Week of All Seasons

Over 200 surfers of all age groups and representing teams from Western Province, Eastern Province, Southern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are competing in the SA Longboard Championships at New Pier in Durban. At stake are individual honours and the coveted Presidents Cup, held by Western Province.

A blustering southwester yesterday has brought biggish surf, with broken boards and relegated riders a risk. “The big surf is going to up the stakes and lead to all sorts of craziness in the water,” said Deon Bing, SA Longboarding president.

This year’s championship has seen the introduction of the CloudNine “tip-time event” which sees surfers taking to the water for displays of “Hang Fives” and “Hang Tens” – walking to end of the board on a critical section of a wave and then hooking the toes of one foot (hang five) or both feet (hang ten) over the nose of the board.

Each province submitted two or three of the top “nose-riders” for this event with judges timing how long surfers could hold themselves in “hang five” and “hang ten” positions. Several “hang five” rides over 10 seconds were recorded, with a top time of 16 seconds ensuring KZN’s Brad Weare advanced to the final, taking place on Saturday.

Others who made it into the “tip-time” final were: Richie Ripsel (KZN), Brad Beck (EP) and Justin Bing (WP).

In a shock first round result of the main event, Weare, KZN top seed, was relegated to the second stream of the Open Men’s Division after failing to find waves with sufficient scoring potential. Weare came back strongly in his next heat, and is fighting his way back into the main event.

Justin Bing, WP top seed and a member of the South African Team that will compete in the ISA World Surfing Games in Panama in June, finds himself in a similar position,but has yet to surf his Round three heat.

There have also been plenty of surprises one of which is Dylan Fernandez (SC), a hot new talent in the Boys’ division whose repertoire of manoeuvres brought the crowd to its feet. Fernandez is certainly is a talent for the future and was assisted in getting to the contest through support from Lotto funds allocated to Surfing South Africa’s Talent Identification project.

In the Girls Division, Hannah Bing (WP) has been winning all her heats with good wave selection and the highest scores while in the Veterans, Craig Daniels (KZN) and Hugo Zuanni (WP) are their division’s highest scorers.

The SA Longboard Champs is also the final stop on the inaugural five-event SALSA Series where Surftools have sponsored a trip to Bali for the winner.

Dylan McLeod (EP) is currently leading the ratings but needs to make the final to ensure that he claims the prize. WP Longboarders Michael Grendon and Justin Bing are also in the running for the big prize that goes to the series champion.

Alfonso Peters (WP) is another in the running after having attended all five events around the country. Peters’ participation in the Championships came via SALSA funding and also  through Lotto funds allocated to athletes who are part of Surfing South Africa’s talent identification programme.

The SA Longboard Championships is the largest surfing event of its kind in the country and caters for a wide spectrum of age groups with surfers in their late 60's competing in the same team as 12 year old girls. Its strength is the family element and camaraderie amongst all who attend over the week long event.