015 GoPro Challenge Fiji Submissions:
2014 GoPro Challenge Winners
Margaret River
The WSL GoPro Challenge debuted at the 2014 Drug Aware Margaret River Pro with 25 submissions. Judges selected one of two from Josh Kerr (AUS). Each of his videos showcased maneuvers from The Box that looked almost effortless.
Fiji Pro and Fiji Women's Pro
Tatiana Weston-Webb (HAW), then a replacement surfer for the injured Courtney Conlogue (USA), made it to Round 4 of the Fiji Women's Pro. But it was a deep Cloudbreak tube during the event's expression session that topped all other submissions in the GoPro Challenge. Will she prevail again -- this time as a member of the Top 17?
Billabong Pro Tahiti
As if it couldn't get any better than surfing triple-overhead barrels with just one other person, Nat Young (USA) took home an extra $10,000 for winning the Billabong Pro Tahiti edition of the GoPro Challenge.
Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal
Aussie Adam Melling's GoPro clip of a perfect sunset barrel won the Portugal edition of the GoPro Challenge.
Target Maui Pro
Courtney Conlogue (USA) returned to competition after injury and finished her 2014 season with a bang: Not only did she climb her way back into the Top 10, but she took home the top prize for the final GoPro Challenge of the year, at Honolua Bay, Hawaii.
Check out all the clips from 2014 Challenge and watch the Top 17 LIVE here and on the WSL app in the Fiji Women's Pro starting May 31.
Target Maui Pro
The Maui Women's Pro has hosted some of the most dramatic finales in the history of women's surfing. This year will be no different.
Nikki Van Dijk finds not one, but two barrels on wave at Honolua Bay for a GoPro Challenge Hawaii entry.
Carissa Moore won her third World Title and went on to win the Target Maui Pro for the second consecutive year.
Carissa Moore reacts to winning her third World Title in her home state with friends and family in attendance.
Carissa Moore reacts to winning her third World Title.
News
From a pair of 10-point rides courtesy of Kepa Mendia and Cannon Carr in the same heat to Taro Watanabe's 9.57, Day 2 was stacked.
Just when Day 2 was wrapping up from an action-packed Round of 64, Kepa Mendia and Cannon Carr closed it out with Perfect 10s to rattle
A full aerial assault as the world's best took on Peniche at the 2024 MEO Rip Curl Portugal Pro.
A Pair of Perfect 10-point Rides from Kepa Mendia and Cannon Carr Headlined High-Performance Spectacle
With Kin Mateo Cadena's 7.67 setting the resetting the scale, Sasha Donnanno and Carlos Ramos' 7-point rides held in opening day's Top 5