So at 730am tomorrow French time, that’s a bleary 630 for the Anglo-Saxons, the Roxy Pro ASP surf contest will fire up its engines and blast off into the sky, well kick off in Biarritz at least. The Roxy Jam, with its ASP World’s Women longboard contest, music and art shows is no more. It was always the coolest Euro surf event of the summer but now they’ve gone and invited the world’s best women ASP surfers and changed the name to the Roxy Pro, and so it’s hard to fully digest the awesome that lies ahead this week.

Especially when you consider how delicately poised this year’s ASP Women’s World Tour is. Four times champ and proper legend Steph Gilmore will be competing this week but she can no longer retain her title, no it’s going to come down to Carissa Moore from Hawaii or Sally Fitzgibbons (our last issue’s cover star) from Oz. Carissa is in pole position and a win here will gift her the title but a win for Sally makes things super-interesting and will mean that the winner won’t be crowned until the US Open of surfing in Huntington Beach later this month*. Plus how will Cooler favourites Jen Smith and Kassia Meador get on in the ASP longboard contest.

Stay tuned to coolermag.com for all the latest news and follow the contest action at the Roxy Live site, starting with the morning show at 730 am Monday hosted by Lisa Andersen, the legendary female surfer who made all this shit possible in the first place.

And if you’re gonna be there, look out for us, we’ll be the ones running to the waves and trying to conduct interviews in the line up (only joking bosses, it’s going to be super-tough backbreaking work!).

*Have just read some more details on the Roxy Blog about what exactly Sally Fitzgibbons needs to happen for her to clinch the World Title

“If Carissa gets 1st in France, she clinches the World Title.
If Carissa gets 2nd or 3rd in France, Sally needs to win to still be in the running and World Title in Huntington Beach
If Sally gets 2nd she is still in the running for a World Title
If Carissa gets 5th in France, Sally needs a 2nd or better to still be in the running.
If Carissa gets 9th in France, the title decision goes to the US Open.”