In one of the best 25 minutes of contest surfing seen at Muizenberg in many years, Steven Sawyer of Jeffrey’s Bay produced two 9 plus point rides in the Final of the WSL Speciality Men’s Longboard division at the 2018 Tigers Milk Winter Classic yesterday (Sunday June 10th) to take the title and the R6000 prize purse.
Two time Tigers Milk Champion Matthew Moir posted a 9.65 ride in the epic final, the highest score of the contest, but needed a strong backup ride to take his third title. When the siren sounded Moir had to settle for second ahead of Michael Hill, who also scored a plus 9 point ride in the final. Local longboarder, Nobel de Castro, a finalist last year, placed fourth.
Sawyer’s win and the R6000 prize money came at just the right time as he leaves for the USA today where he will be competing in a number of WSL Longboard events over the next few weeks. In the WSL Speciality Women’s final, talented Seal Point longboarder Crystal Hulett beat defending champion, Simone Robb, to take gold and the R6000 winner’s purse. Taryn King was third and 2018 National Longboard team member Christy Gilmour took fourth place. Christy’s father, Grant, took the Over 40 Longboard title ahead of Chris Heath who fought hard but had to settle for second place. Chris Poseman came third and Whaldo de Kock came fourth.
Young Manoa Robb showed that talent runs in the family with his victory in the Under 23 Longboard Final. Local Muizenberg longboarders took the other three spots in the final with Simamkele Moolman securing the runner-up spot ahead of third-placed Mbuso Zozi and Theo Van Schoor, who was fourth. Caroline Brown successfully defended her 2017 Under 23 Longboard title beating newcomer Enya Van Niekerk into second place. Sarah Ingram took the third spot ahead of Caroline Brouckaert.
Dylan Swindale
Ballito based Richard Kidd pushed talented Adin Masencamp into second place in an exciting Men’s surfing Final. Jordy Maree, a former winner of this division, took third and Joshe Faulkner was fourth. Local surfer, Craig Johnson, won a custom-made Stubby surfboard as the best community surfer in the shortboard division. Johnson, who recently won the Vic Bay Quad at Victoria Bay, was eliminated in the semi-finals of the Tigers Milk contest.
South Africa’s top-ranked women surfer, Nicole Pallet had a ding-dong battle with multiple South African team member Tanika Hoffman in their shortboard final but in the end honours and R4500 in prize-money went to Pallet. Kerri Bjergveldt took third place and 2017 finalist Tarryn Chudleigh did it again with a fourth place this year. The third and final day of competition in this fourth edition of the Tigers Milk winter Classic was held in bright sunshine and 3-4 foot onshore surf. Despite the tough surfing conditions, there were some outstanding performances across the divisions.
Whaldo De Kock
All Images Supplied by Ian Thurtell
