They have assembled. The country’s best junior surfers are ready to contest the first stop of this year’s Billabong Junior Series presented by Bos, which is taking place in Mossel Bay this weekend.
Adin Masencamp has been putting in the hours in preparation for this year’s Bong Junior Series.
The Series has been running for the past 17 years, so it boasts a fine tradition of developing talent. Previous champs include Jordy Smith and Bianca Buitendag, and they’re both now competing front and center on world surfing’s biggest stage.
The event runs from Friday 25 April until Sunday 27 April, so if you’re in the Southern Cape area and want to see the depth of SA surfing’s talent pool (plus a Mexican visitor rated amongst the Top 5 Juniors in the world) then swing through Mossel Bay and grab a seat on the point.
Check out the official press release below.
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BILLABONG JNR SERIES PRESENTED BY BOS TO LAUNCH AT MOSSEL BAY THIS WEEKEND
Mossel Bay – This weekend will see the first in the three-part 2014 Billabong Junior Surfing Series take place in Mossel Bay. The event dates are 25-27 April, and the best junior surfers in the country will converge around the Point area of Mossel Bay, in preparation for a Friday morning start. The opening function will be at Delfinos on Thursday evening at 7 pm.
The 9 divisions catered for in the event are: U12 Boys, U14 Boys and Girls,U16 Boys and Girls, U18 Boys and Girls as well as the U20 Pro Junior Boys and Girls divisions. The U20 Pro Junior divisions are 1 Star ASP Africa Pro Junior rated. The Pro Junior Women will have R10 000 in prize money and the Men will have R20 000.
At this stage we have a full 24-man field for the U20 Boys Division – Joshe Faulkner from Pellsrus in JBay has been allocated a wild card spot seeded directly into the Round of 16 – this based off his amazing achievement at the ISA World Games. Joshe placed 6th at the World Games in Ecuador and was the highest placed South African at the event. The first two events of the Billabong Junior Series will also be used exclusively as selection for the ASP World Juniors Champs, with 3 regional male surfers and 1 regional women surfer to be selected for the WJC at the end of October in Portugal.
Apart from the contest format, there are a number of exciting side awards to keep everyone interested. For starters, there is the BOS Surfer Of The Contest Award, as well as the BOS Surfer Of The Series award.
Playstation will be providing prizes to finalists in each division, with PS3 and PSVita consoles up for grabs. Samsung will also be providing mobile devices as prizes to finalists in each division.
Nixon have solidified their commitment to the series with a number of specialty prizes including a Nixon Blaster –a weatherproof portable Blue Tooth speaker – to the winner of every division at every event. There is also a Gold 48-20 Nixon Watch valued at R5k for the U20 Boys series winner, and a Gold Camden Nixon Watch valued at R4k for the U20 Girls winner. There is also the Nixon WTA (Winner Takes All) Award of a Nixon Supertide watch for the highest score of each event.
The DaKine Wave Of The Day award is for the best wave of each day of competition, and the KR Fins Free Award is for the most radical fins free move of each event.
Fun side events will be the VonZipper BrainBlast-Off, a VZ Airshow at each event, and the Coaches VS Judges Tag team Tussle.
International surfing star Sebastian Williams from Mexico will be surfing in both the U16 and the U20 divisions in the event. Seb is rated 5th in the Surfer Mag Top 100 Groms list, and will no doubt fire up the local surfers when he takes to the Mossel Bay waves with his international act.
Billabong South Africa will also be launching their Surfers Helping Surfers initiative, a program where surfers can donate their old wetsuits to reconised surf charities for needy surfers, and in return receive a discount voucher off a new Billabong wetsuit. Surfers are encouraged to bring their old wetsuits down to the Mossel Bay event to kick-start the campaign. Watch the press for more details of this project.
Check out the teaser clip for the 2014 Billabong Junior Series presented by BOS below:
Follow the event on our Facebook pages www.facebook.com/Billabong.South.Africa and www.facebook.com/BillabongWomensSA
