The world's coldest professional surfing contest returns to Scotland in spring 2008. O'Neill has confirmed that the Highland Open, its signature event, will be staged on Scotland's frigid North Shore for the third year running. O'Neill's first two pioneering contests have revolutionised European surfing, putting the icy barrels of Scotland on the world surfing map, but this April's event looks set to be even bigger and better than its predecessors.

The O'Neill Highland Open by Swatch is the must-see surfing contest in Europe, and no wonder. It's a contest with a difference: it's run by surfers, for surfers, at the world-class breaks that lie along Scotland's North Shore. It's based at the legendary reef of Thurso East, where the water temperature is a mind-and-body numbing 4 degrees Celsius. At 59 degrees north, Thurso East is more hospitable to polar bears than humans, but for a growing number of top-quality surfers, the cold is an irrelevance. What matters is the awesome quality of the waves delivered by Arctic swells onto Thurso's reef - long, clean, immense right-handers that rival the perfection of Hawaii's own, rather warmer North Shore.

Here, in Scotland, boardshorts aren't an option. Only the serious need apply.

For more information check out the O'Neill Highland Open website.