Red Bull Unleashed, the first-ever stadium-style, surf contest, is coming Sept. 18th-19th. Photo: Surf Snowdonia
Welcome to the future of competitive surfing. The complete list of athletes for Red Bull Unleashed 2015 has just been released and it’s a doozy of surfing elite spanning across a breadth of age, native countries and competition experience. This list of surfers is more eclectic than clothing styles at a thrift shop. You’ve got free-surfing specialists like Albee Layer and Dillon Perillo, competitive giant Jack Freestone, and up-and-comers like Mikey Wright and Kanoa Igarashi. Toss in an Insta-celeb like Luke Davis (for the star appeal, of course), a few local Europeans, and you’ve got the surfing world’s most ragtag group ever assembled.
Not one surfer on the list is currently competing on the WSL, due to the fact that the Tour will be stationed at Lower Trestles at the same time for the Hurley Pro. We all wanted to see guys like Kelly and John John go at it on flawless waves, proving who’s better in an unmitigated display of talent. But in this primordial stage, manmade wave competitions are separate from the WSL. And that’s what will make it interesting. We rarely get to see many of these in a jersey, so it will be a nice treat for once. Wait, will they even need to wear jerseys? We’ll soon find out. In the meantime, check out the full list below:
Jack Freestone (AUS)
Kanoa Igarashi (USA)
Kalani David (HAW)
Slade Prestwich (ZAF)
Yadin Nicol (AUS)
Dillion Perillo (USA)
Mitch Crews (AUS)
Billy Stairmand (NZL)
Marc Lacomare (FRA)
Ian Crane (USA)
Jayce Robinson (GBR)
Reubyn Ash (GBR)
Albee Layer (HAW)
Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA)
Kai Hing (AUS)
Brendon Gibbens (ZAF)
Mikey Wright (AUS)
Luke Davis (USA)
Hiroto Arai (JPN)
Ezekiel Lau (HAW)
Evan Geiselman (USA)
Ian Gouveia (BRA)
Oli Adams (GBR)
Alan Stokes (GBR)
