Frank Solomon throws a (laid back) cat amongst the pigeons

There’s a strange paradox about big wave surfers: you’d expect them to be full of testosterone, walking around crushing beer cans on their heads and wanting to beat up random people for no good reason. They’re the exact opposite, usually the most laid back cats you’ll ever meet. Cape Town goofy foot Frank Solomon fits that bill perfectly.

With the Hawaiian season drawing to a close, Frank Solomon snuck in this late entry of himself getting thoroughly boxed at Pipe. Clearly his style under pressure at Pipeline matches his style on land, as laid back as you could expect. Check out this morning’s entry from Frank by clicking here>>

We’re less than a week away from voting opening for this year’s Oakley One Wave Wonder. When voting opens, the layout of the page will change and each wave will have a voting field (for your email address) and a vote button next to it. Vote for your favourite clip/s by filling in your email address and clicking on the vote icon next to it. Like all good democracies we work on the system of one person, one vote – with a twist. In other words, you can give the thumbs up and vote for multiple entries, but you can’t vote for the same entry twice.

It’s easy for us to spot multiple voting for a single wave from someone using multiple email addresses (electronic vote bots or manually cheating the system), so just don’t do it. If we find out who you are, you may be subject to prosecution, a snotklap and be publically banished on zigzag.co.za to surf Muizies for the rest of your life.

MORE ABOUT THE OAKLEY ONE WAVE WONDER:
Tubes, airs, carves, tow-ins, tow-ats, massive waves, small waves, combos…

We’re looking for anything deemed an outstanding single ride by entrants that pushes the performance of surfing. And the best thing? It’s open to any South African surfer, no matter where in the world the ride is documented.

The rules remain largely the same. The event officially starts 1 January 2012, but with a slightly different prize structure. The monthly loot has been increased to R15000, (R9000 to the surfer, R6000 to the person who documents it). All five monthly winners will automatically become finalists for the Ride of the Season, where one winner will be voted for after the contest closes on 30 June 2012.

The winning surfer will then hit the motherload with a cash prize of R30 000, and this year a Yamaha VX1100 WaveRunner valued at R120k. The person who documents it won’t fare too badly themselves, scoring an all expenses paid trip for two to Macaronis Surf Camp, worth over R50 000 and made possible by All Aboard Travel.

Groms get to cash in as well, with the best U16 clip each month winning a custom shape from Spider valued at over R3000.

As with the 2011 edition, both January and February rides will count for the first month. To upload entries or vote, simply sign up as a member on the website. Go to www.1wavewonder.co.za for all the rules, terms and conditions.