Tricky conditions in Umhlanga this weekend did nothing to dampen the spirits of the almost 150 competitors that took part in the Lizzard Hurricane Surf Session on 14 and 15 December. The event, put on by local Wave Wizards Surf Club in association with Surfing South Africa, is focussed on having fun despite the cash prizes on offer.
The victorious Wave Wizards team with club founder, Paul Van De Waal and Derek Watts.
And fun is exactly what the competitors and spectators had as five rival surf clubs did battle in a Tag Team event, which was one of the highlights of the event. In the end Wave Wizards clinched victory over long-time rivals North Swell Surf Club, while Sarah Baum and Casey Grant took top honours in the Open division. The event featured age divisions ranging from Novice (with some competitors as young as five) all the way through to Masters (45+ Years).
Casey Grant carved to victory in the Men’s Open division.
Check out the press release below for all the results and some photos from a rad event.
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2014 LIZZARD HURRICANE SURF SESSION A RESOUNDING SUCCESS.
Wave Wizards Surf Club in association with Surfing South Africa hosted the Lizzard Hurricane Surf Session, a two day competition on 13/14 December. This event traditionally kicks off the annual Umhlanga Summer Festival, and once again it did so in fun summer style. There were a record number of entries with close on 150 surfers taking part in age divisions ranging from Masters to Novices as young as 5 years old.
Although very contestable the conditions proved to be tricky, with strong NE gusting winds making it difficult for many surfers to choose where to surf as peaks were popping up all over the lineup.
Jago England, Sam Christianson, Craig Daniel and Grant Gilmore line up for the final.
Craig Daniel dominated in the Men’s Longboarding final, posting two scores in the excellent range. Second was Grant Gilmore, then came Sam Christianson and Jago England. In the Women’s Open division it was Sarah Baum who got the highest scores with a pair of 7’s, beating Nicole Pallet into second, Chanelle Botha and Teal Hogg into third and fourth respectively. The Open Men saw a clean win by Casey Grant from Scottburgh when he turned on the heat with two top scoring rides to beat WQS campaigner Davey Van Zyl into second, Chad du Toit into third and Richard Kidd into fourth.
Sarah Baum ripped to take the Women’s Open division title.
The Tag Team event was the highlight of the competition and had five rival surfing teams from along the KZN coastline going head to head. Beyrick de Vries was the star performer for the Wave Wizards Surf Club posting a 9.0 and an 8.5 point ride to give his team an early lead. There was a lot of tension towards the end of the hour long heat when Durban’s North Swell Surf Club came back strong to give Wave Wizards some serious pressure. Devin Lane was the hero at the end of the heat when he just got the score to take the team to a narrow victory of less than one point. Derek Watts from Carte Blanche was seen at the competition sporting a Wave Wizards T-Shirt and cheering on the local club. The winning team pocketed R10 000 cash from Just Juice.
Richard Kidd was Blowing Up and took the cash prize from Zigzag’s Andy Davis.
Richard Kidd from Salt Rock made the finals in both the Open Men and the U18 Boys Division, earning himself R1,000 cash for winning the BLOWING UP AWARD from Zigzag.
Wave Wizards Club Chairman, Jestyn Viljoen was stoked on the weekend’s proceedings. “We are thrilled with how the event has gone,” said Jestyn. “Umhlanga Beach is a great place for a competition and all the surfers and families had a really good weekend despite the beasterly easterly winds”.
LIZZARD HURRICANE RESULTS 2014
NOVICE GIRLS:
1st – Maya de Goede
2nd – Ella Potterton
3rd – Dominque Carbonel
4th – Lily de Goede
5th – Sam Southwood
NOVICE BOYS
1st – Nicolas Dixon
2nd – Julien Carbonel
3rd – Sergio Nogueira
4th – Indi van de Wall
5th – Andre Venter
U12 GIRLS
1st – Kayla Nogueria
2nd – Gabi Lailvaux
3rd – Chanel Olivier
U12 BOYS
1st – Tide Lee Ireland
2nd – Nathan Spalding
3rd – Dominic Southwood
U14 GIRLS
1st – Sophie Bell
2nd – Christy Gilmour
3rd – Gaby Lailvaux
4th – Olivia Izzard
U14 BOYS
1st – Calvin Goor
2nd – Karl Steen
3rd – Brody Rudling
4th – Tide Lee Ireland
5th – Nathan Wallace
U18 GIRLS (cash prizes sponsored by Just Juice)
1st – Chanelle Botha (R1,000)
2nd – Teal Hogg (R750)
3rd – Sophie Bell (R500)
4th – Olivia Brand (R250)
U18 BOYS (cash prizes sponsored by Just Juice)
1st – Bevan Willis (R1,000)
2nd – Koby Oberholzer (R750)
3rd – JJ Harris (R500)
4th – Richard Kidd (R250)
LONGBOARD LADIES
1st – Heather Klug
2nd – Teal Hogg
LONGBOARD MEN
1st – Craig Daniel
2nd – Grant Gilmour
3rd – Sam Christianson
4th – Jago England
MASTERS 45+
1st – Chris Knutsen
2nd – Dave Ranaud
3rd – Chris Baum
4th – Paul Izzard
MASTERS 35+
1st – Hilton Lawrence
2nd – Ryan Bisset
3rd – Noel Rahme
4th – Quintin Jones
LADIES OPEN (cash prizes sponsored by Hurricane)
1st – Sarah Baum (R2,500)
2nd – Nicole Pallet (R1,500)
3rd – Chanelle Botha (R750)
4th – Teal Hogg (R250)
OPEN MEN (cash prizes sponsored by Lizzard)
1st – Casey Grant – (R5,000)
2nd – Davey Van Zyl – (R2,500)
3rd – Chad du Toit (R1,500)
4th – Richard Kidd (R1,000)
Blowing up Award (Zigzag): Richard Kidd (R1000)
Bells R2000 for highest wave score: Chanelle Botha
TAG TEAM EVENT – R10 000 from Just Juice:
1st – Wave Wizards (Umhlanga)
Beyrick de Vries, Dan Redman, Chris Leppan, Devin Lane, Teal Hogg
2nd – North Swell (Dairy Beach, Durban)
Davey Van Zyl, Brandon Jackson, Chad du Toit, Chris Frolich, Nicole Pallet
3rd – Skulls (Scottburgh)
Casey Grant, Gavin Roberts, JJ Harris, Matt Pallet, Sarah Baum
4th Warner Boyz (Warner Beach)
Mikey Venter, Frankie Oberholzer, Koby Oberholzer, Gary Van Weirengen, Chanelle Botha
5th – North Coast Boardriders (Salt Rock)
Jaco Kapp, Richard Kidd, Sam Christianson, Braiden Coates, Sophie Bell
