Groms dominate J-Bay
Tuesday 9 July 2013 Perfect 3-4' surf greeted contestants for the first day of the J-Bay Open Of Surfing presented by Billabong. The surf translated into high performance surfing, including some massive airs and a rad barrels.
Smaller surf combined with the low tide, saw some shifty conditons at times, with a few prominent surfers finding themselves short of waves and out of the competition after the first three rounds. Twiggy Baker was the first upset of the day, getting eliminated from the first heat of the day in good, pulsing conditions, and Gavin Rudolph, the oldest surfer in the event at 60-years-old, was eliminated in heat 3.
Regular Jeffreys Bay surfer Dylan Stone from Port Elizabeth was another surprise elimination from the event, despite showing some excellent form on a few waves. Steven Sawyer, Jason Ribink and Craig Els all followed suit and were knocked out of the event. Number one seed Sean Holmes was another one who struggled to find high scoring waves and was eliminated from the contest in his round of 32 heat.
One surfer who really impressed the judges during a long day of competition was St Francis Bay local and WQS campaigner Dale Staples, who performed some critical moves on the fast Supertubes wall to win his heat and advance to the quarters. Current SA Champ Casey Grant along with Brandon Jackson were two other surfers who excelled, along with Slade Prestwich, and will also be surfing in the quarter finals when next the contest resumes.
Another surfer who advanced through to the quarters was local surfer Dylan Lightfoot, who advanced in second place along with Greg Emslie. "The waves were fast and down-the-line out there, and you really need to find the ones with the tapering walls," said Lightfoot. "I'm stoked to get through to the quarters and there are some big names in the event, but they are going to be under pressure and I'm not feeling any pressure at this stage and am just having some fun out there."
Former winner at Jeffreys Bay and 1999 world champion Mark Occhilupo from Australia hit the water in the second last heat of the day, and whipped a few big turns on his backhand as the tide started coming in. He advanced through to the quarters along with Lewellyn Whittaker from Mossel Bay.The leading contender for the Nixon WTA Best Tube Ride Award of a R9000 Nixon Magnacon Watch is Allan Johns for a long barrel across the Car Park section that saw Allan score a 9-point ride.
Surfers remaining in the event need to assemble for a possible 07h30 start tomorrow, with a chance that the surfing might begin with the first round of the Girls division.
Results
Round 1
Heat 1 1st Ettiene Potgieter 2nd Max Armstrong 3rd Grant Twig Baker 4th Donovan Zoetmulder
Heat 2 1st Clinton Gravetts 2nd Granville West 3rd Dane Staples 4th Josh Salie
Heat 3 1st Matti McGillivray 2nd Chris Leppan 3rd Diran Zakarian 4th Gavin Rudolph
Heat 4 1st Warren Tuck 2nd Warwick Heny 3rd Jano Belo 4th Chris Frolich
Heat 5 1st Robby Schofield 2nd Adin Masencamp 3rd Josh Smit 4th Tabu Burger
Heat 6 1st Kyle Galloway 2nd Craig Els 3rd Shanon Ainslee 4th Dylan Stewart
Heat 7 1st Benji Brand 2nd Allan Johns 3rd Ryan Bisset 4th Pablo Thysman
Heat 8 1st Lee Bisset 2nd Richard Edy 3rd Jono Bruton 4th Dominic Abersalie
Round 2
Heat 1 1st Paul Canning 2nd Quinton Jones 3rd Granville West 4th Ettiene Potgieter
Heat 2 1st Shaun Payne 2nd Max Armstrong 3rd Clinton Gravett 4th Dylan Stone
Heat 3 1st Matt McGillivray 2nd Devyn Mattheys 3rd Steven Sawyer 4th Warwick Heny
Heat 4 1st Chris Leppan 2nd Josh Redman 3rd Warren Tuck 4th Jason Ribbink
Heat 5 1st Gavin Roberts 2nd Robby Schofield 3rd Chad Els 4th Remi Pieterson
Heat 6 1st Kyle Galloway 2nd Dylan Lightfoot 3rd Wayne Monk 4th Adin Masencamp
Heat 7 1st Chad du Toit 2nd Benji Brand 3rd Richard Edy 4th Ari Kraak
Heat 8 1st Simon Fish 2nd Llewellen Whitaker 3rd Lee Bisset 4th Allan Johns
Round 3
Heat 1 1st Dale Staples 2nd Dan Redman 3rd Max Armstrong 4th Paul Canning
Heat 2 1st Casey Grant 2nd Ryan Payne 3rd Shaun Payne 4th Quinton Jones
heat 3 1st Brandon Jackson 2nd Shane Thorne 3rd Matty McGillivray 4th Josh Redman
Heat 4 1st Slade Prestwich 2nd Devyn Mattheys 3rd Sean Holmes 4th Chris Leppan
Heat 5 1st Greg Emslie 2nd Dylan Lightfoot 3rd Gavin Roberts 4th Warren Dean
Heat 6 1st Ricky Basnett 2nd Matt Bromley 3rd Robby Schofield 4th Kyle Galloway
Heat 7 1st Llewellen Whitaker 2nd Occy 3rd Chad Du Toit 4th Kelvin Zemkhe
Heat 8 1st Rudy Palmboom 2nd Simon Fish 3rd Frankie Oberholzer 4th Benji Brand
The Jeffreys Bay Open Of Surfing can be found on Facebook Jeffreys Bay Open Of Surfing.
Score updates can be found throughout the day on the Jeffreys Bay Open Of Surfing Twitter account @JBayOpen. The tournament is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa. Surfing South Africa is recognised by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) as the governing body of the sport in South Africa.
www.wavescape.co.za is the official media partner.