Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner! After nearly four months on the road, 20000km on the clock, more than eight countries visited (including France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and England), 5000 tshirts / 1000 pairs of sandals / 500 pairs of board shorts given away and more than 1000 sausages cooked on the bbq, the Reef Free Tour has finally come to an end…
There were in excess of 125 video entries and 650 photo entries uploaded on the event site. However, after some intense deliberation on behalf of the esteemed judging panel comprised of Reef professional surfers including Mick Fanning, Jay Thompson and Tim Boal, the eventual winner was 26 year old Polish wake boarder Michal Kmiec for his video entitled, “A life story of Being Free.” Michal lives in Barcelona and as you can see from his video in his free time he enjoys surfing, kite surfing, hanging out with friends, partying, concernts good food etc.
On arrival in Hossegor last Friday night for the prize giving ceremony, Michal leapt out of his car and began screaming at the top of the his lungs – we’re not exactly sure what he was saying, buy we can confirm he was pretty stoked to know he’d be driving home in the Volkswagen California Beach Van fully kitted out with sink, stove, cupboards, folding chairs, portable table etc! After filling in the paper work and eventually receiving the keys to his prize, minutes later Michal was driving laps around the car park at Les Bourdaines, shouting, screaming and honking his horn, with a huge smile on his face. “This is amazing, I’m so stoked, now it’s my turn to be free thanks to Reef!”
Reef would like to give special thanks to Volkswagen Utilitaire B.A.B, Surfrider Foundation Europe, the Reef team riders, plus the retailers we visited for all your support! We’d also like to thank all the participants who took the time to upload a video / photo to show what being free meant to each of you and everybody who took the time to check out the event online and register a vote. We hope you all enjoyed the Reef Free Tour as much as we did.
