Tough competition at Billabong Junior Series
North Coast surfers faltered and lost out to international crew.
Our local North Coast surfers struggled to advance in the recent Billabong Junior Series QS1000 held at Magnatubes in Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape from July 13 to July 17.
The USA’s Eithan Osborne and Durban’s Nicole Pallet clinched the prestigious men’s and women’s titles respectively.
Salt Rock’s Shane Sykes and Slade Prestwich from Durban had a tough draw in their round 16 clash with Eithan Osborne and Griffin Colapinto from the USA.
Umdloti’s Bevan Willis managed to earn himself a spot in the quarters along with local Jeffrey’s Bay rippers Matt McGillivray and Dylan Lightfoot.
Unfortunately both McGillivray and Willis lost their quarterfinal clash, but J-Bay’s Lightfoot surfed through to the finals where he met the USA’s Eithan Osborne.
Osborne, who was in Jeffreys Bay along with half-a-dozen other international surfers on a sponsors training camp, is based in Ventura, California, and had no problem adjusting to the waves of Magnatubes en route to his victory.
“The waves that I surf at home are similar – right points and some beach breaks – so it has not been too difficult to adjust to this,” said Osborne.
Durban’s Nicole Pallet clinched the women’s title by winning the final encounter with fellow Durbanite Olivia Brand.
Pallet had earlier defeated top seed Gina Smith (Jeffrey’s Bay) in the semifinals while Brand overcame the challenge of Chantelle Botha (Warner Beach) in the all-South African women’s field.
In the U14 girls division Gabi Lailvaux from Westbrook earned a well deserved second place in her final, along with some points and cash.
The Billabong Junior Series presented by BOS is a World Surf League QS1000, offering junior surfers 1000 points on the qualifying series tour.
