The winner of the final award for Billabong’s 2008 Freewave Challenge Mainland was announced Monday. Ryan Carlson’s 540 Rodeo Flip at his home break in Huntington Beach, Califonia was given the nod for ‘Monster Maneuver‘ of the year. Carlson’s mid-summer launch will be rewarded with $5,000 from Billabong. The maneuver, essentially the same one used by Jamie O’Brien used to win the inaugural Freewave Challenge, was the most-viewed clip of the year on Billabong’s video hub. Videographer Paul Cerone receives a healthy $1,200 for capturing and uploading the footage.

Aaron Cormican(New Smyrna Beach, FL), Cody Thompson(Jacksonville Beach, FL), Mason Ho (Sunset Beach, HI, and Zach Rhinehart (Oceanside, CA) rounded out the rest of the top 5 awards for Monster Maneuver, all of which will split up a purse of over $15,000 for their winning entries.

All the original clips can still be viewed by clicking on the Freewave video hub, as can clips from the first Freewave event last winter in Hawaii’s North of Oahu. The time and location of the next Freewave Challenge will be announced later this week. There was a large expansion by Billabong from the 1st format(2 categories) to the current challenge(5 categories), so it will be interesting to see how they switch things up for the next one. It’s gonna be hard to look anywhere but back toward Hawaii for the winter edition though; a quick view of last winter’s winning entries makes is evidence enough that this is where a contest like this belongs in the winter. Wherever they decide to hold it, look for Billabong to step up and progress even more with the Freewave Challenge.

Congrat’s go out to Ryan Carlson as well as the rest of the winners of the 2008 Billabong Freewave Challenge Mainland!

Tags: Billabong

Posted by Shaun on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 in Surfing.

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