<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This will be the most-watched event in Australian surfing history.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After hundreds of heats over years of competition, intense rivalries are formed. These guys have won pretty much everything with world titles, pipe masters, triple crowns & almost every event on the world tour circuit. Surfing Australia Studios and <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Media/my-surf-tv" target="_blank">mySURFtv</a></strong> have used testing times in 2020 to create a way of reigniting the competitive fire still burning within the eleven former World Tour surfers in their new series ‘RIVALS’.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/Mick-Fanning" target="_blank">Mick Fanning</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/joel-parkinson" target="_blank">Joel Parkinson</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/dean-morrison" target="_blank">Dean Morrison</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/bede-durbidge" target="_blank">Bede Durbidge</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/josh-kerr" target="_blank">Josh Kerr</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/daniel-wills" target="_blank">Danny Wills</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/shaun-cansdell" target="_blank">Shaun Cansdell</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/jay-thompson" target="_blank">Jay Thompson</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/glenn-hall" target="_blank">Glen Hall</a></strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/kai-otton" target="_blank">Kai Otton</a></strong> and <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Riders/nathan-hedge" target="_blank">Nathan Hedge</a></strong> have two hours at their ‘local’ wave to surf however they want, on as many waves as they want, with their best three rides to be scored by the public via online platform <strong><a href="https://www.clippero.com/" target="_blank">www.clippero.com</a></strong> and <strong>Olympic Surfing Head Judge Glen Elliott</strong>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For surf fans, all the memories will come flooding back of these mighty competitors. The speed, style, power, innovation and aggression this group of surfing greats displayed in their heyday hasn’t gone anywhere. With a forty-five-day competition window, there will be no shortage of barrels, big turns and crazy moments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All contestants with the exception of Shaun Cansdell have already locked away their two-hour heats. The ‘Cooly Kids’ Mick Fanning, Dean Morrison and Joel Parkinson chose to pull the trigger on their time slots together at the famed Snapper Rocks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Surfing with those two for so long (Joel and Mick), when there’s no heat on, there’s a heat on! We have always fed off each other in that way and that’s a big part of how we all got so good.” – <strong>Dean ‘Dingo’ Morrison</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“To see Dingo at the start, he seemed so nervous and I am sure Joel was nervous too he couldn’t sleep. I was just pumped to go surfing with my mates. Once I got out there I was just surfing with my mates.” – <strong>Mick Fanning</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Each surfer has their own episode in the thirteen week series on Channel Nine, something the free to air broadcaster is excited about having never aired anything like the series before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nine and Wide World of Sports are thrilled to be continuing their association with Surfing Australia. RIVALS is an exciting and innovative concept and we look forward to bringing all the action to Surfing fans across the country."- <strong>Brent Williams, Director of Sport - Wide World Of Sports</strong> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Having travelled the world together, some for more than ten years, the group hadn’t lost any competitive drive when the challenge was thrown their way via official invite. So far, five of the eleven have already pushed go on their two-hour heats with the other six waiting on swell events to get in the water and the hunt for bragging rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It’s funny, we talked about this for years when we were on tour, you know, how good it would be to have a two-hour heat and just surf the way you surf, rather than the thirty-minute heats we all were used to.” – <strong>Danny Wills </strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> “You see his performances from Teahupoo, Cloudbreak, Pipeline and places like that, he will get a ten or something and blow us all away” – <strong>Mick Fanning on Kai Otton</strong>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>SURFERS AND LOCATIONS: </strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">MICK FANNING - Snapper Rocks - Queensland</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JOEL PARKINSON - Snapper Rocks - Queensland</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">DEAN MORRISON - Snapper Rocks - Queensland</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">BEDE DURBIDGE - South Stradbroke Island - Queensland</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JOSH KERR - Duranbah Beach - New South Wales </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">DANNY WILLS - Broken Head - New South Wales </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">SHAUN CANSDELL - Coffs Harbour - New South Wales </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JAY THOMPSON - Burleigh Heads - Queensland</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">GLEN HALL - Avoca Point - New South Wales </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">KAI OTTON - South Coast Slab - New South Wales </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">NATHAN HEDGE - North Narrabeen - New South Wales</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;">Source: Surfing Australia</div><div><strong>About Surfing Australia</strong></div><div><br /></div><div><strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Associations/Surfing-Australia" target="_blank">Surfing Australia</a></strong> is a National Sporting Organisation that was formed in 1963 to establish, guide and promote the development of surfing in Australia.</div><div><br /></div><div>Surfing Australia is the representative body on the <strong><a href="https://www.boardriding.com/Associations/International-Surfing-Association" target="_blank">International Surfing Association (ISA)</a></strong> of which there are 86 member countries and is recognised by the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Olympic Committee and is a member of the Water Safety Council of Australia.</div><div><br /></div><div>Surfing underpins an important part of the Australian coastal fabric. It forms part of a lifestyle in which millions participate with a mystique in which millions more have a documented interest.</div>