Keeping cool under pressure

When you are trying to make it on the world stage with the best of the best junior surfers, the pressure can get to you.

However, Salt Rock’s Shane Sykes has managed to find a way to stay calm and take it heat by heat at the World Surf League’s World Junior Surfing Championships in Ericeira, Portugal.

The North Coast surfer ripped his way through the second round of the competition on Friday, December 8 to join fellow South Africans Matt McGillivray and Dylan Lightfoot from J-Bay in round three.

Only a handful of round three heats were completed since then, with the contest on standby due to testing wind and swell conditions.

Sykes said even though it is a massive event, it is “all good vibes” among the competitors.

“You have to stay in a good and positive state of mind to ensure you do not lose focus. It is always intense surfing against the other competitors, because you see their videos and photos all over the web. If you think about them too much, you can almost psych yourself out, which has happened to me in the past. Now I try to think of each one as just another surfer out there,” said Sykes.

His parents, Darren and Michelle, travelled with him to Portugal and fellow surfers Bevan Willis from Umdloti and Jordy Maree from Kalk Bay are staying with the family.

“It has been really amazing to have my family here including Jordy and Bevan, they are like brothers to me. With the parents being around you don’t have to worry about money or getting places!”

Being part of world’s next generation of pro surfers, Sykes said the future is looking really good in many ways.

“If any surfer performs an excellent aerial maneuver, they will be rewarded with high scores, but at this event so far everyone has been doing the basics such as carves, turns and just good power surfing.”

Unfortunately the waves have been small and somewhat inconsistent, making it difficult for the surfers to find two good scoring waves needed to progress to the next round.

From what he has seen, Sykes said the South African surfers always stick together at events like these, at least more than other countries.

The guys keep each other motivated and push each other to perform their best.

But with six of the eight South African contenders already knocked out of the junior champs, one wonders when the country’s waters will produce another surfer of the likes of Jordy Smith, Travis Logie and Shaun Tomson.

“We definitely have what it takes. We just have to believe in ourselves to make it happen.”

With that mindset and the performance in the water to match it, the surfing community is frothing to see what the future holds.

Unfortunately Sykes lost his third round heat against the Brasilian Deivid Silva after a valiant effort.

The finals of the world junior championships will take place on Thursday, December 13.

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