<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"\"&lt;figure id=\\\"attachment_4975\\\" style=\\\"width: 545px\\\" class=\\\"wp-caption alignnone\\\"&gt;&lt;img class=\\\"size-medium wp-image-4975\\\" title=\\\"burle\\\" src=\\\"\\/files\\/2010\\/04\\/burle-545x363.jpg\\\" alt=\\\"Carlos Burle (center, in white) and his big-wave cohorts. Photo: Taylor Paul\\\" width=\\\"545\\\" height=\\\"363\\\" srcset=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.surfingmagazine.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2010\\/04\\/burle-545x363.jpg 545w, http:\\/\\/www.surfingmagazine.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2010\\/04\\/burle-1024x682.jpg 1024w\\\" sizes=\\\"(max-width: 545px) 100vw, 545px\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;figcaption class=\\\"wp-caption-text\\\"&gt;Carlos Burle (center, in white) and his big-wave cohorts. Photo: Taylor Paul&lt;\\/figcaption&gt;&lt;\\/figure&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Taylor Paul&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It\\u2019s Saturday night at the San Clemente Surfing Heritage Foundation&lt;\\/strong&gt;. A small crowd leans against the walls and sits on the floor, and Carlos Burle is crowned the first Big Wave World Champ. He stands on the podium, microphone in hand, and speaks with a slow confidence he learned as a motivational speaker in Brazil.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cThis doesn\\u2019t belong to me,\\u201d he says. \\u201cIt belongs to all of you. Please come up here and hold this trophy with me.\\u201d And they do. The world\\u2019s most accomplished big-wave surfers get up on stage, hug, and share a trophy.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;It is the final moment of Gary Linden\\u2019s inaugural Big Wave World Tour, a long-time dream come true for the San Diego big-wave legend. The tour took points from big-wave contests in Chile, Peru, Maverick\\u2019s, and Todos, and declared Burle the winner.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Despite Carlos\\u2019s claim, the trophy does belong to him. Nobody in the big-wave community would dispute it. At 42, the guy made the final of every Big Wave World Tour event this year. He\\u2019s fit in every sense of the word. Plus, he starts emails with, \\u201cHello my dear friend!!!\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Linden, who has known him for 25 years, says Carlos \\u201ccombines training, conditioning, and diet to give him the physical endurance and mental fortitude to never quit. And as a person, he is not afraid to feel or express his emotions; he just glides through life as it comes.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;And what does big-wave surfing mean to the fit, focused, and friendly Brazilian?&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cIn small surf it&amp;#8217;s more like fighting for waves. But big-wave paddling is more about, &lt;em&gt;Go brother&lt;\\/em&gt;! And you look after your friends. It&amp;#8217;s an intense and truly emotional sport that brings us together.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The brotherhood Burle describes is what united the big-wave elite to make the BWWT a reality, because it wasn\\u2019t the money.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cIt is not some corporation telling us what to do so that we can get paid,\\u201d says Linden. \\u201cWe are saying, This is what we love doing and it\\u2019s so special that we need to share it with the rest of the world.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Even with its grassroots beginnings, companies are jumping on the BWWT boat and are ready to fare rough seas. Organizations like Quiksilver and Billabong are sponsoring single events, while Jim Beam is the principal sponsor for the whole tour. (In addition to $5,000 for Carlos\\u2019s win, he got a trip to Kentucky to tour the Jim Beam distillery and stay in the master-distiller\\u2019s mansion).&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;With the surfers\\u2019 passion coupled with new sponsors, the future of big-wave surfing looks giant and glassy.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cBefore the BWWT,\\u201d explains Carlos. \\u201cOur sport was only a few contests with few surfers who could compete in them. But now we have a solid tour with a qualifying division for the up-and-coming talents. We have a much more professional atmosphere, with strong sponsors supporting the whole chain \\u2014 from the athletes to the tour itself.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Author\\u2019s Note: Carlos, if you\\u2019re reading this (my dear friend!!), I am ready for Kentucky when you are.&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.surfingmagazine.com/news/big-wave-world-tour/>