Silver for SA
Wednesday 11 September 2019 South Africa just took silver in the Aloha Cup at the ISA World Surfing Games presented by Vans a few hours ago, narrowly losing to gold medallists Australia by 0.08 of a point.
GO GO GO: The unique format of the Aloha Cup is a high burst of hard activity. Photo ISA / Evans
The SA team, comprising Jordy Smith, Mikey February, Bianca Buitendag and Sarah Baum, were breathing down the Aussie's necks during the tag team relay, which starts with two semi-finals comprising the top eight teams from last year's World Surfing Games (WSG).
Last year, Spain made history by winning their first Aloha Cup, in which each surfer catches three waves in their leg of the relay, a 45 minute heat. The three scores from each athlete are summed up to get the overall team score.
Australia won with 38.19 points, followed by South Africa (38.11), United States (35.38) and Japan (28.10). It was a pretty good result considering, for instance, the lineup of the US team: Kolohe Andino, Conner Coffin, Kelly Slater, Caroline Marks, Carissa Moore and Courtney Conlogue.
PUTTING FOOT: Coached by the Foot, putting foot but not goofy foot. Photo ISA / Reed
Organisers also ran the rest of Round 1 of the Men's division, with a start made on the Repercharge rounds. Mikey February was up in the last heat (#36) of main event Round 1, which he won comfortably. All three men, including Beyrick de Vries, had convincing wins in their Round 1 heats and are still in the main event, but the sharp edge of the competition still lies ahead.
The surf looks okay for the remaining days of the window. A couple of storms are lurking, a huge one in the northeast corner of the ocean above Japan that does not look likely to create a swell that will get into Southern Japan where Miyazaki is. However, there is one in the south that should create some small to medium surf for the last few days of the event, which ends 15 September.
The 2019 ISA World Surfing Games presented by Vans is streamed live from September 7-15 on www.isasurf.org starting at approximately 1 am SA Time daily.
TAG TEAMING: Bianca runs up the beach after her heat to tag Jordy for his. Photo ISA / Evans
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SCHEDULE
September 11
Aloha Cup
Open Men competition continues
September 15
Finals Open Men
Closing Ceremony
The 2019 ISA World Surfing Games presented by Vans is broadcast Sept 7-15 on www.isasurf.org
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