Cape Town, South Africa (17 June 2010) – Sea Point surfer Thomas Catlin will be heading off to Huntington Beach for the Hurley US Open of Surfing in August after winning their unique Win A Trip To California Competition.

Catlin’s efforts to take the prize saw him donning a Tiger Shark suit and surfing freezing Cape waters, wearing a mask and wings while skateboarding along the Sea Point promenade holding a Hurley Bird sign and constructing a Squidman suit which he wore along with pink smoke bombs for added special effects.

His prize sees him win an all-expenses paid trip to the Hurley US Open of Surfing in California, VIP treatment among the 600,000 fans expected at the event, meeting the Hurley International team, touring Hurley/Nike/Converse Action Sports headquarters and finally designing his own Hurley product at 225 Forest.

“I am really, really excited,” said Catlin after the win. “When I heard, I was so stoked that I just started screaming in the parking lot at Buffels Bay… all the heavy locals from Kommetjie were there wondering what was going on, so I told them and they’re all my best friends now! They didn’t recognise me because in all the photos I had a shark’s head and so on… but I remember giving them hot coffee, then running around the parking lot like crazy!”

The competition attracted close on 100 entrants from around South Africa, eventually narrowed down to ten finalists for the last two weeks of the competition. Catlin was judged the winner by an international panel of judges which included Bob Hurley (President and Founder of Hurley), Pat O’Connell (Hurley Sports Marketing Manager), Evan Slater (Former editor of Surfing Magazine and now Digital Content Manager for Hurley International), Jason Haynes (Marketing Manager for Hurley Australia) and Liam Wood (Hurley South Africa Team Manager). 

“The competition was a huge success,” said Liam Wood, “and we were especially happy with the final round. The top ten all stepped it up a level in the last two weeks with unique creative profiles and super interesting blogs. All ten were deserving winners, but from the very beginning Thomas Catlin went all out. Only entering 3 weeks before the end of the first round, Thomas shot through the rankings overnight due to putting a little bit more effort thanks to his costume designs, social networking, and even board shaping!”

The international panel of judges agreed that Catlin’s nail in the coffin was shaping a quad fish (four finned surfboard) with artwork depicting his costumes through the various stages of the event. “I’m going to take the quad with me,” said Catlin, “and I want to give it to one of the pros – hopefully Brett Simpson. He does mad aerials and to see him ride the board would be awesome. I’d love him to bust an air where you can see the underside of the board. I’ll tell him ‘bro, if you break it, snap it, whatever, just go crazy!”

Despite his job being done and the prize secured, Catlin has also vowed to wear his Hurley Tiger Shark suit when he boards the plane headed for California.

The Hurley US Open of surfing runs from August 2^nd to 8^th, and sports the largest purse on the World Qualifying Series with a massive $250,000 total prize money. The first place winner’s cheque of $100,000 is the largest of any event in professional surfing.

Catlin’s profile, along with all of the entries throughout the competition, can be viewed at http://www.hurley.co.za

Ends

Pictured: Thomas Catlin’s hand-shaped quad showing the Hurley Tiger Shark, Hurley Bird and Squidman

Photo: Thomas Catlin

NB: High resolution version of this image is available rights free to Media outlets

Issued on behalf of:

Hurley South Africa
Liam Wood
Hurley Team Manager
liam@hurley.co.za
Tel: 021 426 5212

Compiled by:
Craig Ritchie
craigjritchie@gmail.com
Tel: 079 493 6533

  

  

Cape Town, South Africa (14 May 2010) – There have been some crazy happenings down in the Cape recently, with lots of shark activity on the False Bay side and even official warnings from the Shark Spotters about heightened great white activity. But around the corner on the Sea Point side, there’s been a strange sighting that has perplexed both curious locals and shark experts alike.

 

Perhaps it has to do with the Thermopylae pollution or just perhaps the general wackiness of Cape Town, but initial reports described the enigmatic creature as a human/tiger shark hybrid – those in the know, however, have identified it as the product of mad scientist and eccentric Sea Point surfer Tom Caitlin.

 

“What happened was, well, I’ve got a man cave,” explains Tom, a shoe wholesaler and part time scientist specializing in experimental marine biology. “Every guy has got a man cave where he fixes something, stores linen, goes to get some time away from the wife. It’s very close to my heart, and I go there on Saturdays after surf with a bottle of whiskey to read surf mags, and work on my projects. So I decided to make a shark’s head and got to work on a chicken wire frame surrounded by fiberglass. The teeth are made of foam and the eyeballs are from a squashball cut in half. The whole thing took about 3 weeks”.

 

As with many scientific experiments, failures in the lab can lead to injury and possibly even death to the poor scientist, and Professor Tom Caitlin didn’t come away completely unscathed himself. “I bought a filter,” he says, “which is like a gas mask. You need this while working with all the polyurethane fumes. Now, I was basically breathing them in for 2 weeks with the door closed. I ended up with lacerations on the inside of my lungs because I had not put the filters onto the mask properly!”

 

Tom had to go to the doctor and was put on a prescription of antibiotics to help his troubled lungs. Still, undeterred, he went back to the man-cave lab and proceeded to finish his masterwork.

 

“I live in the same block as Justin Strong,” says Tom, “and he walked past with his baby one day and he was amazed by the shark’s head and told me to show it to him when it was done. So when that day came around a friend and I spray-painted ourselves – we sprayed his bald head blue and my face pink, so there was this blue smurf and this pink faced thing running around this quiet, well to do Jewish community. They don’t like too much noise in my complex, and next thing I feel a tapping on my sharks head – it was the caretaker. The moment he saw me he called everyone to come look, but as soon as they saw what was going on they refused to look at me because my testicles were sticking out of the wetsuit g-string. So I went up to the 9^th floor to show Justin, and we ended up getting a shot that he took of me where my balls are literally hanging out.”

 

All in the name of science.

 

“I put the shark’s head aside for a while, and I shaped myself a 7’2 step up board – with a ‘tiger shark’ design on it. After surfing Silverstroom, my friend Dan cut my wetsuit quite hectically in the back – the cut was so high it was like a g-string. Anyway, I went for a surf at Thermos in this thing. I paddled out at low tide and it was freezing because I was wearing practically no rubber. It was a very tough paddle and on the way out a 3-foot wave broke on me, so I actually had to bail the board while I held on to shark suit. There were loads of guys on the side of the road going “what is this ou doing??” and a bunch of surfers in the water who couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I also made a flag out of cardboard but I couldn’t paddle out with because I was being annihilated by the sets. I made it to the back and caught one wave, which was really difficult because the shark’s head had filled with water. I just just made it to the flat section because it was closing out and I managed to go straight and come in.”

 

So what was Tom Caitlin’s crazy escapade in aid of? What is the meaning of this? Is it the poignant tale of one man’s struggle to come to terms with the human condition in the dawn of the 21^st century, or was there another motive behind his actions?

 

“A friend told me I should put the Hurley logo on and enter their competition,” explains the good professor, “so we sprayed a logo on the suit and another friend Anton du Preez took some photos.”

 

Hurley’s Win A Trip To California competition runs until June 15^th, so there’s still plenty of time to head over to http://www.hurley.co.za/ and put together your most creative entry and stand a chance to attend the Hurley US Open of Surfing first hand.

 

Ends

 

Pictured: The Hurley Tiger Shark in action at Thermos

Photos: Anton du Preez

 

NB: High resolution versions of these images are available rights free to Media outlets

 

Issued on behalf of:

 

Hurley South Africa
Liam Wood
Hurley Team Manager
liam@hurley.co.za
Tel: 021 426 5212

 

Compiled by:

 

Craig Ritchie

craigjritchie@gmail.com