Pico Alto Goes Today

By Ed Temperley on 11th August 2011

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LIKE it big? Today the world's top big wave crazies will compete at the Billabong Pico Alto 2011- Copa Burn. Stop two on the Big Wave World Tour. You can watch it live HERE.

Legendary shaper and Big Wave World Tour Director Gary Linden said: "With a long period swell on the way with great direction and light winds, Pico Alto will provide some excellent waves for this year's event. While not quite as big as last year, the quality looks to be better and we can expect a very high level of big wave performance surfing."

Last year's winner and current Big Wave World Champ Jamie Sterling will defend his title against personalities like Greg Long (USA), former World Champ Carlos Burle (Brazil), XXL award winners Danilo Couto (Brazil) and Grant "Twiggy" Baker (South Africa), as well as locals legends like Alvaro Malpartida, Rafael Velarde, Gabriel Villarán, Sebastian de Romaña and more. Gabriel Villarán, the highest ranked Peruvian, currently 3 rd in the world, has the opportunity to surpass current BWWT leader Marcos Monteiro (Brazil).

So what will the swell look at sunrise today? In terms of pure numbers the peaks we're seing on the models look incredibly similar to last year.

The swell itself this year is greater in scale that 2010 but very similar in intensity and the forecast is calling for what amounts essentially to a re-run of last year with the majority of the sets in the 20-30ft face range and the largest waves running at the 30-40ft face mark.

Check out the detailed forecast HERE.