Three Saffas Among ISA Scholarship Recipients
The International Surfing Association recently announced the forty recipients of its 2009 ISA Individual Scholarship Programme, and three South Africans are among them.
The lucky Saffas are Brandon Benjamin, Bright Ntuli and Khaye Ngcobo. Congrats to them all!
This is the third consecutive year that the ISA is presenting the Scholarship Programme. It began in 2007 with only five grants awarded. Within one year, it had expanded to 20 scholarships. This year, the ISA has increased the programme by 100%, issuing 40 scholarships to Under 18 junior surfers from 22 countries. They received over 80 applications from 24 countries for this year’s programme.
All the recipients made the cut to become ISA Surfing Ambassadors in their respective countries, because they are inspirational human beings, great surfers and students who want to succeed in surfing and school.
Before announcing the winners, ISA President Fernando Aguerre said: “I believe the Scholarship is a huge step forward by the ISA in areas of the world where we can’t do enough. Together, we are supporting the dreams and hopes of good students who are also good surfers. We went from five to 40 scholarships in three years and we´re hoping to reach 100 in a couple of years.”
The ISA is able to provide scholarships due to the generous support from Billabong, Quiksilver Foundation, Reef Redemption and Global Surf Industries, Inc.
The 2009 ISA Scholarship recipients from other countries are:
Brian Masmut –Argentina
Martín Carricart –Argentina
Joaquín Castanon –Argentina
Dominic Reisch –Australia
Amiya Doyle – Australia
Ametza Nicholls –Barbados
Jade Niccolls –Barbados
Henry Rivera Hidalgo -Guatemala
Jordan Heaselgrave –Barbados
Cristian Rivera –Puerto Rico
James Philips – Trinidad
Victor Bernardo –Brazil
Isaac Norman –Canada
Tomás Villegas –Chile
Camilo Hernández –Chile
Manuel Mesen –Costa Rica
Alberto Muñoz –Costa Rica
Carlos Muñoz –Costa Rica
Roberto Rodriguez –Ecuador
Brandon García –Guatemala
Freddy Morales –Guatemala
Garren Pryce –Jamaica
Leon McKenzie –Jamaica
Nao Omura –Japan
Arashi Kato –Japan
Aman Ashraf –Maldives
Itzel García –Mexico
Jayda Martin Fitzharris – New Zealand
Joaquín del Castillo – Perú
Juninho Urcia – Perú
Miguel Tudela – Perú
Pedro Alcobia –Portugal
Lucía Martino –Spain
Darío Jordan –Trinidad
Federico Longo –Uruguay
Christian Arballo –USA
Demi Boelsteri –USA
Remember these names. We’re almost certain that there are a few future surfing champions among them!
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Saffa Surfers Are Rad
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!
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