KZN Tops At 2009 SA Surfing Championships
<!– @page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } –>Kwa-Zulu Natal came out tops at the recent annual South Coast Tourism South African Surfing Championships with two of their own surfers emerging as champions.
Having a home surf advantage certainly seemed to pay off, because the host province even surfed off with the President’s Cup.
Southern KZN team members Gavin Roberts and Heather Clark won the Men’s and Women’s titles respectively.
According to reports, this past Sunday’s weather in St Mikes was fine and conditions were near perfect with 3 – 6 foot surf.
Roberts beat 2007 SA Champion Devyn Mattheys of Border, pushing him into second place with Dan Redman of KZN coming in third. Eastern Province’s (EP) Ryan Payne came fourth and was crowned Surfer of the Contest for 2009.
Clark successfully defended the title she won at Victoria Bay last year. Nikita Robb of Border was second, Tammy Lee Smith of KZN came third and Faye Zoetmulder of EP was fourth.
The under 20 set also saw KZN surfers rising to the top. Shawn Dennis took the title with fellow KZN boy Kyle Lane in second. Bertie Stuurman of EP came third. Chris Leppan, also from KZN, came fourth.
Despite stitches to her face from an injury sustained when her board hit her in the face during the semi-final, Tarryn Chudleigh of Western Province (WP) still managed to take the Under 20 Girls title.
Sarah Baum of KZN was second, Alice McGregor of Border came third and Lauren Colberg of Boland was fourth.
KZN’s dominance in all four divisions secured them the Presidents Cup which they last won in 2005. Southern KZN came second, Border was third, Eastern Province – who was last year’s champion – came fourth, Western Province was fifth and Boland came sixth. The 2009 South African Surfing Championships were presented by Surfing South Africa, hosted by Southern KZN Surfing Association and sponsored by South Coast Tourism.