Last week saw the 44th inaugural S.A surfing champs held in St Mikes sponsored by South Coast Tourism. It was a highly contested event as usual with plenty of highs and lows, the surf was very demanding with consistent 4-6 foot waves. We were very fortunate to score cooking 4ft Southbroom before the event started this proving to be a positive start of some great surf for the week ahead.Day 1 saw cooking 4-6 foot offshore waves peeling down the point and a new format, 1st place through to round 4 2nd and 3rd to round 3 and 4th into repo charge round 2.
Friday was a whole other ball game with solid 8 foot sets and a howling NE wind making for extreme conditions, after heats there were some great car park stories of how guys were getting dealt in the solid surf. Saturday and Sunday proved to be awesome conditions not dropping below the 5ft mark, great waves ment there was some world class surfing.
Stand outs in the men's division were DEVYN MATTHEYS, DAN REDMAN, MAMFRED ADRIO, and the man to beat RYAN PAYNE eventual surfer of the contest.
Gavin Roberts beat 2007 SA Champion Devyn Mattheys of Border into second place with Dan Redman of KZN grabbing third ahead of 2009 Surfer of the Contest Ryan Payne of EP.
Nobody could out class HEATHER CLARK in the open woman's division showing that the St Mikes local can still mix it up with the best surfers in the country. From the outset it was obvious that Heather was in it to win it.
Clark successfully defended the title she won at Victoria Bay last year after fighting her way through the repocharge round early in this year’s event. Nikita Robb of Border was second, Tammy Lee Smith of KZN came third and Faye Zoetmulder of EP was fourth.
Kyle Lane was definitely the man to beat in the u/20 boys division with some hard hitting back hand turns. Shaun Denis was also looking good throughout the event, Jaco Stey was a definite threat with a new found confidence showing in his attitude and surfing. Bertie Stuurman was on fine form and looking to take the title.
Shawn Dennis found form in the Under 20 Boys Final to beat fellow KZN surfer Kyle Lane into second place while 2009 Junior Surfer of the Year and Lotto Scholarship recipient Bertie Stuurman of EP came third. Underling KZN’s dominance in this division was Chris Leppan who was fourth.
In the Girls u/20 Sarah Baum was definitely onfire and looking very good on her backhand in the solid surf, she would have been the obvious bet although it was tough cookie Taryn Chudleigh that piped her at the end for the S.A champ title.Chudleigh’s board hit her in the face during her semi final and she had to be taken to hospital but she was back in time for her final and did Western Province proud.
Final team placings after all was said and done:
TEAMS
1. KWAZULU NATAL
2. SOUTHERN KWAZULU NATAL 38690
3. BORDER 38294
4. EASTERN PROVINCE 36922
5. WESTERN PROVINCE
6. BOLAND
During the S.A champs 9 surfers were selected to take part in in National team trials, surfing for one position. Three positions had been already given to top WQS campaigners, Brandon Jackson, Rudi Palmboom junior and Damien Farenfort. In the end it was clear tha Ryan Payne and Llewellyn Whittaker wanted to be in the team more than anyone.
In a round robin type trial over four heats Ryan and Lu had three 1st places but it was Ryan's 2nd place in his 4th heat that beat Lu's 3rd place. So after loads of heats it was Ryan Payne that would be part of the National team going to Costa Rica end of July, Llewellyn will be first reserve.
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