Durban's John Whittle Takes The Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2006

In conditions that varied between 12-foot and 15-foot during the day, with some even bigger outside sets, John Whittle put his head down and won the eighth edition of the Red Bull Big Wave Africa. In a final that saw a south-easter come up and blow into some giant right-hand barrels, John picked up set waves and rode them with aplomb to secure the vote from the assembled judges. "I'm just the favoured son today," said an emotional John at the prize giving, held at the harbour-side immediately after the contest had finished.

Second place was Kommetjie resident Andrew Marr, and third place went to former Capetonian surfer, now resident in the UK, Chris Bertish. The Sensi Threads Biggest Wave Award went to Andrew Marr, the Von Zipper Biggest Tube Award went to Jason Ribbink from Durban, and the Billabong Deep Throat Award for the most committed surfer over the event, went to Hawaiian charger Jamie Sterling. The waves at Dungeons were pulsing thoughout the day, with massive wide sets swinging though and catching some surfers by suprise, but with other surfers making full use of local knowledge and dropping down some of the bombs for high scores. For blow-by-blow results of the days competiiton, and some insane images from the water, log onto www.redbullbwa.com.