Exciting first week of Ballito Pro activities

The Ballito Pro pres. by O’Neill returns this week, with the juniors kicking off the best two weeks on Ballito’s shores.

From Tuesday morning through to Saturday, groms from across the country will descend on Willard Beach for the O’Neill SMTH Shapes Rookie Rippers.

The best young surfers in South Africa will compete for local glory in age categories from U12 to U18, with the event forming part of the South African Junior Surf Tour.

There are a number of stars from iLembe who will hope to use home break advantage to out surf their nationwide rivals.

Make sure to get down to the beach to see them in action and give them some home crowd support.

The junior section also has an U20 JQS1000 event running concurrently, which attracts an incredibly strong field of the best young surfers from around the globe.

It will include some of the younger members of the senior Ballito Pro field, as well as those who have qualified and may also be surfing in the Rookie Rippers event.

The JQS is a stepping stone for the next generation as seen with last year’s winner, Hawaiian Bettylou Sakura-Johnson, who is now tearing it up on the Championship Tour.

It is your chance to see future household names on the brink of breaking through.

This year, the Ballito Pro has also expanded its competition to include surfers with disabilities and will host the Made for More Para Surfing Expression Session on Saturday.

Differently abled surfers will take on Willard Beach in nine different classes.

The day will feature not only incredible surfing, but also a chance to see some of the most inspiring athletes that this country has produced.

In yet another stop in a packed first week of events, the KZN Surfing Outreach Initiative, hosted by the iLembe Surf Riders Association is back by popular demand on Friday.

The event sees development surfers from KZN’s three unions, iLembe, Ugu and eThekwini Surf Riders, in a tag-team event.

It has proved to be one of the crowd favourites in previous Pros and is a fantastic launchpad for developing surfers in the province.

Finally, to close out the first week and take us into the next, the main Ballito Pro Challenger Series starts on Sunday.

Eighty men and 54 women, some of the best surfers in the world, will shred from Sunday (July 2) to Sunday (July 9) in a bid to add their names to the illustrious trophy.

Couple the surfing action with an entire festival that could be held on its own and you have no excuse but to make Willard Beach your base for the next two weeks.

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