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.
So much going on on the surf scene at the moment, so here’s a quick round-up of events:
– According to the latest update from Panama, all of our surfers are still alive in the competition at the Panama ISA World Masters Surfing Championship! This means that South Africa is tied for first place with Brazil and Australia. The winners will be determined tomorrow, 4 September 2010. Good luck, guys and gal!
– In the mean time, back in home surf, the Billabong Junior Series has gotten underway in Herold’s Bay, near George, after organisers made the decision to relocate the event from Victoria Bay in search of better waves. The move paid off and now South Africa’s top junior surfers, including the likes of Dylan Lightfoot, Sarah Baum, Bianca Buitendag, Tarryn Chudleigh, Alice McGregor, SA Open champion Chantelle Rautenbach, Kirsty Delport, Benji Brand, Steven Sawyer, Mikey Venter, Jarred Veldhuis and Slade Prestwich are all vying for the title and one of three spots in the inaugural ASP World Junior Tour to take place in Bali at the end of October.
-For those of us who aren’t quite as skilled on the board, here’s your chance to conquer the biggest waves in some of the world’s top surf spots – including South Africa’s very own J-Bay – simply by using your fingers when you play a new game called Billabong Surf Trip. The arcade-simulation surfing game, which was developed by Billabong and Biodroid, a Portuguese game developer, can be played on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Featuring some of the best professional surfers in the world, such as Andy Irons, Taj Burrows, Joel Parkinson and Tiago Pires, players will be able to experience super-realistic waves from Billabong Surf Trip destinations such as Mundaka in Spain, Pipeline in Hawaii and many others.
The surf-art style graphics create super-realistic visuals, and the game has many highlights that create a whole world inside the surfing culture. Future platforms will include Sony PSP, Wii Ware, Xbox 360
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.
South African surfers continue riding high after yet another local yokel took a major title yesterday.
When East Londoner Greg “The Foot” Emslie emerged as the winner of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic South Africa in Cape Town yesterday, he became the first South African to do so in home surf in the entire history of the event.
With Emslie beating Australian Dion Atkinson at Kommetjie’s Long Beach, it means that the recent South African surfing winning streak continues.
“Jordy (Smith) won the other two local events and now I’ve won the third,” Emslie said after the event. “I was thinking to myself, ‘I beat Jordy in this event, now I can’t let the guy down and lose the final’. We’ve got to keep all the trophies at home, so I’m stoked I managed to do that.”
It was close though. As the Mercury reports, Emslie’s victory over Atkinson came down to a final wave in the dying minutes of the contest.
Jordy Smith managed to become the first South African to win an ASP World Tour event since Shaun Tomson back in the ‘80s when he was crowned the Billabong Pro J-Bay 2010 champion at Jeffreys Bay on Sunday.
By accomplishing this amazing feat, during which he defeated Australia’s Adam Melling in the last round, the 22-year old also managed to secure the top spot on the ASP World Title Race Rankings, knocking the legendary Kelly Slater from his perch as the world’s number one surfer.
“This is the best day of my life,” Jordy said from the podium. “The crowd on the beach has been supporting me the last few days and hearing the cheers and the vuvuzelas just get me fired up to perform. It feels like they’re pushing me along. I couldn’t have done it without them.
“I knew the swell was dying and I had to take advantage of every wave that came through.” Referring to Adam Melling, he said: “[He] is such a dangerous surfer. He’s been in form all day and I knew that if he got the waves, he would get the scores. I went out there knowing I had to open up strong.”
Adam said: “The ocean didn’t cooperate with me in the Final so that’s a shame but I couldn’t be happier. We had amazing waves and to get the best result of my career is huge. I came into Jeffreys with a long road ahead if I were to make the mid-year cut-off, and now that I’m 19th, I feel like I have a bit of a buffer heading into Tahiti. I worked really hard to get here and I want to stay here.”
The next stop on the 2010 ASP World Tour is the Billabong Pro Tahiti from August 23 through September 3, 2010.
Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Final Results:
1 – Jordy Smith (ZAF) 17.93
2 – Adam Melling (AUS) 10.00
Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Semi-final Results:
SF 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.83 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.40
SF 2: Adam Melling (AUS) 14.00 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 10.67
Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Quarter-final Results:
QF 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.43 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.20
QF 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.17 def. Sean Holmes (ZAF) 11.83
QF 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.00 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 3.66
QF 4: Adam Melling (AUS) 16.43 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 5.67
Current ASP World Title Race Top 5 (after South Africa):
1. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 28500 pts
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 24750 pts
3. Kelly Slater (USA) 23500 pts
4. Dane Reynolds (USA) 20000 pts
5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 19500 pts
6. Mick Fanning (AUS) 19250 pts
7. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18750 pts
8. Bobby Martinez (USA) 16500 pts
9. Jadson Andre (BRA) 16000 pts
10. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14750 pts
Raking in titles and accolades are not unusual for South African pro surfer Jordy Smith. At just 22, he is currently ranked the number two pro surfer in the world, putting him just one step behind surfing great Kelly Slater.
That is just one of the many reasons why the O’Neill surf rider is up for Men’s Health Magazine’s “Best Men 2010” awards. The surfer is nominated in the category “The Game Changer”, who the magazine defines as “… the man who is turning an industry on its head by inventing new and creative ways of working… and playing.”
Men’s Health also acknowledges Jordy for his invention of his ground-breaking “Rodeo Flip” aerial surfing manoeuvre. But apart from his undeniable skill on the board, he also gets our vote for revealing and breaking out his inner musician during a song writing and performance collaboration with local group Goldfish, in which he proved that he’s not even a fish out of water in the recording studio. The result of Jordy’s combined efforts with Goldfish is the track “Flying Stealth – Jordy Smith vs. Goldfish”, which can be heard and downloaded over here.
We also think Jordy deserves the title for his do-gooder side, which he displayed when he recently lent his support to the Surfrider Foundation’s “Oil and Water don’t Mix” t-shirt campaign to stop oil companies from drilling in the world’s oceans. The campaign was launched in order to prevent another catastrophic environmental disaster, such as the current BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, from happening ever again.
“From growing up in South Africa and travelling on the Tour, I’ve been given the opportunity to surf some of the nicest beaches around the world. So when I see what’s happening in the Gulf Coast, it’s a sad reminder how badly offshore oil drilling can damage our oceans and marine life. Hopefully this t-shirt will help bring more awareness to the issue and keep oil companies away from the waters we love,” Jordy said.
The limited edition t-shirt is available for US$20 from O’Neill. Funds will be contributed towards the clean-up efforts in the Gulf.
To join us in lending your support to Jordy, you can vote for him here. Go on! We honestly can’t think of a more deserving dude.
The local surfing community is in mourning following the death of a local surfing veteran hailed by many as one of the country’s pioneers for the sport.
Shorty Bronkhorst died in Jeffreys Bay this past weekend. He was 73 years old.
According to the Weekend Post Online, Shorty began surfing in the summer of 1949 in Durban and was still doing it more than 50 years later at Super Tubes and Surfers Point. While working as a professional lifesaver in Durban, he surfed on 5m boards made out of plywood.
In 1956, at the age of 19, Shorty and a friend hitchhiked their way across Africa and eventually ended up in London. In the UK, he began building surfboards and was eventually invited to do promotions for a travel company. “Big tour buses full of spectators arrived to watch Bronkhorst and his friends from the long breakwater,” reports the Weekend Post. They were soon dubbed the “Hawaiian surferboard riders from South Africa”.
Shorty was a big advocate of keeping surfing a ‘noble’ sport. “We should try to keep it that way. Tell the youngsters to be polite in the water. Show some respect towards others and you will be appreciated much more than if you just drop in on everybody else,” he said.
“It’s unnecessary to sneak around the waiting surfers and catch a sly wave. Rather just get in line and wait your turn. The guys will think more of you if you do so.”
He is survived by his son Glen and daughters Kim and Lisa.
This coming Saturday, November 28, there will be a paddle-out at Surfer’s Point in Jeffreys Bay (Shorty’s home for the last 15 years) in honour of Shorty. All his friends are invited to participate. His ashes will be scattered in the sea off the beach where he did most of his surfing.
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!
Royden Bryson!
Following the conclusion of the mid-year international surfing contest season in South Africa, 26-year old Bryson – formerly of East London and now residing and surfing in Cape Town – clinched the title after being in dominant form in the four ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) events staged in South Africa this year.
By winning the 1-Star-rated Lizzard Nandos Pro in Durban, finishing as runner-up in the 5-Star O’Neill Cold Water Classic in Cape Town and placing equal 17th in both the 6-Star Prime-rated Quiksilver Pro Durban and the 6-Star Mr Price Pro Ballito, Bryson managed to accumulate 4263 points. That’s nearly 700 more than ASP Africa runner-up Travis Logie, from Durban. Bryson also set a prize-money record by pocketing R102 350, more than double that earned by any of the other 96 ASP Africa members.
After losing their places among the top 45 ranked surfers on the ASP world Tour at the end of last year, Bryson and Logie are hoping to requalify for the 2010 Dream Tour.
Since there was only one event – the Mr. Price Pro Ballito – no ASP Africa women’s champion will be crowned this year. The 2009 ASP Africa Pro Junior men’s and women’s U20 titles will be up at the Billabong Pro Junior events at Victoria Bay at the end of September.
Ten of South Africa’s hottest young female surfers are currently battling it out at the Roxy Invitational 2009 event in Ponto d’Oura in Mozambique.
The event, in which prize money of R15 000 is up for grabs, has been turned into a truly international contest with the inclusion of two surfers from the island nation of Reunion, Johanne Defay and Canelle Bullard. The week-long contest kicked off on Monday, the 4th of May 2009 and will continue until next Monday.
In attendance is the reigning champion, Port Shepstone’s Heather Clark. She is vying for the winner’s pot of R10 000 against the likes of 2009 Roxy Wahine Cup winner Tarryn Chudleigh from Cape Town, and East London girls Nikita Robb and Alice MacGregor.
Competitors also include SA junior surfing team members Kirsty Delport (Durban), Tanika Hoffman (Cape Town), Bianca Buitendag (George) and Durbanite Sarah Baum, who is fresh from her victory at the Oakley Pro Junior that took place in Port Alfred over the weekend.
Faye Zoetmulder (Port Elizabeth) and Tasha Mentasti (Durban) are also competing.
For more information, visit http://www.roxy.co.za/invitational
Only three local surfers have advanced to participate in the next round at the 2009 Quiksilver Pro at Durban’s New Pier.
Travis Logie, one of the favourites in the competition, advanced to the next round by winning his heat yesterday morning.
The only other South African surfer to win his heat was Cape Town’s Royden Bryson.
“There were actually some fun waves out there, and I really enjoyed surfing in my heat,” said Logie after leaving the water. “It was quite inconsistent out there and I was in two minds if I should sit and wait for the good ones or just get some scores under my belt. In the end, I decided to just take off on anything half decent and went for the big turn option, and it seemed to pay off.”
The last South African to qualify to the next round yesterday was Durban’s Chad du Toit. He placed second behind Logie to move in to the next round.
By far the biggest unpleasant surprise of the day was the elimination of reigning champion David Weare of Durban, who lost out to Tahiti’s Alain Riou and Hawaiians Jesse Merle-Jones and Mason Ho.
“I’m really bummed to be out of the event,” a clearly disappointed Weare said. “I really wanted to defend my title and I blew two waves that could have put me one step closer to it. I think I just too the wrong option going for that aerial on the second wave and it cost me. I blew a wave and lost a heat.”
Weare’s bitter disappointment is understandable. This event, which pits 136 of the world’s best surfers against each other, carries the highest possible ASP WQS rating as well as a very generous US$145 000 in prize money, with the winner pocketing US$20 000 as well as wracking up 3 500 ASP WQS ratings points.
Day 3 of the event is underway with the following South Africans surfing their heats today: Greg Emslie, Rudy Palmboom, Brandon Jackson, Manfred Adrio, Haydn Mac Nicol, David Richards, Paul Canning, Ricky Basnett, Daniel Redman, Kyle Lane, Keegan Nel, Shane Thorne, Antonio Bortoletto, Kyle Beach, Beyrick de Vries and Casey Grant.
Good luck, guys!
South African surfer Jordy Smith continued his run in the Rip Curls Bells Beach Pro presented by Snickers in Victoria, Australia, yesterday when he defeated Damien Hobgood of the USA in waves described as “inconsistent but near perfect two metre[s]” to advance to the third round of this second stop on the 2009 ASP World Tour.
Despite seven lay days since his dominant performance in Round 1 and despite a minor back complaint, the 21-year old Durbanite managed to record scores of 7.50 and 5.50 to beat Hobgood.
“I think there were only three sets all heat and luckily I got two of them,” Smith said after only riding a total of three waves in the 30 minute heat. “I feel lucky to get through to the next round. When I woke up this morning it looked really good and I’m sure throughout the day the waves are just going to get better.”
In the third round, Smith will be pitted against giant-killer and wildcard, 19-year old Australian Owen Wright. Wright caused a huge upset when he beat nine-time ASP World Champion and defending Rip Curl Pro Champion, Kelly Slater. Wright handed the American surfing legend his second successive 17th place finish and increased the pressure on Slater’s bid for an unprecedented 10th world title.
Smith’s fellow Durbanite, David Weare – who is the only other South African still in the event after Greg Emslie from East London was eliminated in Round 1 – has yet to complete his Round 2 heat against Hawaiian Frederick Patacchia.
The Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach presented by Ford New Fiesta was completed on Sunday with Silvana Lima from Brazil claiming her maiden ASP Women’s World Tour crown by beating reigning two-times ASP Women’s World Champion, Australian Stephanie Gilmore, in the final.
South Africa’s Rosanne Hodge placed ninth in the event after she was ousted by Sofia Mulanovich from Peru in Round 3.
Well done, guys and gal!
Jordy Smith has beaten Damien Hobgood to win the first ever O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series event at Bluff Reef in Marrawah, Tasmania, Australia.
Battling 8-foot swells and offshore winds, the two surfers skillfully displayed why they are at the top of the World Tour surfing ranks.
“It was good to get a win,” said Jordy. “It’s been a while. Damo’s been ripping this whole event. I looked up to him as a kid, so it’s great to be out there with one of your heroes.”
Despite Damien’s impressive second place performance, he admitted that he struggled. “I had needed to step it up. I just didn’t do it. It was hard for me. Sometimes I was really hanging on with my toes so hard. It’s a bit more bumpy out there than it looks for sure.”
On his way to the top, Jordy knocked out phenomenal talent like Australian Owen Wilson and Brazilian Jadson Andre.
Well done, Jordy! Our South African hearts are swelling with pride!
South African surfing champion Travis Logie, widely regarded by his peers to one of the best small wave surfers, secured a victory in the Mark Richards Pro Surfing competition in Australia this past Sunday (22 March 2009) in what has been described as the ‘tightest of men’s finals in many years’.
“This is huge confidence boost. I’ve been training so hard so it’s good to see it pay off,” Logie said. “This is very prestigious event and I always come here. I am stoked to win at Newcastle. Mark Richards is a true icon of the sport of surfing and to win a trophy named in his honour is unbelievable,” he added.
The prizes – a modest couple of hundred Rands for the top three in each division and t-shirts for the rest – are clearly not the incentive that drives athletes to compete in South Africa’s Discovery Surfing Challenge.
No, they do it solely for the glory and the bragging rights. After all, the entire thing came about on a dare made inside a favourite East London watering hole.
It was 1975, and having not fared as well as some of their runner friends in a road relay from King Williams Town to East London, the five man surfing team was in for some teasing from the athletes. In an attempt at retribution, the surfers issued a challenge to the road runners: a competition on their own turf – the beach – and set about planning a route taking in the sand, rocks, loose boulders and rivers between two points from Yellow Sands at the Kwelera River mouth to Nahoon Beach in East London.
That first race stretched for about a kilometre further than the current one, and began with just 36 enthusiastic runners. To add insult to the surfers’ injury, that maiden race was won by one of the road runners!
The mad race became an annual tradition, and so, for the past 35 years, surfers, athletes, walkers and paddlers have paced the Eastern Cape shoreline for this Discovery Surfers Challenge. These days, it has become one of the most sought after marathon obstacle courses in the country.
The race has stayed in the hands of the surfing fraternity ever since and currently boasts an entry base of over 2 500 participants. (This year the tally of entrants stood at a hefty 2 654!)
All that trouble for a couple of hundred bucks… Who knew that pride could be so cheap?
For the first time, South African DStv viewers can see the race on television at the following dates and times:
Thursday 12th March 18h00 CSN, SS1 and SS1A
Friday 13th March 10h00 SS2 and SS2A
Saturday 14th March 13h00 SS2 and SS2A
Sunday 15th March 18h00 SS2 and SS2A
Rosanne Hodge, South Africa’s only representative on the 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour, has gone through to Round 3 of the opening event of the year, the Roxy Pro Gold Coast presented by LG Mobile, which is taking place in Australia right now.
Rosanne finished behind Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore, the reigning and two-time ASP Women’s World Champion.
Organisers relocated the opening day of the event from the primary venue of Snapper Rocks to nearby Duranbah Beach. There, in small 0.7 metre waves, Rosanne recorded rides of 6.0 and 6.03 out of 10 to secure automatic qualification to Round 3.
Well done, Rosanne!
Despite a ligament injury to his left knee that prevented him from competing in the season-ending Billabong Pipeline Masters in Hawaii, South Africa’s Jordy Smith still managed to qualify for a second year on the elite ASP World Tour!
While current ASP No. 4 Joel Parkinson recorded only the second perfect 20 out of 20 heat score in ASP World Tour history on Day 2 of the event, the last of the 12 competitors who could have overtaken Smith was eliminated, leaving the 20 year-old rookie Durbanite amongst the top 27 on the rankings who automatically re-qualify for the following year.
His chances of a second year on the dream tour looked bleak when his doctor advised him to withdraw from the Pipeline event.
Global Surf News reports that, although Jordy’s final ranking position will not be known until the event is completed, he is now guaranteed to finish in the top 27, particularly if Hawaiian Bruce Irons, who has qualified ahead of Jordy for 2009, follows through with his decision to retire from the ASP World Tour after the Pipeline event.
Jordy will be joined on the 2009 ASP World Tour by David Weare (Durban) and Greg Emslie (East London) who finished Nos. 7 and 10 respectively in the 2008 ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) rankings. Travis Logie (Durban), Royden Bryson (East London) and Ricky Basnett (Bluff) finished the year outside the top 27 on the World Tour and failed to re-qualify.
In the mean time, another South African, Rosanne Hodge, demonstrated her affinity with the classic waves of Honolua Bay on the Hawaiian island of Maui when she reached the quarterfinals of the Billabong Pro Maui event on Wednesday, the first time this year that the East Londoner has advanced past Round 3 in an ASP Women’s World Tour event.
The 21-year old recorded her career best result in the 2007 event at Honolua Bay, advancing to the semifinals before being ousted in equal third place by eventual event winner Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
Although she has already qualified for her third year on the ASP Women’s World Tour via her No. 3 ranking on the 2008 ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS), Rosanne will be determined to better her previous best and improve her current World Tour ranking of No. 15.
This year is not ending on a good note for Jordy Smith.
The young, talented South African surfer badly injured his left knee during last week’s O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. We’re all waiting with baited breath to see if his #25 ranking will hold up following the year-end Pipeline Masters to secure him a 2009 spot on the Dream Tour.
Just last week, Jordy was still on a roll, delivering a playful yet skillful performance at Sunset Beach. But then the unthinkable happened. ”I was bottom turning on my first wave and my foot slipped to the nose and I did the splits and I just felt my knee go. I tried to feel it out on the next wave and straight away I could tell that my knee was done.”
“I still want to surf the Pipeline Masters, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen,” he said.
Although his injury will eventually heal, the timing of it is really unfortunate – especially since he was on such a roll when it fell him.
We wish you a speedy recovery, Jordy!
Also read: Jordy Smith – injured and out of Pipeline.
