The town is buzzing with the excitement from the Ballito Pro presented by Billabong and although the surf has not delivered what some would have hoped for so far, the international competitors sure made the most of the conditions.
On Sunday the action kicked off with the Ballito Women’s Pro presented by Billabong.
History was made in more than one way as the ladies took to the water in a World Qualifying Series (WQS) for the first time since 2009 when the women’s competition was cancelled due to the big, incontestable conditions.
This year the ladies had to expertly ride their way across, over and past a tricky rock shelf at Surfer’s Beach that was not made easier with the small swell and low tides.
Sunday would forever be remembered as the day the first Zulu female surfer competed in a World Surf League QS event when 16-year-old Samukelisiwe Cele from Durban surfed in the event.
She did not hold back and committed to each wave, despite surfing against the legendary Heather Clark, Gina Smith and Crystal Hulett in the quarterfinals.
Umhlanga’s Teal Hogg surfed her way into the final against Faye Zoetmulder, Heather Clark and Nikita Robb but the conditions proved tough with the girls struggling to get waves.
In the end East London’s Robb stole the show and was crowned as the Ballito Women’s Pro presented by Billabong champion for 2015.
“I was really happy to surf in the event and I think it really helped that I came down to Ballito very early and just surfed as much as I could before the event,” said Robb.
Alternating between the women’s heats the Ballito Pro Trials took place which offered a stacked 32-man field the chance to clinch one of two coveted slots in the main event.
Everyone was rooting for local stars Shane Sykes and Calvin Goor, but with the strong field of Brazilians who don’t hesitate to take to the air to get the score they need, our boytjies will have to wait another year before they can surf in a WQS event in their backyard.
Durban’s Slade Prestwich and Matt McGillivray from Jeffreys Bay put up a great display of surfing against their international counterparts and McGillivray surfed his way into the final against Reo Inaba (JPN), Flavio Nakagima (BRA) and Robson Santos (BRA).
It was a two man show with the Brazilians and so Santos won the trials with Nakagima in second.
The Monday was greeted with a beautiful sunrise, but not a lot of waves on offer at Surfer’s Beach and so organisers decided to move the surfing 300m south to Bather’s Beach where the conditions offered surfers a better playground for their aerial maneuvers.
Alejo Muniz (BRA), a former top 34 ranked surfer, made excellent use of his pre-event practice sessions to record rides of 9.00 and 7.50 for a heat tally of 16.50, the second highest of the day on Monday to win Heat 2 and advance to the Round of 48.
“You know it was funny because I’ve been surfing that little right for the past five days,” said Muniz.
“We never had a heat over there but it just looked so much better than in front of the contest and today I had to surf my heat over there, so I felt like I knew where to surf more than the other guys. It was pretty cool.”
Brent Dorrington (AUS) claimed the highest heat tally of the day when he racked up scores of 8.93 and 7.67 for total 16.60 to win Heat 8 and progress to Round 2 along with second placed Tomas Fernandes (PRT).
The pair caused a major upset by eliminating local favourite and current World No. 18, Jordy Smith (ZAF), in the process.
The South African was joined on the sidelines by last year’s winner Tim Reyes (USA), who bowed out in the first heat of the day, and Tanner Gudauskas (USA), the 2009 winner.
Michael February from Kommetjie, Umhlanga’s Beyrick de Vries and Dale Staples from St Francis Bay also dropped out leaving David van Zyl as the only Saffa charger in the event.
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