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Rip Curl Green Room 2016: Mathieu Crepel Wins the First Edition!

The first ever surf contest for pro snowboarders

This first edition of the ‘Rip Curl Green Room’, the first ever surf contest for pro snowboarders, was a real success… And at the end Mathieu Crepel wins. Of course!

Photos: Perly (unless stated)

This pretty cool idea came out of Raphael Delfour’s brain, Rip Curl‘s snow team boss. And Rip Curl hvaing its roots well into surfing, it was only a matter of time that they make their crossover activity a reality. It’s now been done, and it happened down the road of their headquarters, in Anglet France.

And the best thing is, it was a real surf contest, with pro judges from the French federation, and we must say some pretty handy dudes on liquid snow – as you will see in this Gallery.

The format of the contest: 4 heats of 4 surfers, 20 minutes by heat. 2 best waves count. Then a second round of 4 heats to mix the riders, and then the best meet in semi-final and a 4 men’s final.

The surfers/snowboarders: Matthias Weissenbacher (AUT), Emilien Badoux (SUI), Mathieu Crépel (FRA), Xavier De Le Rue (FRA), Victor De Le Rue (FRA), Victor Daviet (FRA), Matevz Pristavec (SLO), Carlos Gerber (SUI), Erwan Golden (FRA), Syvain Bourbousson (FRA), Matevz Macek (SLO), Ilmo Nyttimaki (FIN), Gary Zebrowski (FRA), Caroline Béliard-Zebrowski (FRA) and Antoine Baduel (FRA)

Little morning yoga for Mathieu Crépel, Caroline Béliard-Zebrowski and Victor De Le Rue. ©YBR

Heat 1: Mat Marek / Mat Pristavec / Carlos Gerber / Golden (aka the international heat)

Heat 2: Antoine Baduel / Ilmo Nyttimaki / Xavier De Le Rue / Emilien Badoux (aka the world champs heat)

Heat 3: Caroline Béliard / Sylvain Bourbousson / Mathieu Crépel / Mathias Weissenbacher (aka the death heat)

Poule 4: Victor De Le Rue / Victor Daviet / Gary Zebrowski / Jérôme Tanon (aka the indo lover’s heat)

This morning of the 13th July on Sables d’Or beach in Anglet was a little chilled and not so clean, but this doesn’t spot the competitors to put their best moves to practice and score some pretty nice waves – finding the right one was of course the name of the game!

The so-called ‘world champs heat’ are going to offer us the first priority drop – and almost the first collision – of the day… We won’t say names, or only in caption…

The next heat was promising: Caro, Sylvain and Mathieu have been friends for years, they all live on the Atlantic coast, and they are all good surfers.

In the other heats, Pristo, Golden and Gary Zebrowski are also scoring pretty high, especially Gary who has obvisously this natural talent in melted snow… 10 years after the Torino Olympic games, the French pipe team (Mathieu and Gary) were going to be reunited in a contest, but this time in the water!

And there were our 4 finalists: 2 favorites, Mathieu et Gary, and 2 outsiders… But all are going to give their best shot in this last 20 minutes of competition.

And on the starting bell, Mathieu takes off and score one of the best waves of the day, with a 7+. Golden and Sylvain are trying to take as many waves as possible to fill the gap, Gary decides to wait for the bomb… Unfortunately the big awaited wave will never come, and Gary will finish second right on his last wave. The second wave of each rider will make no difference: the first title of the Rip Curl Green Room goes to the crossover champ Mathieu Crepel!

This was a real fun event and epic day in Anglet for the whole crew. We will remember all those good vibes, and those good moves from the competitors who managed to give their best in difficult conditions. Oh, and how not to mention the best wave of the day, score in the 2nd round by the man now know as ‘Bourbyslater’. Sylvain, the swell reader, and his powerful bottom!

Thanks to Rip Curl for the great idea and delivery, to all the riders for the good vibes, and hopefully see you there next year!