Salt Rock Sophie’s supreme Seal Point surf
"Phenomenal conditions and, in my humble opinion, this event had the best junior surfing standard I've ever seen at an SA Champs" - contest director and Ballito surf legend Johno Hutchison.
The 2016 Billabong Junior Series champions were crowned at Seal Point in Cape St Francis after the second and final event in the series was completed in highly contestable one metre waves last Sunday.
Salt Rock resident, Sophie Bell clinched the coveted U18 girls’ Billabong Junior Series title, topped the World Surf League (WSL) regional rankings lists and was crowned 2016 WSL Africa Junior champion.
Sophie Bell came close to winning the U16 girls title as well as she surfed into second place in this event, but narrowly missed out on the series title. The title went to Kai Woolf (Jeffreys Bay), who accumulated the same total as Sophie over the two events, but won the title after a count-back.
“I am pretty stoked to have won the Billabong Pro Junior, because it has put me in place to compete in the WSL Worlds Junior Championships in Australia in January next year,” said Bell.
“The conditions throughout the contest were amazing, besides the last day, but I was lucky enough to have gotten the winning waves. Normally you just wait for the sets and hope for the best.”
Calvin Goor, also from Salt Rock, won the BOS ‘Best Carve of the Event’ and surfed into the semi finals of both the U18 and U16 divisions. Calvin also reached the semi finals of the SA Junior Championships held at the point in Jeffreys Bay in excellent waves this last week. Sophie also surfed well to reach the final rounds of the championships, placing third in the finals of her division.
Contest director and Ballito surf legend Johno Hutchison was thrilled with the level of surfing.
“Phenomenal conditions and, in my humble opinion, this event had the best junior surfing standard I’ve ever seen at an SA Champs,” said Hutchison.
International surf coach, Clayton Nienaber, will be in South Africa in November and will be putting on a very informative high performance clinic in Ballito.
This is recommended to all surfers wanting to better their surfing performance.
The clinic is set to take place at the Secret Spot Backpackers on Saturday, November 5 from 4pm – 7pm. The cost is R150 per person and anyone interested needs to RSVP via e-mail to claytonsurfoz@gmail.com.
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