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.
Last weekend saw our local junior 2010 team fare extremely well in the team contest in the Reunion Island Challenge that took place at Kalk Bay Reef in Cape Town on Sunday.
Western Province, the hosts, took second place and the visitors from Reunion Island came third. The Emergin South African team came fourth and Boland came in at fifth place.
The U18 Boys Final title was snatched up by South African junior team member David Brand, who managed to beat current SA champion Matt Bromley of Western Province, pushing him down to second place. Hugo Dubosc of Reunion Island came third and Mikey February, another member of the South African team, came fourth.
This victory has managed to distinguish Brand as the top seed in the U18 SA Team when they compete in the ISA World Junior championships in New Zealand in January 2010.
The U18 Girls’ Final title went to Sarah Baum of the SA Team. She beat Camilla Davila of Reunion Island, who came second. Heidi Palmboom of the SA Junior Team came third and current U18 Girls’ champion Alice McGregor of the Emerging SA Team ended up in fourth place.
The U16 Boys’ finals saw the title going to Daniel Wilson of the Western Province. South African team members Steven Sawyer and Jarred Veldhuis came second and third. Fourth place went to another WP surfer, Benji Brand.
The U14 Boys’ Final victory also went to a WP surfer: Max Armstrong. He beat SA Emerging team member Benjamin de Castro. Lucas Jannier of Reunion Island came third and Brandon Benjamin of the Emerging SA Team came fourth.
The Reunion team members have been spending this past week training in Durban, where they will take on the SA team again, as well as a team from Central KwaZulu-Natal and Southern KwaZulu-Natal in Durban tomorrow and Saturday. The Reunion Islanders return home on Sunday, but they’ve already promised to host a reciprocal event on their home turf next year.
Well done Junior SA Team! Hopefully this weekend’s challenge against Reunion Island and the KwaZulu-Natal teams will see a stellar repeat performance!
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.
South African writer and photographer Miles Masterson’s debut book about surfing has been out for a few months and it certainly seems to have made a bit of a splash among critics.
With beach and Christmas season right around the corner here in South Africa, Masterson’s book, “How To Surf in South Africa” (released by Penguin), is being hailed as a perfect gift for anyone from a novice surfer, to those who have never surfed, to those already getting a handle on the sport. Masterson, who himself has 25 years of surfing experience all over the world, writes step-by-step, easy to read instructions, accompanied by clear illustrations, on how to get going with the basics of the sport – all while keeping the South African wave conditions in mind.
The book is available for approximately R140 from both online book retailers and physical bookshops throughout the country. Visit the book’s page at Penguin here.
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!
The Quiksilver King of the Groms wrapped up yesterday in Southbroom, KwaZulu-Natal, and saw Davey Brand from Kommetjie and Beyrick de Vries from Umhlanga Rocks walking away with the Under 16 and Under 20 wins respectively. They were also awarded the overall series titles at the final leg of the 2009 Quiksilver King of the Groms.
For winning, 15-year old Davey earned R3,500, plus another R3,500 for the series win and a trip to France to take place in the Quiksilver King of the Groms world final event.
Beyrick scored the R5,000 winner’s cheque, an additional R5,000 for the series win, and a return air ticket to Hawaii, the Mecca of all surfing, for the 2009 winter season.
The final results of the event were:
Under 16:
1. Davey Brand (Kommetjie)
2. Michael February (Kommetjie)
3. Slade Prestwich (Scottburgh)
Under 20:
1. Beyrick de Vries (Umhlanga Rocks)
2. Chris Leppan (Umhlanga Rocks)
3. Brendon Gibbens (Kommetjie)
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.
Wavescape, an online portal jampacked with Souh African surfing information, has partnered with BulkSMS.com to relaunch its surf forecasting text messaging service.
The service, which now includes data from the Wavescape Open Watch (WOW), delivers regional open ocean and specific beach reports that includes swell, wind and tide information, to cellphones via SMS.
The WOW system collects Wave Watch 3 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and publishes it in different formats on the Wavescape website. This same data is then condensed into SMSes of 160 characters long.
According to an article on Bizzcommumity, the Wavescape cellphone service includes ten regions and more than forty beach locations around South Africa. It is perfect for members of the broader wave-riding community (including surfers, bodyboarders, kite-surfers, windsurfers, etc.) as well as anglers, beachgoers, divers and the boating community who need to know what the surf conditions will be like at their local beaches. The fact that it is delivered to cellphones makes it possible for people to know the forecast even when they are not near a computer or television. Travellers can also use it to check out the conditions at the beaches they are travelling to.
For more information (including cost), visit this page of the Wavescape website.
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.
… to the next round of the Jeffrey’s Bay Billabong Pro is?
Sean Holmes!
After being off to a reportedly ‘nervous start’, the local favourite became the first local surfer to qualify for the next round of the Billabong Pro when he beat Hawaiian Dustin Barca.
Sean told KFM that surfing in front of the enthusiastic home crowd made him so nervous in the beginning that his legs felt like jelly.
But obviously that feeling passed, and we couldn’t be happier about it!
Renowned for its iconic waves, Jeffreys Bay is undisputedly considered to be the Mecca of South African surfing.
So it’s a bit ironic that small surf was the cause for a lay day being called at the Billabong Pro surfing championship. The event, the fifth of ten on the 2009 ASP World Tour, has been delayed until tomorrow morning – when conditions will be reassessed – due to this morning’s small two-to-three (one metre) waves.
According to Mike Parsons, Billabong Pro Contest Director, the swell models they’ve been tracking have moved a bit south, with improving swell models giving them an optimistic outlook that they’ll have bigger waves as early as tomorrow.
Yesterday, at the completion of the VonZipper Trials, local Devyn Matthews won his heat, earning himself a wildcard berth into the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay. Other South Africans who also received wildcards are Shaun Holmes and Ryan Payne.
Once the conditions improve, the first round match-ups look as follows:
Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF), Tim Boal (FRA), Michael Picon (FRA)
Heat 2: Tom Whitaker (AUS), Jay Thompson (AUS), Nathaniel Curran (USA)
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA), Josh Kerr (AUS), Nic Muscroft (AUS)
And the woman wave rider who wins the Mr Price Ballito Pro Women’s surfing championships for 2009 is… Well, no one.
Due to a gale-strength wild wind kicking up enormous waves and leading to several postponements, the event had to be called off before the women could complete all the heats. The result? For the first time in the event’s history, no female champion was crowned.
In the end, all the 24 competitors who had remained in the event were awarded a 19th place finish and were given an equal share of the prize money (which amounted to R7 900 each) as well as an equal amount of ratings points: 1 200.
East Londoner Roseanne Hodge, who was the top South African surfer in the event, told IOL News that she was disappointed by the event’s premature ending.
“The way things have gone has been a bit of a shake-up for everyone, I don’t think anyone’s really been in this situation before, where you make it through your heats and then it’s actually the end of your run.”
Talk about being literally blown out of the water!
Hopefully the guys – who are at it right now – will have better luck!
The O’Neill Cold Water Classic which wrapped up near Cape Town yesterday was even colder and wilder thanks to a massive, raging storm.
But amid the massive solid six foot swells and big waves pounding the shore, the skilled surfers bravely continued to battle it out. In the end, it was 24-year old Aussie Blake Thornton who earned the South African CWC trophy – a replica of a shark’s jaw – which he proudly held aloft.
With his victory, Blake beat local fave Royden Bryson. Blake told Global Surf News how Royden had fallen on his final wave. “I think maybe the cold was getting to us. I am sorry for him, but so glad I won.”
About surfing in the wild, shark-infested waters of South Africa, Royden said: “Thankfully this is a fake jaw. Hopefully I won’t see any real ones. There was actually a seal swimming around out there with us in the final. Everyone knows that sharks love seals, but actually in a heat you’re only worried about what’s going on in the heat.”
His focus paid off. His victory earned him 1500 points and $12 000.
Not even the onset of one of the Cape’s most hectic winter storms – which stirred up enormous swells that nearly caused a ship to run aground near Blouberg – could intimidate South African surfer Jordy Smith.
The dude pulled out a stellar performance on the third day of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic, reaching a score of 8.5. Not that we expect anything less from the event ambassador!
So while the weather is cooperating to make this Cold Water Classic truly as cold as can be, Jordy confirmed as much to Surfer Today. (By the way, ST reckons Jordy is the surfer to watch in this event.) “It is pretty wild and cold. It’s like gale force winds out there. I got on a few waves and couldn’t even move for the wind – but there are some fun rides out there.”
If the forecasters are to be believed, the competing surfers should brace themselves for waves in excess of about 40 feet high!
The Cape of storms has been living up to its reputation, making for interesting and challenging conditions during the O’Neill Cold Water Classic (CWC).
The CWC, which is taking place in Cape Town right now, has already delivered a shock with the departure of South African champion Sean Holmes who was ousted from the event by another local, Josh Salie. He seemed just as surprised by his performance as everyone else and said his family and friends cheering him on from the beach actually made him more nervous!
But the highest wave scorer thus far (9.6) has been 16-year old Hawaiian John John Florence. He managed to knock former World Tour surfer Nathan Hedge out of this third leg of the CWC series.
Apart from frequent storms stirring up the waves – according to forecasters, it’s not going to ease up soon – the organisers of this South African leg of the series have taken steps to ensure that the event will have minimal impact on the environmentally sensitive coastline of the planned venues while simultaneously benefitting the local economy.
According to O’Neill South Africa’s marketing manager, Paul Canning, they have pulled out all the stops to make the event as environmentally friendly as possible.
“We will be implementing a comprehensive environmental management plan to reduce the impact on the various South peninsula beaches where the event will be run.
“At the same time we have also hired all labour, equipment, services and accommodation locally to make sure the economy of the area benefits from the running of a contest that we hope will go on to become one of the icon events on the annual international surfing calendar and a cornerstone of the Series.”
The event will run until Wednesday, the 24th of June.
The South African team who will be competing in the 2009 International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games has been announced by the Surfing South Africa (SSA) Board of Directors.
The Games will take place in Playa Hermosa near San Jose in Costa Rica in August.
The 2009 South African Surfing Team consists of four men, two women, two male longboarders, three coaches and a manager. The surfers in the men’s team are Brandon Jackson and Damien Fahrenfort, who are both from Durban, Rudy Palmboom from Bluff, and 2008’s SA team captain, Ryan Payne from Cape St Francis. Llewellyn Whittaker from Mossel Bay is the non-travelling reserve.
The Women’s team members are East London chick surfers Rosanne Hodge and Nikita Robb. Tarryn Chudleigh of Kommetjie will be the non-travelling reserve.
The longboarders are South Africa’s current Longboard champion Justin Bing from Noordhoek, and his runner-up Michael Hill from Cape St Francis.
Mike Sheppard will be the team’s manager. Graham Hynes will be head coach, Ant Brodwicz will be deputy coach and Kevin Olsen will be the assistant/technical coach.
Cyril Nel from East London has been appointed by the ISA as one of two head judges for the event. Another Saffa, Sandile Mqadi, will be part of the international judging panel.
