DK Wars
Thursday 12 January 2012 What started off as an idea became a reality as the inaugural DK WARS, the South African edition, kicked off in perfect 3-4ft conditions at Long Beach, Kommetjie on the 5th of January 2012. Lee Moran gives us the low down on what went down.
What are DK Wars all about?
DK Wars was started by Chris Won Taloa, one of the world's top bodyboarders, who made a call out on Facebook in the summer of 2010, which stirred up DK (riders who surf their bodyboards in the drop knee position) banter around the world and the concept of the DK Wars was born.
The first DK Wars event took place at Salt Creek, bringing together like-minded DK riders for a different kind of contest, if you can call it a contest. A far bigger turnout than expected happened and the event was a run away success. The concept has now spread to the rest of the world where communities of DK riders are organizing their own sponsored events within the DK WARS criteria.
Rules
This is not a contest.
- This is an event that has no heats.
- All riders will surf when they want to surf within the scheduled time of the event.
- All riders will be voting on the winners once the event is over.
- Winners TAKE ALL, no runners up, no second place.
DK Wars is not like any other bodyboarding contest/event you have been to before, because the judges are the riders themselves and the riders & beach goers who come to the event will be voting. It's a fun way to show love for the sport.
What’s the contest criterion?
Each 'team' consists of 4 men/women that represent your area/hood/zone. It's a non contest format, but you surf as a team, making sure you and your crew gets the prime selection of the sets.
Here in Cape Town, on Thursday the 5th January 2012, good old reliable Long Beach was the venue for the inaugural DK Wars South Africa event and with the organizers Lee Moran and Karl Liebenberg hoping for good conditions; it was all they could ask for. 3-4 feet offshore waves and a perfect summer’s day is as good as its going to get for a contest. From there every thing else fell together. With everyone not knowing exactly what DK WARS was about, but still coming along to compete, it fell together perfectly.
26 riders signed up into 6 x 4 man teams plus one 2 man team and were then split into 3 teams riding for an hour then the next 3 teams going in for the next hour and then the process repeated again giving all teams 2 hours of riding with everyone watching and hooting from the beach. Once everyone had ridden the riders got a voting sheet and they voted who they thought the best team and riders were.
To be honest, the level of riding was extremely high from all the riders with floaters, slashes and shore break barrels being the order of the day. I think all the riders would agree that we were all winners on this day as the level of stoke was overflowing from everyone but the cash had to go somewhere and it went to old school riders.
Team SPU which consists of Sascha (ST) Talyaard and Sea Point boytjies: Hankus Loubser, Euvrard Loubser and Ismael Grant. The SPU grabbed the R2000 by consistently throwing the moves out and proving that ballies are still a force to be reckoned with.
Best solo rider went to Sacha Specker who won R1230. Aden Kleve took best wipe out, Dylan Van Tonder took best charger and ST cashed in with best wave ridden and best floater, winning R1000 from Tribal Surf Shop.
All in all it was a great day on the beach with a bunch of Drop Knee enthusiasts just pushing and amping each other to do the best they can.
A big Thank you to Tribal Surf Shop in Hermanus, Sport Unlimited in Cape Town and Keiki in Durban for sponsoring the event and also photographer Billy Ackerman from PB Surfing. Please support the guys that support us!
