Billabong Challenge: The Mystery Left

2/3/2016

Small, elite, mobile professional surf event, held from 1995 to 1998, designed as an alternative to the often-bloated world championship tour contests. The Billabong Challenge was conceived and planned by Billabong founder Gordon Merchant, filmmaker Jack McCoy, and former world tour champion Wayne Bartholomew. "Gordon," McCoy explained to Surfing Life magazine, "is tired of seeing great surfers competing in funky surf [on the ASP tour], and it was his vision to put on a contest allowing the best surfers to perform in perfect waves." McCoy later added that the Challenge was also a way to get Billabong team rider Mark Occhilupo, who'd just emerged from a long period of depression and weight-gain, back in the public eye. The debut Billabong Challenge was held at a "mystery left" (later rev