Jul 29, 2011 | General News
Chintsa shark attack survivor Denver Struwig has had several surgeries, and he’s going to need some help from the surfing community to cover his costs.
Eric Harris, a member of Friends of Chintsa, a non-profit organisation in Chintsa East, is heading up the fundraising campaign to assist Denver with his medical costs which have amounted to close to R35k (original costs were looking between R40k – R50K, but the hospital has graciously agreed to lower these costs). Friends of Chintsa is a non-profit organisation in Chintsa East. They host a number of community projects including a development surf programme. They hosted a weekend with development surfers from Port St Johns, Coffee Bay and Knysna 2 weeks ago. They are properly accounted and perfect to host this fund.
The organisation are hosting a fundraising buffet and raffle for Denver at the Country Bumpkin restaurant where all proceeds will be going to the Denver Struhwig Shark fund. Anyone interested in attending the fundraiser please contact: 043 738 5523 or email admin@friendsofchintsa.org. Donations towards this fund are also welcomed and can be deposited into the following account:
Friends of Chintsa
Nedbank, Vincent, Current Account
Acc No 1206076925
Branch 120621 (00)
Sort Code: 12-06-21
Swift (IBAN): NEDSZAJJ
Please reference donations as ‘Denver’
They will also have a donations portal up at www.givengain.com by tomorrow under Friends of Chintsa and then ‘Denver Struwig Shark Fund’.
Friends of Chintsa would also like it to be known that any money raised over the R35k target for Denver’s costs will then be pooled in a shark attack fund that will be available in the unfortunate case of another attack.
Src: Zigzag
Aug 14, 2009 | Surfing Events
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.
Jul 24, 2009 | Industry News, Surfing Events
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.
Mar 12, 2009 | Industry News
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
