Junior surfers take podium spots
A former Durban street child who turned his life around placed second in round one at the ISA World Surfing Champs.
THE South African Junior Surfing Team posted an unblemished record on the opening day of the VISSLA ISA World Surfing Championships in Salinas, Ecuador on Sunday with all four surfers in both the U18 and the U16 boy’s divisions finishing either first or second in their respective round one heats.
The 2014 edition of the world’s largest surfing event for surfers aged 18 and under features nearly 300 participants in 32 national teams who are competing for gold, silver, bronze and copper medals in U18 and U16 divisions for boys and girls, the Aloha Cup tag team event and the coveted team title.
Sunday saw one metre crumbling onshore waves that were made even more difficult to negotiate during the early high tide affected heats, but Shane Sykes got the SA team challenge off to an impressive start with a dominatant performance over opponents from Peru, hosts Ecuador and Chile in his opening U18 boys’ heat.
Steffen Burrows, Ntando Msibi and SA team captain Max Armstrong all placed second in their U18 round one heats to progress to the next round of the qualifying stream while those finishing third or fourth in the heats dropped into the gruelling repecharge rounds where another finish outside the top two results in elimination from the event.
Msibi, a former Durban street child who turned his life around thanks to surfing and received an ISA Scholarship in 2013, was inspired after progressing to the next round in his first visit outside South Africa and is looking forward to a career as a professional surfer.
“This is my first time overseas and first time I have competed in a big event and it’s nice, it’s great. I want to surf to get into Kelly Slater’s position, go on tour and meet new people. It’s just you having fun out there, that’s what I love about surfing,” Msibi said.
Meanwhile, on the second podium in the middle of the beach, Adin Masencamp and Jordy Maree recorded comprehensive victories while Joshe Faulkner and Ethan Fletcher took second places in their U16 boy’s encounters.
All 12 members of the team will be in action on the second day of competition.
On Friday South Africa reclaimed the SANZ trophy in their traditional match up with New Zealand which has been used as part of the pre-World Junior Championships preparation since 2002. The SA boys took the honours against their NZ counterparts, but the girls from the ‘land of the long white cloud’ turned the tables, with SA narrowly prevailing in the overall team total.
