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Saffa surfers did it! Team South Africa rakes in the medals at the ISA World Masters surfing championship in Santa Catalina in Panama last weekend.

South Africa netted three gold, a silver and two bronze medals. Team South Africa’s hopes of scoring a third consecutive gold in the team event was dashed by a mere 260 points when Australia beat us 10456 to 10196.

But individually, Chris Knutsen and Heather Clark did us proud by defending their titles in the Grand Kahunas and women’s Masters respectively. Andrew Banks from Port Shepstone won his first ISA world title in the Masters event. “I feel extremely happy. This is the reason I came here.”

Andre and David Malherbe, the two brothers from East London, were responsible for the bronze medals, with Andre coming third in the Grand Masters and David in the Kahunas.

Clark’s achievement is all the more remarkable considering that she was in a life-threatening car accident less than a year ago.

East Londoner Wayne Monk placed equal ninth overall in the Masters division, Rob Moore-Boyle from Durban came seventh in the Grand Masters and fellow Durbanite and SA team captain Marc Wright, placed sixth overall in Panama.

Well done, everyone!

Tags: Andre Malherbe, Andrew Banks, Chris Knutsen, David Malherbe, Heather Clark, ISA World Masters Surfing championships, Marc Wright, Panama, Rob Moore-Boyle, Santa Catalina, South African surfers, Wayne Monk
Posted in Industry News, South African surfers, Surfing Events | | No Comments »

The 2010 South African Masters Surfing Team has departed for Panama, where they will be competing in the 2010 ISA World Masters Championships.

The tournament, touted to be the greatest event in Masters surfing, is scheduled to get underway on August 27 in Santa Catalina, on the north Pacific coast of Panama. Competitors from all over the world will get a chance to prove once again that age ain’t nothing but a number, and that you don’t need to hang up the board and retire just because you’ve spent 35 years or more on earth.

The “old” toppies (and one chick) who will be representing South Africa at the Masters are:

Wayne Monk (Border), Andrew Banks (Southern KwaZulu-Natal), and their non-travelling reserve Gary van Wieringen (Southern KwaZulu-Natal), who will surf their stuff among the Over 35 (Masters) competitors.

The Over 40 (Grandmasters) representatives are Andre Malherbe (Border) and Robert Moore Boyle (Central KwaZulu-Natal), with Gareth Sepp (Border) as the non-travelling reserve.

David Malherbe (Border), Marc Wright (Central KwaZulu-Natal) and non-travelling reserve Mike Brent (Border) are the Over 45 (Kahunas).

If you’re over 50, watch out for South Africa’s Grandkahuna, Chris Knutsen (Central KwaZulu-Natal).

And the rest of the world’s women over 35 will have to know their stuff to compete against Heather “Fergie” Clark (Southern KwaZulu-Natal). This girl has been on such a roll since recovering from a terrible car accident last year. We couldn’t be prouder of her!

Coach Antoni Brodowicz echoes our opinion that this is a great team: “The masters team is the most successful surfing team to ever leave our shores,” he told theBOMBsurf.

With an impressive three out of the eight going to Panama defending their current individual world championship titles, we agree that this is definitely a team to be reckoned with.

Tags: 2010 ISA World Masters Championships, 2010 South African Masters Surfing Team, Andre Malherbe, Andrew Banks, Antoni Brodowicz, Chris Knutsen, David Malherbe, Gareth Sepp, Gary van Wieringen, Heather Clark, Marc Wright, Mike Brent, Panama, Robert Moore Boyle, Santa Catalina, South African surfers, theBOMBsurf, Wayne Monk
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The 2010 Border surf team has done East London proud after winning not only the President’s Cup at the 2010 SA Surfing Championships at St Mikes on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Sunday, but by also taking the other two team trophies, the Master’s Cup and the inaugural Surfing SA Cup.

Border beat last year’s President’s Cup winners, Central KwaZulu-Natal, who this year came second overall. Southern KwaZulu-Natal, who hosted the event, came third, followed by Eastern Province, Western Province, Zululand, Boland and Southern Cape. This has only been the third time in 45 years that Border have managed to win the President’s Cup – which is awarded to the team with the highest total scores – but it was the fourth year in a row that they have won the SA Master’s Cup.

In the SA Cup, Central KwaZulu-Natal also took second place, with Western Province in third followed by Eastern Province, Boland, Zululand and Southern Cape.

The Master’s Cup second place went to Southern KwaZulu-Natal, who beat Central KwaZulu-Natal by one point. Eastern Province came fourth, followed by Zululand, Western Province, Southern Cape and Boland.

Greg Emslie won the SA Open Men’s title and also received his national team blazer as the first member of the SA team that will compete in the ISA World Surfing Games in Peru later this year.

The SA Masters selectors will use the results of the Over 35, Over 40, Over 45 and Over 50 age groups to select trialists for the SA Masters Team that will compete in the ISA World Masters Championships in Panama in September. South Africa is the two time defending World Masters Champions.

Other individual winners include legendary five time SA Men’s champion, ISA World Over 50 champion and multiple national champion in other divisions, Chris Knutsen of Central KwaZulu-Natal; Leonard Giles from Southern Cape who won gold in the Over 55 age group; and 2001 SA Champion Shane Thorne of Central KwaZulu-Natal, who won the Over 35 division.

The younger surfers also held their own with Beyrick de Vries, the SA Junior team captain, coming third in the Men’s Final and SA Junior team member Tanika Hoffman also coming in third in the Women’s Final.

For complete results, visit surfingsouthafrica.co.za

Tags: 2010 SA Surfing Championships, Beyrick de Vries, Boland, Border, Central KwaZulu-Natal, Chris Knutsen, Eastern Province, Greg Emslie, ISA World Surfing Games, Leonard Giles, Peru, President's Cup, SA Master's Cup, SA Surfing Cup, Shane Thorne, Southern Cape, Southern KwaZulu-Natal, Surfing South Africa, Tanika Hoffman, Western Province, Zululand
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The elder statesmen of South African surfing (and when we say ‘elder’, we mean over 30) showed off their surfing prowess at the fifth annual South African Reef Wetsuit Masters Championships which took place in Mossel Bay this past weekend.

The guys showed that years have not diminished their skills. Especially the guys from East London, who managed to nab the Masters trophy for Border for an impressive third year in a row! Central KwaZulu-Natal had to contend with second place. Western Province came third, host province Southern Cape came fourth, Eastern Province fifth, Boland sixth and Southern KwaZulu-Natal came seventh.

As far as individual winners are concerned, Llewellyn Whittaker from the Southern Cape scored the highest winning margin for the day in the Senior (Over 30) final. Craig Els from Southern KwaZulu-Natal came second, Paul Proctor of Border came third and Graeme Field from Western Province (WP) came fourth.

In the over 35 Master’s Andrew Banks from Southern KwaZulu-Natal beat defending champion Wayne Monk from Border. Gary van Wieringen of Southern KwaZulu-Natal came third and Stephan Lindeque of Boland came fourth.

David Malherbe, last year’s defending Grandmaster’s champion, managed to retain his title. Rob Moore from Central KwaZulu-Natal came second, André Malherbe and Gareth Sepp, both from Border, came third and fourth respectively.

In the Kahunas division (over 45) Nick Pike of Border came first, Western Province’s Sean Jerram came second, Michael Brent of Border came third and Trevor Hansen of Eastern Province came fourth.

In the Grandkahunas (over 50) final, Chris Knutsen beat fellow Central KwaZulu-Natal surfer Grantley Read. Jeremy Zinn of Western Province came third and Nick Krone of Southern Cape came fourth.

Glen Bowles of Eastern Province won the Veterans (over 55) final. Leonard Giles came second, John Elliott of Eastern Province came third and Heinie Meiring of Border came fourth.

Congratulations to all of them!

Tags: Andre Malherbe, Andrew Banks, Chris Knutsen, Craig Els, David Malherbe, Gareth Sepp, Gary van Wieringen, Glen Bowles, Graeme Field, Grantley Read, Heinie Meiring, Jeremy Zinn, John Elliott, Leonard Giles, Llewellyn Whittaker, Michael Brent, Mossel Bay, Nick Krone, Nick Pike, Paul Proctor, Rob Moore, Sean Jerram, South African Reef Wetsuit Masters Championships, Stephan Lindeque, Surfing South Africa, Trevor Hansen, Wayne Monk
Posted in Surfing Events | | No Comments »

The picturesque Southern Cape town of Mossel Bay begins hosting the fifth edition of the 2009 Reef Wetsuits SA Masters Championships today, 15 October 2009. The event, which will see some of South Africa’s surfing legends in action, will last until Sunday, 18 October 2009.

This is the first time ever that a national inter-provincial surfing tournament will be held in Mossel Bay, reports Surfing South Africa.

More than 100 surfers from seven provinces will compete as individuals across six age divisions. Which province ends up winning the Inter-provincial team trophy will be determined by a combination of all the team members’ scores.

Some of the Over 30 Senior Men division surfers will include guys like Paul Procter and Philip Malherbe of Border, Craig Els from Southern KwaZulu-Natal, Graeme Field of Western Province (WP), Llewellyn Whittaker of Southern Cape and Michael Moore of Boland.

The Over 35s Masters will see the likes of defending champion Wayne Monk of Border, who will try to retain his title against guys like Gary van Wieringen and Andrew Banks of Southern KwaZulu-Natal, Carl Roux and Mike Frew of KwaZulu-Natal, Robert Pollock of Southern Cape and Andrew Preen of WP.

The Over 40 Grandmasters division will see 2007 and 2008 Grandmasters champion David Malherbe and his brother, fellow SA Masters team member Andre, compete against Gareth Sepp of Border.

The Over 45 Kahunas will see Steven Hair of Southern Cape, David Stubbs and Glen Row of WP, Mike Brent of Border, Mickey Duffus of Boland and David Hansen of KwaZulu-Natal.

SA Surfing reckons that current Over 50 World and SA champion Chris Knutsen of KwaZulu-Natal won’t have a lot of competition, although they acknowledge that his competitors in the age division, such as Brian Heathcote of Border and Grantly Read of KwaZulu-Natal, could come up with surprising performances in this Grand Kahunas division round.

The Veterans Over 55 division will see Dave Fish of Border going head to head with Leonard Giles of the Southern Cape.

The event will be presented by Ocean and Earth. Good luck, gentlemen!

Tags: 2009 Reef Wetsuits SA Masters Championships, Andre Malherbe, Andrew Banks, Andrew Preen, Brian Heathcote, Carl Roux, Chris Knutsen, Craig Els, Dave Fish, David Hansen, David Malherbe, David Stubbs, Gareth Sepp, Gary van Wieringen, Glen Row, Graeme Field, Grantly Read, Leonard Giles, Llewellyn Whittaker, Michael Moore, Mickey Duffus, Mike Brent, Mike Frew, Mossel Bay, Paul Procter, Philip Malherbe, Robert Pollock, South African surfers, Steven Hair, Wayne Monk
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South African surfers are the bomb.

And that isn’t our biased opinion. Okay, wait… let us rephrase: It isn’t merely OUR biased opinion.

Our riders have been doing so well over the past few years, they’ve wracked up enough medals to give us third place in the recently published International Surfing Association’s (ISA) country medal standings! Australian and Brazilian surfers hauled in the most and second most medals respectively.

Since 1996, South African surfers have won no less than 41 medals while representing the country at all World Championships events organised by the ISA.

South Africa’s medal total comprises fifteen Gold, seven Silver, eight Bronze and eleven Copper. The Golds include overall team victory in the 2002 World Surfing Games held in Durban, and in the two Masters events run in Puerto Rico in 2007 and in Peru last year.

Clinton ‘Gigs’ Celliers is SSA’s most successful representative, having won the WSG kneeboard title in 1992, ‘94’, ’96 and ’98 (although it has to be noted that only the ’96 and ’98 medals are included in the table) and also taking Silver in 2000 and 2002.

Jordy Smith, Matthew Moir and Chris Knutsen have each won two Golds. Smith earned the Under 16 crown in Durban in 2003 and the Open Men title at the WSG in California in 2006, where Moir also clinched the Longboard title which he successfully defended in Portugal last October. Knutsen won the Kahuna’s (Over 45) title in Puerto Rico and then the Grand Kahuna’s (Over 50) in Peru.

Individual Gold’s have also been won by Travis Logie (Open Men) and Warwick Wright (Under 18) in Durban in 2002 and by Mark Wright (Grandmasters / Over 40) and Heather Clark (Women’s Masters / Over 35) in Peru. The SSA Junior team took Gold in the ISA Cup (tag team) event in Brazil in 2006.

“Considering South Africa’s small surfing population, the number of medals won by our surfers is exceptional,” says proud SSA General Manager, Robin de Kock. “It is a tribute to the talent of the athletes and also the hard work and dedication of the coaches, managers and administrators in this country.”

We couldn’t agree more! Which is why we’ll be keeping our eyes on our surfers during these future events:

The Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships at Salinas in Ecuador (March 28 – 5 April) followed by the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games (July 31 – 8 August) and the World Masters in Chile later in the year.

Our advice to our South African surfers would be to pack light! Because at the going rate, they’ll be paying loads in excess baggage fees for all those medals that they are going to bring home!

Tags: Chris Knutsen, Clinton "Gigs" Celliers, Heather Clark, International Surfing Association, Jordy Smith, Mark Wright, Matthew Moir, Robin de Kock, South African Surfing, SSA, Travis Logie, Warwick Wright
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