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The South African Junior Surfing Team, which was selected in December last year, will fly out this Sunday 22 March to compete against the best junior surfers in the world at the 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior championships at Playa del Faye, Salinas, Ecuador on March 28 and end on April 5.
The Under 18 Boys team consists of four of South Africa's most experienced and dynamic junior surfers and Surfing South Africa is confident that they will be a force to be reckoned with at the 2009 tournament. Top seed in the U18 team is St Francis Bay local Nick Godfrey, the current SA Champion and a surfer who has dominated the local junior contest scene for the past three years. Godfrey will be representing South Africa for a third time.
Shaun Joubert of Southern Cape, Matthew Bromley of Western Province and Dale Staples of Southern Cape are the other four surfers in the U18 team. This experienced group have extensive wave-knowledge, talent and experience. Joubert and Bromley in particular are no strangers to international competition, and will both be representing South Africa for the fourth time, while Staples earns his second cap.
In the Under 18 Girls division the diminutive Bianca Buitendag of Southern Cape is the top seed, while 15 year old surfing wunderkind Sarah Baum of Durban earns her second cap and is seeded second. Third seed is talented Tanika Hofmann of Western Province also earns her second cap for South Africa, while new cap Kirsty Delport (KZN), one of the most fearless female surfers in South Africa, will be hoping for some very big waves in Ecuador.
The four surfers who will represent South Africa in the Under 16 Boys division are Michael February and David Brand of Western Province, Dane Staples of Southern Cape and Slade Prestwich of KZN. February, Brand and Staples all earn their second caps having competed in the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships in France last May while Prestwich is a new cap.
The 2009 SA Junior Team will be accompanied by SSA Deputy President Pax Nydoo in his capacity as Team Manager, and the coaching staff will be made up of the legendary Graham Hynes (Head Coach), Etienne Venter (Deputy Coach) and Llewellyn Whittaker (Assistant Coach).
As a warm-up to the Quiksilver ISA Junior World Surfing Championships the South African team will take on New Zealand in their traditional friendly - the Lotto SA/NZ Challenge on March 26 - shortly after their arrival in Ecuador. This contest sees the teams competing for a unique trophy made from a semi-precious New Zealand stone and South African yellow wood. The trophy was first presented in Durban at the 2003 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships and is currently held by New Zealand.
The 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships will involve over 30 countries from five continents and the annual tournament determines the World Junior Team Champions, the World Junior ISA Tag Team Champions and medalists in the Under 18 Boys, Under 18 Girls, and Under 16 Boys Divisions.
The 2009 South African Team is supported by the National Lotteries Board (Lotto), Sport and Recreation SA and Quiksilver.
2009 South African Junior Surfing Team:
U18 Boys
1. Nick Godfrey (Eastern Province)
2. Shaun Joubert (Southern Cape)
3. Matt Bromley (Western Province)
4. Dale Staples (Southern Cape)
U18 Girls
1. Bianca Buitendag (Southern Cape)
2. Sarah Baum (KwaZulu-Natal)
3. Tanika Hoffman (Western Province)
4. Kirsty Delport (KwaZulu-Natal)
U16 Boys
1. Michael February (Western Province)
2. David Brand (Western Province)
3. Dane Staples (Southern Cape)
4. Slade Prestwich (KwaZulu-Natal)
Manager:Pax Nydoo
Coach: Graham Hynes
Deputy Coach: Etienne Venter
Assistant Coach: Llewellyn Whittaker
The wind came, the rain came, and the freezing weather pulled in for the triumvirate. There were still barrels coming through amongst the squalls, and the best WQS surfers in the world made the waves look pretty darn fun. All eyes were on Jordy Smith, who was in the first heat of the day in super tricky low tide suck-out conditions in the shallow water, with a strong side-wash sending the surfers across the beach at a rate of knots. The first wave of the day was a Jordy wave. He took off on a medium left, pumped the first section, banged a nice backhand air and landed straight into a nice little reverse in the whitewater while the judges and spectators were left mid-sip of their first cups of coffee, wondering what the wave was worth. It is always hard to score the first wave of the day. Score it too high and the rest of the good to excellent waves are going to be underscored, score it too low and the surfers are going to have to do a lot to get a good score from that moment onwards. Either way it came in as an 8, and the standard was set.
So there we were, sitting next to the road, completely frozen, thinking that Jordy had just wished that wave out of nothing as the rest of the waves in the heat were completely shit, to be honest. We were left thinking that it was going to be boring and slow and lame until the tide pulled in and covered the bank a bit when in the very next heat Sam Paige caught a thick, slabby number over the bank and proceeded to get completely barreled and sneak out the front for a whole bunch of whistles and cheers and a score of 7.77.
Some heats were good, some were a bit slow, and as the day progressed so the weather started showing off a bit. As we all know, the east coast is getting set to be absolutely ravaged by the biggest swell in many years, apparently. Spike has used words like ‘mayhem’, and ’scary’ and various other superlatives to describe the arriving surf, and pretty much the impending doom of anyone who dares to look at the swell in the next few days. Many others on the beach have played it down a bit, reassuring people that they wouldn’t die, that there wouldn’t be too much mayhem, and there is not that much to be scared about as long as they stayed in their lounges, in bed or in the pub. At the last count it was apparently going to arrive at 68-foot, and grow to a little bit over 140-foot and maybe bigger sets at The Factory, but the big wave surfers have called it, and I quote, ‘A solid little pulse.’
Anyway, enough of that. Jordy won through his round of 32, as did Royden and Antonio. Dan Redman snapped a leash and bounced over the rocks, and it was over and everyone went home to sit by their fires.
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