Ballito surfers dominate Hurley SA Junior Champs

The Dolphin Coast had solid representation at the 2014 Hurley SA Junior Championships with six young surfers competing for glory with the KZN Central junior surfing team at Lower Point, Jeffreys Bay from October 8 to 12.

The team ripped the competition apart, accumulating the highest number of points to walk away with the coveted Freedom Cup. Eight of the 24 finalists were from KZNC and the boys and girls also added two of the six individual titles to the KZNC title tally.

Sophie Bell capitalised on picture perfect three to four foot offshore waves, out-performing her peers with superior maneuvers to take the U15 girls title well ahead of Western Province’s Anna Jellema-Butler. Her success earned Bell an automatic place in the Surfing South Africa National Junior team, to compete in the 2015 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships.

“I am so stoked that I can compete in worlds next year overseas! Never been so happy!” said Bell.

Jade Mets showed her metal in the girls U17 division and earned a respectable fourth place.

Although Shane Sykes was eliminated in a major upset in the U17 boys semifinals, he was still crowned the surfer of the contest, winning the All Aboard Travel/Zigzag Mag award of a free air ticket to join a surf trip where he will be featured in a photo editorial article in the magazine. Sykes also took the Oakley Highest Heat Score award for the 16.50 out of 20 he posted in round four on Friday.

“Round four was my first heat of the contest with the high tide bringing bigger waves every five minutes. I had to choose my waves wisely and did not take chances with big aerial maneuvers. I went far with lots of turns which earned me a high nine on my first ride. I surfed my second wave more or less identical and scored 16.50 out of 20,” said Sykes.

Richard Kidd got knocked out in the boys U17 semi finals. Braiden Coats surfed from round one and got knocked out in the fourth round in the boys U17 contest. Calvin Goor caused a major upset by knocking out the defending champion, Ethan Fletcher in the quarter finals of the boys U15.

“It was a nerve wracking heat to watch as Calvin only scored his 8.50 in the last two minutes of the heat to secure his place in the semifinals,” said his mother Joanne Goor.

The KZNC team already started working towards winning the team spirit award in January and was rewarded for their efforts by being awarded the Scullcandy Team Spirit award.

During the SA Junior Championships the whole team stayed together and they had Zulu warrior Banginkosi Ntuli with them to provide loads of motivation.