Day 1 Highs

1. Local knowledge
Lower Point local Angelo Faulkner laid the early foundations, showing class and local knowledge to post a 7.5 and an 8 in his U14 Boys heat. Ryan Lightfoot – younger brother of QS contender Dylan – did the same. “For sure, I think it (local knowledge) definitely helped today,” said Ryan Lightfoot. After winning his U14 round one, Ryan went on to place second behind Sebastian Williams in their U16 Boys round one encounter. “Just sitting in right place and waiting for the set to come through and knowing which wave is the right one to catch,” he said. “I sat a bit further out so that I could get wide pretty quick for the sets,” he said. Williams was perhaps the talk of the day, dropping a 9 in that heat. “I stayed here in JBay for nine months last year so it feels just like home.”

2. The kickass contest venue that is Lower Point
Lower Point is one of the most user-friendly and consistent waves in the Eastern Cape. Don’t be fooled though, while often overshadowed by its more famous neighbour, Supertubes, it can produce long right-hand walls punctuated by steep, carve-able sections and, on just the right tide, barrels too.

Saturday 13 June, day one, delivered, with a classic J-Bay dawn - purples and oranges painting the sky. There was a bit of devil wind (northwest) on the three foot sets, but nothing could deter the frothing groms from all round the country. The wind dropped and glassy three foot waves pumped all day. That to the backdrop of the natural amphitheatre that is lower point.

3.  Ripping mini groms
The groms were shredding. “I’ve just been blown away by the standard today,” said RVCA’s Arno Lane. “The U10, it’s like three foot and it’s like double overhead for some of them. They’re just charging - no parents pushing them onto waves, they want to do it themselves,” he said. “With that sort of young development going on we’re going to have some good surfers coming through the ranks,” he said, explaining how RVCA believes it important to invest in junior surfing and the core values behind the contest lies in giving groms the platform to perform,” he said.

“In U10 we’ve had like eight entries, which is unheard of, not many contests offer that division,” Arno said. “And U14 is the biggest division in the event, we had 32 surfers from around the country, so definitely we’re looking at developing the younger surfers and getting their standard up.”

“Also, with the Supertrial that’s going to run tomorrow (the call has been made for the JBU Supertrial presented by RVCA to run at Supers tomorrow) they are going to get the opportunity to see the surfers that they idolise. The timing has worked out real well,” he said.

4. A colourful board is a happy board
The Posca Surf Booth was on hand, with three artists rotating to add colour to empty boards. Also, the groms had the freedom to paint their own boards. The groms got busy…

5. The next Bianca Buitendag
There is often a lot of talk about the next Jordy Smith, but Victoria Bay’s favourite daughter, Bianca Buitendag is setting the world alight. Making back-to-back finals in the last two WSL events she’s flying the Saffa flag proud and high. Young Kai Woolf (she’s still U16) dominated her U20 Girls heat in such a fashion that we need not worry about the next Bianca Buitendag, but rather prepare the world for the first Kai Woolf.

The forecast looks epic for the next few days, with the contest finishing on Monday.
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