Mossel Bay Junior Camp

Hello Boys and Girls,

Last weekend on the 25th and 26th of April i had a mini grom surf camp the surf pumped. I had 5 parents enquire about training on this specific long weekend which made me think i should have a camp. It was small camp with only 5 people attending and a very young group with the youngest been 7 and the oldest 13.

The kids that attended the camp were as follows, Goofy foot ripper from Kalk Bay, Jordan Maree age 10, Strand wave slayer, Adin Mazemcamp age 9 and the eldest of them all Nahoon's style master, Licoln Logie age 13.

The other two that made up the five were the Elkington Brothers, Max age 7 and Jake age 9, both charging and showing ability way beyond their age in the great surf. As you might have noticed i mentioned that the waves were cooking.

Saturday inner pool was all time with a solid little ground swell and a pushing tide most the day, the boys really excelled in the rippable waves even on the high tide when things got a bit tricky and started breaking close to the rocks.

Sunday was disappointing at the Point, we woke up to small 2 foot waves with a devil wind, I made the call and went to one of our semi secret spots where we scored epic 3 foot grinding left handers. The kids absolutely loved the waves and the challenge, it was great to see them out there charging, enjoying themselves.

After scoring such great waves it was evident that this camp's focus was about learning to catch and ride good waves properly and at the same time working on their technique. All sessions were videoed and video analysis done in our Waves school of surfing class room.

Each and everyone of the kids i am sure learnt a valuable lesson whether it be about surfing or just about themselves. All in all a very successful camp.

Big shout out to the local boys for giving me space and freedom to use the Point as a training ground.

S.A long board champs

I though i would share the fantastic news if you have not hear already. The Southern Cape long boarding team did exceptionally well last week in Jeffery's Bay. The contest had great surf everyday against weather and swell forecast which made for great surfing and even better surfing.

Below are the SC Team members who got to finals:

Daniel Buitendag- 2nd boys division- Having surfed a long board for 1st time.

Bianca Buitendag- 1st girls division- on Daniels board also the first time
Tess Saunders-4th girls division.

Bianca Buitendag- 3rd Ladies division- also on board borrowed from Des Sawyer.
Roxy Towill-4th Ladies Division

Glen Thompson-3rd Grand Master

Steven Hair-2nd Veterans

Mike Hornsey- 3rd Super legends

Terry Deans-4th Super Legends

Matthew Moir open division- won surfer of the contest, despite not making finals.

A commendable 3rd place to Southern Cape, the team with the best attitude and team spirit. Congratulations

Please if anyone has any news to share regarding surfing in the greater Southern Cape area please contact me if you would like to share.

Boland Trials

Daar is geen Land soos die Bo-Land,

Boland were kind enough to open up their doors to the Southern Cape community and allowed us to surf their trials. Johan Kriek has been ripping and seems very determined, he has two trials and is confident he will be first seed for the Boland team. Last weekend saw the final of three trials held at Jongensfontein. The conditions were epic 3-4foot right handers peeling all day, neap tides and off shore wind made for rippable waves all day.

There was some really hot junior surfing with guys like Phillip Visagie, Andrew Smith and Tommie Kruger really impressing me in the small to medium perfect waves. U/16 surfer Rigartd Smit was also on fine form doing some big turns and impressing the judges. The final results are as follows.

U/20
1)Tommie Kruger
2)Andrew Smith
3)Philip Visage
4)JP Olivier
5)Rigardt Smit
5)Philip Venter
6)Klaus Schroder
7)Bjorn Larsen

The Open was hard fought with all the guys ripping, the final was an all Southern Cape affair making the most of their right hand point surfing and putting that experience into practice. The waves were super fun and there were only four people in the water at a time, it did not feel like you were in a heat trying to win a contest. The end result was as follows:

Open
1) Johan Kriek
2)Llewellyn Whittaker
3)Shaun Botha
4)Mark Zunkel
5)Andries Dunn
6)Jeffrey Greaves
7)Raymond Trevor

All in all it was a great day. The full team will be announced shortly, so be sure to watch this space.

S.A grommet Games

This event was held in P.E where three of my student shone. Little charger Max Elkington got 1st in the U/8 division and his older brother Jake finished 2nd in the U/10 division.

Big shout out must go to little ripper Adin Mazemcamp who won the U/10 division convincingly, he was also nominated surfer of the event after a sterling performance through the contest consistently scoring 8,9 and 10 point rides in his heats.

Well done Adin your a little ripper keep it up looking forward to seeing more performances such as these in the future.

Billabong Pro Junior

After arriving home after a gruelling 2 day trip from Ecuador the team left Cape Town international to fly to Durban the very next day. A very hectic schedule for such young, up and coming stars.

The disappointing news was that non of their boards arrived as they were left in Amsterdam, this would prove to be a problem for those competing in the event the following day, although this is not never heard of and comes with the territory of being a professional surfer.

The conditions were very testing but contestable averaging 3 foot clean waves in the morning deteriorating throughout the day due to the onshore making for very shifty waves.

Competing in excellent offshore waves that grew from one metre to a board-breaking two metres during the day, Bianca Buitendag, 15, from Victoria Bay, beat SA junior teammate Kirsty Delport (Durban) by 12.75 points to 8.25 in a one-sided final with Delport. Well done Bianca you deserve it, I am very proud of you.

Other stars at the event in the U/20 division were Brendon Gibbens who finished 2nd and defiantly deserves a good result as he is a very hot talented surfer, my main man Matt Bromley finished 3rd and Jaco Steyn finished equal 5th showing that hard work and determination will get you results. Congrats Casey on the win, you have been impressing for some time and its finally payed off, keep it up.

U16 saw Mr consistent Davey Brand finish 3rd overall and dark hoarse Danile Wilson shinning by putting effort into his approach, finishing 5th overall. Congratulations to Davey Van Zyl for his win and Mikey Feb for 2nd.

Welcome back to Benji Barnd after an extended stay in Hawaii, clearly doing him the world of good. He put all his North shore winter knowledge to practise and walked away with a convincing win in the U/14 division

In the U/12 Shane Sykes took the win over goofy foot style master Jordan Maree, Well done to Jordy for and excellent result who also competed in the U/14 division where he finished 7th overall, Jordy Maree has only just turned ten and he showing talent beyond his years, congratulations young man.

Wish i could have been there to watch all these kids ripping it would have been very entertaining.

ISA world surfing games

Hi Guys and Gels,

I am sure you have all heard the final results and the achievements of the Junior team in Ecuador, I know the news is a bit late but this is what the news is from inside the camp.

We arrived early and quickly acclimatised to the weather, accommodation, waves and food. Having arrived early would help put us in a positive frame of mind knowing we had more time practising at the contest arena, it also allowed us to have our competition with New Zealand.

Every year S.A surf against NZ in a warm up event before the world games. This year for the first time in four years we beat them, we not only beat them we absolutely annihilated them. Shaun Joubert the only U/18 to make the final won the division, we got 1st and 2nd in the U/16 and 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the girls U/18 division. Team S.A went on to get a 1st and 2nd in the tag team which led to a convincing win over the All Blacks, they literally went home with their tail between their legs and we went home with spirits high.

It was a grueling 8 day event and every single team member would contribute in some shape or form to the end result. The waves at Le Farre were very consistent we only had one day where we battled for surf due to the high tide, during this time we took part in the tag team event where we placed 2nd in the semi final to secure us a spot in the tag team final to be held on the last day. Without Matt Bromley in the tag team we would never have made the final, in the semi final we tactically sent him to the point as our power surfer and he continued to blow up scoring a 9 and two 8 point rides.

It all went down to the wire, team S.A on the second last day was lying third and in contention for the title with five surfers still remaining in the event. Unfortunately it was not to be our day and we lost four kids going into the last day.

We finished 6th overall one better than last year although accumulating a lot more points as a team, we were proud to have a finalist in Davey Brand who finished a well deserved 3rd overall. We also received a silver medal in the tag team finals, a true testament of our sheer determination as a nation to never give up.

Stand outs for me were Shaun Jobert who placed highest out of the South Africans in the U/18 division who placed 8th overall, Bianca Buitendag finished a convincing 11th overall and was not finished kicking butt and only got knocked out due to some hard core hassling from the two Americans. Davey Brand did us really proud by finishing 3rd overall and was on fire the entire event, consistency proving to be the way to win and ISA world junior title.
Well done team we are all very proud of your effort.