South Africa’s top longboard surfers are descending on Jongensfontein, near Stilbaai in the Southern Cape, to participate in the KG Longboard Classic this weekend, 19 and 20 June 2010. The event is part of international World Surfing Day celebrations.
The Classic is the first of five events that form the South African Longboard Surfing Association (SALSA) Longboard Tour, of which the last event will be at next year’s SA Championships in Durban. More than 80 surfers are expected to compete in the Open division’s Ladies, Juniors, Over 50’s and Divas (Ladies over 35) categories.
Competitors for this weekend’s event include big names such as Brad Weare from KwaZulu-Natal, Justin Bing from Western Province, Michael Grendon and Port Elizabeth competitor Dylan McLeod. Last year’s winner, Ludi du Toit from Jeffreys Bay, will be returning to defend his title.
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
The ten young female surfers who have been invited to take part in the 2010 Roxy Invitational to take place in Ponto d’Oura in Mozambique later this month, have been announced.
The event, presented by Saltwater GIRL Magazine, will feature a mix of novices, title holders and experienced professionals. An invitation to the event is not only an incredible honour, but since competitors vie for an impressive amount of prize money (the first-place winner gets a cool R10 000), invites are therefore quite sought-after. Another enticement is that the competitors will be staying at the Turtle Cove Resort in Tofo. So when they’re not battling it out in the surf, they will be able to unwind with yoga, skin diving and horse riding.
The invited surfers from South Africa are Kirsty Delport, Chantelle Rautenbach, Sarah Baum, Heidi Palmboom, Tarryn Chudleigh, Alice McGregor, Holly Armstrong and Faye Zoetmulder. They will be surfing against internationals such as Philippa Anderson and Paige Haggerston, both from Australia.
The event will be taking place from 23 May to 1 June 2010.
Billabong has recently announced that it is re-signing one of South Africa’s most talented young female surfers.
Tarryn Chudleigh, the 20-year old surfer from Kommetjie in the Western Cape, has been with the brand’s Girls’ Surf team since she was a tender twelve years old and she is thrilled to have their continued support. “I’m super excited to have re-signed with Billabong again this year. I feel confident going into the New Year backed by such a supportive and strong company.”
Apart from backing her surfing, the former women’s surfing champion has also collaborated with Billabong’s design department to design a co-op signature t-shirt. The shirt will form part of Billabong’s 2010 range and will be available in November. “I’ve had so much fun working on my signature tee,” Tarryn said. “It’s been a dream of mine to have something I designed from Billabong and I can’t wait to see it in store.”
Starting on the 4th of March, Tarryn will also grace our television screens in the reality series Billabong Girls Get Out There Tour. The show, which debuts on 4 March on the Vuzu channel on DStv, details Tarryn’s road trip with seven other Billabong ambassadors as they travelled from South Africa’s surfing Mecca Jeffreys Bay to Durban and on to Cape Town all along the South African coastline in a bright pink bus.
However, Tarryn won’t be hanging about on the couch to watch herself on TV. Come mid-March, she’ll be jetting off to West Australia to compete in the first World Qualifying Series contest. “My goals for 2010 are to make the Top 6 on the ‘Q.S and qualify for the 2011 world circuit.”
Go, girl! If anyone can meet those goals, you can!
A South African surfer managed a miraculous victory in a surf contest held in treacherous, wipe-out conditions in the U.S. over the weekend.
Chris Bertish, a 35-year old surfer from Cape Town, raked in $50 000 (about R3.85 million) when he came first in the invitational Mavericks Surf Contest at California’s Half Moon Bay on Sunday – the same event where massive rogue waves swept dozens of spectators from a sea-wall, causing serious injuries. According to the judges and the competitors, the 40- to 50-feet high waves were the biggest they have ever witnessed in a paddle-in surfing competition.
Chris, who is part of the O’Neill South Africa surfing team, became the rather unlikely champion – not merely because he emerged even after being hammered by several brutal wipe-outs, but also because he wore a borrowed wetsuit. In fact, he had even borrowed the money to pay the airfare to get to the States. Part of his winnings, he said, will be spent on paying back his brother and the friends he had loaned the money from. Fellow South African, Grant “Twiggy” Baker, was eliminated during the semi-finals.
American surfer Shane Desmond from Santa Cruz came second.
Entries for the prestigious, by-invitation-only 2010 Quiksilver Goodwave event to take place in Durban is now open at the event’s new and official website.
Thirty-two talented surfers will be selected according to their skill level and invited to participate in this seventh edition of the event, where they will vie for the R65 000 first prize. All in all there will be R100 000 of prize money up for grabs, and all the contestants will receive a monetary reward for their efforts.
Since this is an extremely physical event, held in typically challenging surfing conditions (GlobalSurfNews.com describes it as “grinding barrels that constitute a good day of surfing in Durban”), hopeful entrants will be subjected to a strict selection criteria which will include the surfer’s previous event performances and barrel riding experience.
Hopeful entrants have all January to submit their entries at the new website. On the entry page, surfers can state their claim as to why they should be selected to participate, upload an image of themselves. There is even a space for them to recommend three other surfers for the event.
The waiting period for the one-day event will run from beginning February 2010 to the end of December 2010.
South Africa’s top junior surfers are all heading to Australia to compete in the Billabong World Junior Championships in January.
Representing us will be Klee Strachan from Winkelspruit, ASP Africa Pro Junior champion Chad du Toit from Durban, Casey Grant from Scottburgh, Beyrick de Vries from Umhlanga and another Durbanite, Kyle Lane.
This will be Klee’s third appearance at the event. “Last year I made round three but got knocked out by Julian Wilson (Australia) who is an unbelievable surfer, so I was not too bummed,” Klee said. “It’s an awesome event and all the surfers in the contest surf really well. I am definitely looking to do well this year. I’ve had three years to see how the standard is so I’ve been training to do well.”
Among the women who will represent South Africa are Sarah Baum from Athlone Park and Bianca Buitendag from George. They will try to beat defending champion, Pauline Ado from France.
The event will kick off at Sydney’s Narrabeen beach on January 9, 2010.
Day one of the Coreban Summer Stand Up Surfing (SUP) Series kicked off at Canal Walk in Century City near Cape Town yesterday with over 80 entrants from around the world battling it out on the gruelling 4 kilometre course around the Century City village’s canals and waterways.
The four day event, which includes sprint racing, wave-riding, Le Mans Formula 1 racing and endurance racing, began with long distance stand up paddle board racing.
The men’s event was won by German Andreas von Blottnitz. Jonathan Rosslind and Greg Bertish managed to do South Africa proud by coming in second and third respectively.
Germany took the ladies’ event as well, with Gabi Ott coming in first. Karina Figl from Austria tied with Natasha Pietersmann for second place.
The SUP series will continue until Saturday. If you’re in the area for holiday gift shopping, take some time out to see some of the worthwhile, upstanding action. Today presents the Le Mans Formula 1 surf slalom while the wave riders will battle it out on Friday.
Sixteen-year old Bianca Buitendag from George managed to win both the U20 and premier Open divisions of the 2009 Roxy Wahine Cup at Suncoast Beach near Durban this past weekend, snatching up R12 500 in prize money and one of the most prestigious titles in South African surfing.
“It was a bit stressful surfing two divisions,” Bianca said after the final. “Saturday wasn’t too bad, because I only had a couple of heats to surf, but making both finals [on Sunday] meant I had to surf five heats. So I had to really conserve my energy, especially with the Open final being the last of the day, because that’s the one everyone wants to win. Fortunately I was staying at the Suncoast Hotel, so I was able to go back to my room between heats and rest to maintain my energy levels through the day.”
By winning the Open division, Bianca managed to defeat defending champion Tarryn Chudleigh from Kommetjie, who came second. Chantelle Rautenbach from Melkbosstrand came third and Tanika Hoffman – also from Kommetjie – came fourth.
In the U20 finals, Bianca beat New Pier’s Kirsty Delport, reigning South African U18 champion Alice McGregor from East London (who came third) and Tarryn, who ended up in fourth place.
The U16 final was won by South African Junior Team member and Warner Beach native Sarah Baum. Sabrina Scott came second, and Emma Smith and Cara MacDonald tied for third.
The U14 youngsters who battled it out were Channelle Botha, who beat Gina Smith, Jordan Vanhoutte and Tahra Uren.
The Novice Division, open to girls who had never surfed a contest before, was won by Jelaine Hermitte, who managed to secure herself a year-long Roxy sponsorship. Jamie-Lee Glazer was runner-up, Holly Konig came third and Michelle Verreynne came fourth. We’re sure that we’ll be seeing more of these names in future!
A global travel company is giving willing volunteers from the States, the UK and Australia the opportunity to learn to conquer our magnificent South African surf and then pass their new-found surfing skills on to deserving, underprivileged kids.
Volunteers can sign up for between two and eight weeks for i-to-i’s “Surfing experience with disadvantage children in South Africa” project. They’ll come out to the gorgeous Muizenberg beach near Cape Town where they will be taught the sport before teaching it in turn. No previous surfing experience is necessary, because the first week is orientation during which the volunteers will be taught to stay upright on a board while in the water. During the orientation, there will also be time to do some sight-seeing around Cape Town.
The second week – and all the time the volunteer has signed up for after that – will be spent teaching local disadvantaged kids how to surf. But not to worry, qualified instructors will be on hand the entire time.
During their stay, volunteers will be accommodated in the Fish Hoek youth hostel. The cost of the project is $1549 for the first two weeks, with additional weeks costing $420. This includes accommodation; airport pickup; the services of the in-country co-ordinator; orientation; training and 24-hour emergency support, as well as a contribution to the project.
All of South Africa’s hottest up and coming young surfing talent is gathered in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Scottburgh this weekend for the seventh annual South Coast Surf Carnival. The event has grown to become one of the province’s premier water sports events dedicated to longboarding, Kitesurfing, Stand-up-paddleboarding, and, for the first time this year, kayak fishing.
The event will see South Africa’s current junior longboarding champion Scott Lefevre from Umhlanga vying to snap up yet another title. He will have to contend with Kane Bennewith and Jago England, both from Durban.
Bryce Rawlings from Umhlanga will also be there to defend his junior kitesurfing title. The kitesurfing component of the carnival is the longest running kitesurfing event in South Africa and will take place at Scottburgh’s main beach in front of the Cutty Sark Hotel.
Apart from the contest part of the Carnival, there will also be surfing lessons provided by uShaka Surf and Adventures. The clinics are open to everyone who want to learn how to surf. There will also be Stand-up-paddleboarding in the lagoon. The clinics will be run by qualified instructors and is great for helping novice surfers who wish to find their feet on the water.
The event kicks off tomorrow, 7 November and runs through Sunday, the 8th.
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.
A few weeks ago we told you about the overwhelming interest surfers expressed in participating in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the “Most surfers riding the same wave” in Cape Town.
Well, we were elated to hear that they did it! Yesterday, more than 100 surfers hopped onto the same wave at the Earthwave beach festival that took place in Muizenberg this past weekend.
The initial estimate was that there were more than 120 surfers on the successful attempt, but from the photographs, the correct tally seems to be closer to 103 – which is still better than the 100 that were set by Earthwave in Brazil last year. So provisionally, South Africa has broken the record yet again!
According to the report on IOL, it was initially a bit of a struggle to get all the surfers on the one wave. “The first wave was chaos. Some yelled “go, go”, others said, “no, no – back wave”.”
Earthwave’s local organiser, Paul Botha, told IOL that the secret to reaching success is to not have the surfers clumped together. “They need to stay in a line, spread out along the beach, so that when they turn and paddle, they don’t paddle into each other.”
The Earthwave festival is an annual event to promote awareness of climate change and sustainable lifestyles.
Video footage and photographs will be sent to Guinness to have the record updated and ratified.
The founders of the Earthwave surfing and sustainable lifestyle festival have been inundated with enquiries from Capetonian surfers who wish to be part of a potentially record-breaking event.
The surfers want to help South Africa break the Guinness World Record for ‘most surfers riding the same wave’ at Muizenberg beach near Cape Town on 4 October. The attempt will form part of the two-day Earthwave global environmental festival held there on the weekend of 3 and 4 October.
South Africa wants to reclaim its 2006 Guinness World title when 73 surfers managed to ride the same wave at Muizenberg. Brazil snatched the title with 84 surfers breaking the record in 2007. In 2008, they broke their own record with 100 surfers.
South Africa’s hottest under 20 surfers are going to convene at Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape next week (23 – 26 September) to battle it out during the 13th annual Billabong Junior Series championships.
Apart from determining winners in the U20 category, there will also be U16, U14 and U12 categories. The event will also determine the ASP Africa Pro Junior champions for 2009 and who will be selected for the ASP Africa squad that will be taking part at the Billabong ASP World Championships in Sydney in January – which is THE top event in junior surfing.
Surfers who will be taking part include Casey Grant (20) of Scottburgh, Shaun Joubert of Mossel Bay, Matt Bromley of Kommetjie, Brendon Gibbens (also of Kommetjie), Klee Strachan of Winkelspruit, Chad du Toit of Durban, Dale Staples and Nick Godfrey of Cape St Francis, Kyle Lane of Umhlanga and another Scottburgh surfer, Haydn MacNicol.
The girls include Victoria Bay’s Bianca Buitendag, Tarryn Chudleigh of Kommetjie, Sarah Baum of Athlone Park, Heidi Palmboom of the Bluff, Chantelle Rautenbach of Melkbosstrand, Tanika Hoffman of Kommetjie, Alice McGregor of East London and Faye Zoetmulder of Port Elizabeth.
The U16 boys event will see the likes of Michael February of Kommetjie, Dane Staples of St Francis Bay, Steven Sawyer of Jeffrey’s Bay, David van Zyl of Glenashley and Capetonians Jarred Veldhuis and Daniel Wilson in action.
The U14 boys are Daniel Buitendag of Vic Bay, Benji Brand of Kommetjie, Slade Prestwich of Park Rynie, Diran Zakarian of Melkbosstrand, Max Armstrong of Scarborough and Dylan Lightfood of Jeffrey’s Bay.
The U12 boys will include Shane Sykes of Salt Rock, Donovan of Marina da Gama, Jody Maree of Kalk Bay, Ethan Fletcher and Jonah Paarman – both from Kommetjie – Matthew McGillivray of Port Elizabeth, and Steffen Burrows of the Strand.
The event will coincide with the Von Zipper Air Show, where selected surfers will show off and be rewarded for their skill at performing aerial manoeuvres.
The sixth edition of the Mr Price South Africa Open surfing championships took place at Nahoon Reef in East London this past weekend with more than 50 of South Africa’s professional surfers turning up to compete.
Surfers were protected by three battery operated shark shield devices which were attached to buoys at the backline of Nahoon Reef. Local Lifeguards replaced the Shark Shield batteries every four hours which means that the electronic force field produced by these devices were in place during every heat. The devices were not used because there was any threat of shark activity during the event, but merely as added protection. According to a report on Global Surf News, Surfing South Africa plans to use these devices during sanctioned events at appropriate surf spots around the country in the future.
With the added protection in place, the surfers were free to focus on delivering their best performances. Focus and a home surf advantage and therefore intimate knowledge of the Nahoon Reef certainly seemed to pay off for Wayne Monk. The 40-year old former two time South African champion rose to victory, blowing younger competitors such as fellow East Londoner Clinton Gravett, Klee Strachan of Winkelspruit and Gary Van Wieringen (Scottburgh) out of the water to clinch his first Pro Surf Tour title.
Klee Strachan grabbed his chance at victory during the under 20 junior division rounds. The former Capetonian surged to victory ahead of Nick Godfrey from Cape St Francis, Jaco Steyn of Melkbosstrand and Chris Leppan of Umhlanga.
The women’s division title went to talented teen Bianca Buitendag of George. She beat current SA Champion Heather Clark of Port Shepstone, Chantelle Rautenbach of Melkbos and Tarryn Chudleigh, who came fourth.
Adin Jeenes is used to cooking and boiling up a storm – what with being a professional chef in Wilderness and all.
The dude has proven that he is just as at home in the surf as he is in the kitchen. The 28-year old has been named South Africa’s top “underground” surfer after beating about 300 other hopefuls to win the Zigzag/Hurley Sponsor Me Shootout. The aim of the contest is to uncover South Africa’s top unsponsored surfer – someone unknown to the surfing media who isn’t a professional surfer. It began in April and competitors were able to develop a personal surfing portfolio online by submitting blogging and loading their surfing videos and pics. The public was able to vote in order to help select the winners.
Along with the bragging rights, and the title of SA’s top “Underground” surfer, Adin’s prize includes a full sponsorship deal with the Hurley surfing brand, and a surf trip to Indonesia with Zigzag surfing magazine, where he will then be featured in the magazine.
A stoked Adin told the Weekend Post: “I really, really didn’t think I was going to win this. The final trip was insane. We couldn’t have asked for better waves to surf in.” He added that the competition was stiff and any one of the finalists could have taken the title.
Well, they didn’t, so congrats Adin! We’ll keep an eye out for Zigzag mag to see your spread in it!
It would be pretty safe to refer to Rosanne Hodge as South Africa’s top female surfer these days. And should anyone try to dispute it, you now have some concrete evidence to back it up.
At the recent Billabong ISA World Surfing Games in Costa Rica, the East London native became the star of the South African team when she won the silver medal in the women’s division – the only Saffa to win a medal in the event. Despite that, the team did well enough to earn South Africa an overall fifth place in the event – an improvement to last year’s seventh place finish in Portugal.
According to a report in the Daily Dispatch, Rosanne “started the final day confidently, posting rides of 6.20 and 7.0 out of 10 to win her heat in Round 5 of the Qualifying stream and advance directly into the women’s final along with second placed Sage Ericson (US).”
In the end, though, the gold went to American Courtney Conlogue.
But even though she didn’t score the top medal, to us, Rosy is definitely SA surfing’s golden girl. Congrats, Rosy! We’re very proud of you.
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.
Despite several delays in the beginning, the 2009 Jeffrey’s Bay Billabong Pro champion was crowned today.
28-year old Australian Joel Parkinson surfed away with the honours in 1 – 1.5 metre surf, beating American Damien Hobgood.
After the beginning of the championship was delayed due to disappointing surf, conditions improved to such an extent that the event – the fifth of ten on the on the ASP World Tour – is already being called one of the finest in history.
Reports Girl Racer: “Parkinson wasted no time in the 40-minute Final, smashing an excellent 9.47 out of a possible 10 on his opening wave. The wave exhibited the Australian’s unparalleled mastery of the Jeffrey’s Bay lineup, a symphony of beautiful forehand arcs and committed barrel riding, taking off from “Boneyards” section at the top of the point and riding well over 200 metres to the eruption of crowds on the beach.”
This is the second Jeffrey’s Bay Billabong Pro victory for Joel. The first time he won the event was ten years ago in 1999.
The next stop on the 2009 ASP World Tour will be the Hurley Pro Trestles in Southern California from September 13 – 19, 2009.
For more information about today’s Billabong Pro final, visit the official website.
