Surf event a success
The Lizzard Hurricane Surf event held at Umhlanga Beach was a resounding success.
WAVE Wizards Surf Club in association with Surfing South Africa hosted a two day competition, the Lizzard Hurricane Surf event, on 13 and 14 December.
This competition always kicks off the annual Umhlanga Summer Festival. There were a record number of entries with close on 150 surfers taking part in a diversity of age divisions ranging from masters to novices as young as five years old.
The conditions were very tricky, yet contestable with strong north easterly gusting winds which made it difficult for many surfers to choose where to surf as it was peaking in all different areas.
Craig Daniel obliterated his competition in the longboarding men’s final posting two scores in the excellent above eight point range. Second was Scott Lefevre, then came Grant Gilmour and Jago England. In the Open women’s division it was Sarah Baum who got the highest scores with a pair of sevens, beating Nicole Pallet into second, Chanelle Botha and Teal Hogg into third and fourth respectively.
The Open men’s division saw a clean win by Casey Grant from Scottburgh when he turned on the heat with two top scoring rides to beat World Qualifying Series campaigner Davey Van Zyl into second, Chad du Toit into third and Richard Kidd into fourth.
The Tag Team event was the highlight of the competition and had five rival surfing teams from along the KZN coastline going head to head. Beyrick de Vries was the star performer for the Wave Wizards Surf Club posting a nine and and 8.5 point ride to give his team and early lead. There was a lot of tension towards the end of the hour long heat when Durban’s North Swell Surf Club came back strong to give Wave Wizards some serious pressure. Devin Lane was the hero at the end of the heat when he just got the score to take the team to a narrow victory of less than one point. Derek Watts from Carte Blanche was seen at the competition sporting a Wave Wizards T-shirt and cheering on the local club. The winning team got pocket R10 000 cash from Just Juice.
Jestyn Viljoen, Wave Wizards Club chairman, said: “We are thrilled with how the event has gone. Umhlanga Beach is a great place for a competition and all the surfers and families had a really good weekend despite the beasterly easterly winds.”
