Following the resounding success of the inaugural Cold Water Classic Series blending adventure, exploration, surf and competition, the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series makes a much-anticipated return for 2010.

Last year saw the series push the boundaries of surfing in a way never seen before with five ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) events exploring spectacular surf spots throughout remote corners of the globe with the word’s best surfers competing for the prestige of winning the O’Neill CWC Series and the $50,000 prize money.

“It’s pretty much the next best thing to winning the ASP World Title,” says World Tour star Jordy Smith.

It’s not only the prize money and accolade, but the integration of exploration and adventure into surf competitions that the surfers themselves relish. “To bring that feeling of searching out waves with your friends into competition is amazing,” says Jordy Smith.

With each location on the series serving up some of the most challenging high quality waves on the tour last year, the CWC Series will once again return to the start in the wilds of Tasmania, Australia on March 23rd before heading to Scotland, South Africa, Canada and Santa Cruz, California.

"The inaugural year of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic threw up incredible waves in some of the most remote and wild locations you could ever imagine to travel let alone host a surf competition," said O’Neill Global Event Manager Bernhard Ritzer. "These are locations where most of the professional surfers who spend their lives travelling around the world have never even been," he said.

"And within each location the quality of waves was beyond anything we could have even wished for," said Bernhard. "This year we want to delve deeper into each location. With the mobile event format we can discover more potential and share this globally with the live webcasts."

O’Neill Coldwater Classic Scotland April 13 – 19, 2010
The cold is one of the defining features of this, the most northern event in professional surfing. Straight from Tasmania, the CWC Series heads to Thurso – the most northerly town on the British mainland. With the powerful reef breaks of Thurso East and Brims Ness, as well as a multitude of beach breaks available for the mobile format, the quality of the event is worth the endurance of the water temperatures which hover around 7 degrees celsius at this time.