ASP Crowning Banquet
The night of nights for the worlds surfing industry, was held last night on Australia’s surfing capital the Gold Coast. The best male and female surfers, from around the globe, converged on the Gold Coast Convention center, dressed to the nines, ready to tackle the red carpet, before being treated to an evening of fine food, drinks, and entertainment.
World Champions Mick Fanning and Stephanie Gilmore made a grand entrance to the event, taking a tour over the famous Gold Coast Beaches and landing on the roof of the near by Jupiter’s Casino, by helicopter before being limo’d to the Red Carpet.
The 2008 season was officially kicked off with this event, which is a chance to officially recognize the greatest achievements of surfing throughout the previous year. Along with Mick Fanning and Steph Gilmore, officially being crowned World Champions, in front of the Surfing industries who’s who, awards were also handed out for several other great achievements from 2007, including Rookie of the Year, Steph Gilmore and Jeremy Flores, Junior World Champions, Sally Fitzgibon and Jadson Andre. Time was also taken to recognize those who are retiring from the sport including all time surfing legend Mark Occiluhpo, Troy Brooks, Mick Lowe and Rochelle Ballard. Occy’s speech was moving and received a standing ovation from the adoring crowd in recognition of his amazing career.
Form the awards and entertainment; it was party on at the Red Bull VIP lounge, with Yeager Bombs on tap and plenty of ready souls set to enjoy the evening. The Roxy and Quiksilver Pro are set to start this coming Saturday (Local Australian Time) at the famous Snapper Rocks. Currently the swell is pouring in across the Superbank and if the pre-event conditions combined with last year’s intense competition are anything to go by, this years event is sure to be a classic.
Boost team athlete and pro surfer, Megan Abubo (red dress) hits the red carpet, flanked by some of the worlds finest female surfers (pictured top)
Dane Reynolds gets set to take to the Red Carpet and doing the TV thing for Fuel TV (shown above) along with Megan Abubo, Serena Brook and Layne Beachley put Chris Cote in the hot seat (below)
Taj Burrow gets recognized for his efforts claiming the World Number two spot (above) and Mick Fanning’s still pumped with his title as the World Surfing Champion (below)
The World Champions are presented to the World (above) and Occy’s farewell speech was very moving (below)
