The winners of the Australia's Surfing Life Oakley Big Wave Awards will be announced at Simmer on the Bay, Dawes Point, Sydney, on February 8th, 2012. The finalists of the Biggest Wave, Biggest Slab and Biggest Paddle-in Ride have been named and are available at www.bigwaveawards.com.au.

Big waves and stunning images make the decisive list of Australia's most prestigious big surfing challenge. Mark Mathews, Marti Paradisis, Jamie Mitchell, Ryan Hipwood, Chris Shanahan, Ben Rufus, Damien Warr and Tyler Hollmer Cross are some of the surfers that may lift the title and grab the $35,000 in prizemoney.

"We felt the surfers themselves were the best judges of each other’s performances," explained event co-ordinator Nick Carroll. "They know these wild surf zones better than anyone else and they have a clear view of the challenge involved. We were stoked with the way they responded! They’ve come up with an epic group of finalists, that’s for sure."

It's 6th June 1944, in Normandy, France. The Allied troops prepare the largest amphibious operation in history, against Nazi Germany. D-Day has come. While the infantry and armoured divisions wait for the green light, the weather charts are constantly updated.

A recently declassified dossier shows that swell, surf height and wind were crucial variables taken in consideration in the Operation Neptune. It involved tides, winds, waves, visibility both from the air and the sea stand-point, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.

On the 1st February, the British Admiralty's Naval Meteorological Service activated a Swell Forecast Section in order to get accurate wave predictions for D-Day, the Big Storm (19th-22nd June 1944) and over-the-beach supply operations following the destruction of the artificial harbor at the Omaha beachhead.

Two years before the Operation Overlord (Normandy landings) and Operation Neptune, Franklyn Roosevelt, the US President at the time, sent a message to Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, showing his concern. "...bad surf on the Atlantic beaches is a calculated risk".

Nearly one million equipped troops were extremely sensitive to wave action. It would not be easy to deploy everyone and everything, quickly and efficiently. The report from Charles C. Bates, retired Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Air Force tells "it needed a four-day period of low seas".

Big wave surfers Jeff Rowley, Greg Long, Shaun Walsh and Albee Layer have paddled-in to gigantic 15 metre (50 foot) plus waves at Peahi "Jaws" and cement paddling in as the new frontier in big wave surfing.

Rowley and friends were on Maui, Hawaii waiting for the monster surf to hit the Peahi, "Jaws" reef and produce the world's biggest surfable waves. Watch the bombs coming in, here.

On one of the biggest waves of the day, Rowley took off underneath the pitching lip of the wave. "As the wave was coming I knew I was in the right position, I didn't want to waste any energy paddling just turn around and go".

"It just picked me up perfectly, It felt like I was riding a magic carpet with my heart in my mouth". In doing so Rowley's ride has skyrocketed into two categories of the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave awards; "Ride of The Year" and "Monster Energy Monster Paddle In".

"Everything I have worked hard and trained for all my life helped me pull off a ride like this”. Rowley specialises in Breath Enhancement Training to maximise time underwater without oxygen and maintain calm in extreme situations.

A new surf pool has been unveiled in desert sands. The Wadi Adventure is the Middle East's first man made artificial wave park located at the base of Jebel Hafeet, in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Developers of the surf facility promise a surf pool capable of making 3.3 meter high waves every 90 seconds. All local and international surfers can enjoy the machine powered waves from 12pm, in 55-minute surf sessions that can accomodate up to six riders.

You'll pay 100 AED (27 dollars) for the artificial experience. The quality of the wave is quite good. You can ride left and right surfable waves. Watch how the wave pool pumps waves, here. There's even a button to control the wave height.

The Wadi Adventure is like surfing in the desert. It also possible to tune and select the size of the waves, whether you're a beginner or an experienced surfer. Wave conditions change throughout the day and night surfing sessions are also available for booking.

Three world class whitewater runways for rafting and kayaking offer a combined length of 1,133 metres. Take a look at the best surf parks, surf pools and artificial waves, here.

Surfboard shapers are the guardians of surfing. The surfboard revolution has always started in the shape room, with the major inputs from the world's greatest surfers. One surfboard can change your surf forever. The first surfboard is responsible for bringing you to the sport. Many surf beginners lose their interest in surfing because they didn't the correct board for the early waves.

The best surfboard shapers of all time have already produced thousands of great surfboards. Each surfboard design is unique and serves a specific function. Old school surf, classic and smooth carving, vertical turns, off-the-lip adventures, super speed surf lines, tube riding or aerial antics may be strongly boosted and improved by the tweaking and tuning the foam, through hydrodynamics.

Surfboard craftsmen do surf. The rocker, the tail, the rails, the bottom contours, the fin setup, the glass and polish process -it all comes to a final fruit. Each surfboard has its dimensions: length, width and thickness are not random variables and "feel". This is ocean mathemathics that can only be solved by the hands of experienced surfboard shapers.

These surf artists work in special environments. The shaping room should be around 16'x8' (9,6 x 4,8 meters) with bright horizontal fluoros lights mounted on each side of the space. Standings on which blanks are shaped should be fixed to the floor, aligned with the adjacent lights.