"4th Annual BANK OF HAWAII / ATLAS SALES North Shore Tow-In Surf Championships 07/08"

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The "4th Annual BANK OF HAWAII / ATLAS SALES North Shore TowSurf Championship 2007/2008" has officially ended it's holding period as of 3/31/08. Tow-In Surfers LLC was looking to extend this year's permit if a SUPER 3XX LARGE SWELL had materialized for the 1st half of April...BUT that is not going to h

Stay Ready DURING for NEXT YEAR!

Next Year's North Shore Tow-In Surfing Event HOLDING PERIOD WILL LAST 14 WEEKS IN A ROW BETWEEN DECEMBER 15, 2008 AND MARCH 31, 2009. TO RUN "ONE FULL EIGHT HOUR DAY" FOR THIS TOW-IN EVENT MAY TAKE UP ONE AND/OR TWO SEPARATE DAYS!

THIS YEAR WE WERE ON A CONDITIONAL "RED ALERT" FOR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH OF 2008. MANY OF OUR MAIN LISTERS WERE IN THE "STAND-UP/PADDLE SURF" EVENT IN MAKAHA WHICH WAS ALSO CONSIDERED A BIG WAVE EVENT. WE HAD PROMISED NOT TO CONFLICT WITH ANY OTHER BIG WAVE EVENT ON OAHU. PLUS OUR JUDGES AND MANY OF OUR CREW AND MEDIA WERE DOWN THERE! THIS SWELL WAS ALMOST AS BIG AND GOOD AS IT ALL-TIME GETS AT AVALANCHE. ALTHOUGH ONLY AS BIG AS OUR EVENT'S MINIMUM CRITERIA FOR WAVE HEIGHT, WE MOST LIKELY WOULD HAVE CALLED IT ON BECAUSE OF THE ANGLE IN WHICH OUTSIDE AVALANCHE WAS FIRING! Check 2/14/08 Expression Session Footage at Bottom of this page!

Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 06/07 - Media Promo Guide - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Sign-Up Form - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Rules and Regs - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Photographer's Agreement - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Proposals To Sponsors - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Last + This Year's Invites - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Sponsors Page - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Outer Reef Spot Maps- Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Contest Heat Format - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Contest Poster - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Event News + Daily Updates - Web
1st Annual North Shore Tow-In Surfing Championship 04/05 - Photo Gallery - Web
Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - Contest T-Shirt - Web
2nd Annual PHELONY North Shore Tow-In 05/06 - Contest Photos & Videos - Web

Bank of Hawaii/Atlas Sales N.S. Tow-In 07/08 - 02/14/2008 Xpression Session - Web
(Warning: Select Play with Windows Media Player, then wait 30 seconds)

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CO-MAIN TITLE SPONSOR IS ATLAS SALES COMPANY!

The 2nd Annual North Shore Tow-In Event was dedicated to the memory of the late, legendary Big Wave Surfer Mark Foo, who drowned in Big Surf at Mavericks in California in 1994. The day of the 2nd Annual North Shore Tow-In Event, February 5th...just happened to be Mark Foo's Birthday. This magical coincidence seemed to help bring good luck and all-time conditions to the 2nd Annual Event. If Mark Foo was still with us he would have definitely surfed in the event and would have surely become a top-notch towsurfer by now! Mark was always looking for a way to catch a bigger, gnarlier wave! Mark Foo was a fellow Big-Wave Rider and early Outer Reef Explorer along with his long-time friend Alec Cooke, Director of the Annual North Shore Tow-In Event.

This year's "4th Annual Bank of Hawaii / Atlas Sales Towsurf Championship 07/08" will be dedicated to the memory of the late, great Jimmy Hall. Jimmy Hall defined the word "extreme". He was a towsurfer, a sky-diver, a base-jumper, and aficionado of many other "extreme sport / lifestyles". He was known to have had close encounters, and in fact rode and "petted" a Great White Shark and many Tiger Sharks. He started Hawaii Shark Encounters and gave many locals and tourists "close encounters" with a variety of deep ocean sharks on his world-famous shark tours. He was also one of the few small boat captains who took his boat and even tours out through 20 foot (Hawaiian Scale) surf to get out to the Shark Buoy several miles out from Haleiwa Harbor on Oahu's North Shore. As a result, he was our fearless "Event Support Boat Captain" for year one and two. Jimmy Hall's 'Shark Encounter Boat' : the "Kainani" was out in our Event in truly "High Seas"!

HONOLULU STREETWEAR.COM ... In order to promote what was then their new "PHELONY" clothing line presented "The 2nd Annual 'PHELONY' North Shore Tow-In Surfing Championship 2005-2006" in conjunction with HighSurfWarning.com, Ace Cool Productions, Tow-In Surfers, LLC and MANY other supporting sponsors. The overall prize purse for the event was $10,000 with $5000 going to the 1st place Tow-In Team of Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala.The second place tow-in team receiving $2500 was Yuri Soledad and John Gangini of Maui. The third place tow-in team taking home $1500 was Sylvio Mancusi and Pato Teixeira of Brazil/Hawaii. Fourth place got $500 and was won by Victor Marcal and Joao Jabour of Brazil/Hawaii.The 2nd Annual Event was filmed once again to create a world-wide documentary video and television show by Alex Reinprecht and Hawaiian Extreme Sports Television.

The 1st Annual Event's documentary from 2004-2005, "PACIFIC AVALANCHE", was also conceived, produced, shot, edited and is now being marketed world-wide by ZON3/HAWAIIAN EXTREME SPORTS TELEVISION and it's owner/producer Alex Reinprecht via Warner Brothers Distribution. "PACIFIC AVALANCHE" has been broadcast to millions of homes around the world since 2006. The video is now available to purchase as a DVD in Surf Shops, Sports Outlets and Video Stores across the planet and on countless and widespread websites all over the internet! The Documentary from the 3rd Annual Event is being produced by Time-Warner Media in conjunction with Alex Reinprecht at ZON3/Hawaiian Extreme Sports TV! Stay Tuned for some Extreme Action Big Wave Surfing Documentary footage coming soon!

Tow-In Surfing has been developing since the early 1990's. With the advent of gravity-defying foot-straps fiber-glassed onto the deck of a streamlined "tow-in surfboard" and the combination of a tow-rope and a modern PWC (Personal Water Craft, Thrill-Craft or Jet-Ski) to pull the tow-in surfers into very large waves (after which they let go of the rope and surf the waves alone)... huge surf has been tackled on a regular basis. Tow-In Surfing has allowed surfers to catch waves on outer reefs that most times would be too big to paddle in to! The accepted and agreed upon use of a contemporary rescue sled, a tow rope with a quick release attachment and a USCG approved flotation jacket have made the sport much safer and allowed Tow-In Surfers the relative safety and security to push the limits in VERY LARGE SURF! All competitors in the Annual North Shore Tow-In are certified HAWAII STATE TOW-IN LICENSE carriers. Their Jet-skis/PWC are required to have a current Hawaii State Tow-In Decal. These competitors are certified, licensed, professional, experienced and extremely veteran Big Wave Tow-In Surfers!

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SOME EARLY TOW-IN EVENT HISTORY

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The 1st ever "Tow-In Surf" contest in Hawaii and in the entire world was held at PEAHI (JAWS) on Maui on December 26th of 2000. That year there was no prize money for towsurfing in the PEAHI contest. It was an honor just to be invited. The towsurfers that first conceived of an Oahu "North Shore Tow-In" contest were the event's original co-directors and long-time tow-in surf partners Alec Cooke (aka "Ace Cool") and Ron Barron. These hard-core towsurfers kept a PWC on Maui standing by and they had a chance to surf PEAHI alone or in very un-crowded conditions many times during the 2000-2001 Winter Big Wave Season on Maui. By remaining constantly on "stand-by", they had a chance to compete in the 1st ever PEAHI Event. Ace flew over from Oahu on Christmas Day 2000 and Ron caught the 5:30AM flight to Maui the next morning. It was a drill that they had repeated many times before. "You snooze, you lose!... the early birds catch it glassy!" In the evening after that 1st event, at the awards ceremony...everyone received a koa bowl and plenty of pizza provided by PEAHI contest director Rodney Kilborn of Maui. Several cases of "Hinano" beer added to the festivities, provided by Jim Foti of Oahu courtesy of "Hinano Beer of Tahiti" and brought over to Maui personally by Ace and Ron who were stoked just to be a part of it all! No-one complained about the lack of prize money and all the tow-in teams who competed that year were satisfied just to be a part of this legendary, historical and inaugural towsurfing event at PEAHI!

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MORE NORTH SHORE TOW-IN EVENT HISTORY

The "1ST ANNUAL NORTH SHORE TOW-IN SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2004-2005" was granted a holding period from December 20th of 2004 until March 31st of 2005. The inaugural event started up on January 18th of 2005, but rapidly deteriorating weather conditions forced contest co-directors to postpone the event after only 3 heats as the Massive 25 Foot Plus (Hawaiian Scale) west swell steaming through "Outside Avalanche" became difficult to ride, hard to photograph and almost impossible to judge! Contest directors were forced to postpone the event after the 1st round of heats. As the season was winding down, we lucked out with one more very Big Swell. This time the conditions were perfect and the event went off quite well, finishing up in the early afternoon of March 8th, 2005. Once again, the results: 1st place went to one of the younger tow-in teams in the event, Eric Fisher and Matt Lozano of Oahu. 2nd place was gracefully snagged by the brothers tow-in team of Todd and Cully Kamisugi of Oahu, who showed us all how to get deep in the barrel! 4th place went solidly to the "gung-ho" tow-in team of Robbie Frangipane and Todd Robertson from Oahu. An admirable 4th place went to Dan Moore of Sunset Beach (winner of the "2004-2005 Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards") and his partner John Amundsen (who also got one of the best barrels of the day)!

The event received major world-wide media exposure and a documentary of the event, produced by Alex Reinprecht of "Hawaiian Extreme Sports Television" was finished in February 2006 for a syndicated broadcast release on television stations world-wide. Currently HXS is involved in a global video release of the documentary on DVD. "Pacific Avalance", the DVD.. is now for sale in many locations in Hawaii and every where else world-wide via Warner Brothers. Stay Tuned for the new TIME-WARNER High Definition Documentary of the overall history of the Annual North Shore Tow-In Event produced in conjuction with producer Alex Reinprecht of Hawaiian Extreme Sports TV!

The "4th Annual BANK OF HAWAII / ATLAS SALES North Shore Tow-In Surfing Championship 2007-2008" has entered it's waiting period for the 07/08 HAWAIIAN WINTER SURF SEASON on Oahu with a Holding Period from 12-15-07 until 3-31-08. The contest will take place on the biggest and best two days during this 16 week holding period. The event will be held during the course of "One FULL Day" (8 hours) which may be split up into two seperate on maybe even two different swells during the season. There is a 25 foot minimum surf height requirement to run the event (Hawaiian Scale / That means 50 foot Faces)! Potential Outer Reef Breaks for the Event include Outside Haleiwa Harbor at either Outside Avalanche or Outside Puaena Point, depending on the swell direction and conditions. Alternate Event sites include Outside Himalayas, Outside Alligators and the infamous Outside Log Cabins "Cloud Break" (which can break up to 2 miles outside of the Ke-Iki Road / Ke-Waena Road beach area stretching from Outside Pipeline Rights to Outside Log Cabins with a large channel to the West of the break that "theoretically never closes out"). Stay Tuned Sports Fans!

For the 2nd Annual Event...Outside Puaena Point was by far the best venue and the event was held there on 2/5/06! The "West of Waimea" tow-in surf teams showed how it is done in their own backyard! Other top-notch entrants also included tow-in surf teams from Oahu, Maui, Brazil and California. There was even a towsurfer from Hungary named Tony Fekete in the 2nd Annual (05/06) Event! Teams are invited from many international locations where tow-in surfing has begun to show increasing popularity in recent years.. Extreme Big Wave Riders everywhere have taken to tow-in surfing as a way to effectively tackle Huge Surf! More and more near shore, outer reef and deep ocean HUGE mysto surf spots are being discovered, pioneered and nowadays often ridden on a regular basis by Extreme Big Wave Tow-In Surfers in spots all over the world! Last year's 06/07 Hawaiian Surf Season produced some surf of fairly epic proportions for the 3rd Annual BANK OF HAWAII North Shore Tow-In, although no not quite like the surf for the previous year's event in 05/06 when it was REALLY BIG ALL DAY! Keep watching as planetary weather conditions continue to shock and amaze surfers, meteorologists, oceanographers, the general public and all other sectors of the international extreme sports news and lifestyle oriented media by bringing us huge swells all over the globe. Hawaii in particular can get massive surf, and predictions are for Big Waves in the 07/08 Hawaii Winter Surf Season! Get ready for a Winter of Big Surf on Oahu's North Shore, with a LOT of Big North Swells predicted! WE ARE STOKED... as these swells stack-up nicely on the outer reefs of Oahu's North Shore providing over half of our Outer Reef potential venues with blistering fast and perfect right hand walls! Expect several "High Surf Warning" sized swells for the "4th Annual BANK OF HAWAII / ATLAS SALES North Shore Tow-In Surfing Championship 07/08" during its holding period throughout the 07/08 Big Wave Winter Surf Season! ALOHA!