Junior Big Wave Champs

Since it's not called the Big Wave Junior Champs, and for some age groups a 10 foot wave is more like a twenty footer at Dungeons, there were some palpatations, but the event has been called on, and the swell should calm down a little during the day.

Tomorrow, Sunday looks like a much more managable day, with 4-6' surf at Lower Point gradually easing to 3-5' during the day.

The buster arrived yesterday, with a building but ragged swell hammered by the ripping SW gale.

The scenes that played out on day three of the 2013 Hurley SA Junior Champs were in stark contrast to the opening two days. Gone were the small reef-hugging two footers, missing were the smiley happy people chilling on the beach and gone, thanks to a south-westerly with serious teeth – were most of the tents, branding and gazebos lining the beach

The scenes that played out on day three of the 2013 Hurley SA Junior Champs were in stark contrast to the opening two days. Gone were the small reef-hugging two footers, missing were the smiley happy people chilling on the beach and gone, thanks to a south-westerly with serious teeth – were most of the tents, branding and gazebos lining the beach.

Instead, overhead lines were pouring down the line at Lower Point buffeted by a gale-force offshore wind. The U17 Boys were up first and relished the bigger surf with hometown hero Matt McGillivray and Eastern Province teammates Paul van Rijswick and Tim Baard posting heat victories to advance to Round 4 along with fellow heat winners Max Armstrong and Dylan Wichmann (both WP), Bryce Burness (KZNC), Michael Monk (Border) and Steff Burrows (Boland).

Not to be outdone, the U15 Boys also upped their game with Rewaldo Abersalie and Jono Coffey (both EP), the WP pair of Jordy Maree and Ford van Jaarsveldt, Boland’s Adin Masenkamp and Tristan Lev, Keagan Wallace (KZNC) and Dane Olsen from Southern Cape all advancing through to round four.

Robyn van der Merwe (EP), Teal Hogg (KZNC), Inge McLaren (BOR) and Chanelle Botha (SKZN) justified their top seeding for their respective provinces by advancing to Round 4 of the U17 Girls division with heat victories.

The day’s action ended on an high with the ‘My Dad’s Shred Sesh’ presented by Firewire Surfboards and Country Feeling Surfshop where a host of SA’s surfing legends including former ASP World No 7 Mike Burness, former ASP Africa champ Greg Swart and others took to the waves in an informal demonstration of the country’s surfing royalty that had the spectators hooting and hollering.

Video highlights of the high standard of junior surfing during the first three days of action at the Hurley SA Junior Champs can be found at http://www.sajuniorchamps.co.za/videos.php

The Hurley SA Junior Champs runs until Sunday 29 September when the provincial team accumulating the most points is awarded the coveted Freedom Trophy and the individual winners in the U17, U15 and U13 Boy’s and Girl’s divisions are crowned the 2013 South African surfing champions.