Ballito surfer Marcello Zedde claims SA Champs victory

Marcello Zedde is a South African champion!

A victory at the Sea Harvest SA Junior Championships at Jeffreys Bay at the weekend capped an almost perfect season for the exciting youngster from Zimbali.

He was part of a strong team of iLembe competitors, again proving that the North Coast is a factory for top quality surfing talent.

Zedde entered the event fresh off a series win in the U12 boys category of the South African Surf Tour (SAST), which included five elevated Rip Curl GromSearch meets in which he went five-for-five.

That hot run of form continued at the weekend at Jeffreys Bay’s famed Lower Point break.

He eased through his quarter-final and semi-final with scores of 12.67 and 11.57 before coming face-to-face with his iLembe teammate Levi Vosloo in the final.

Both youngsters pushed hard throughout, forcing high scoring from each other, which eventually left them separated by just 0.4 points overall.

But it was Zedde who continued his purple patch to claim victory with an 11.50, while Vosloo earned a well-deserved silver medal.

In the U12 girls section, Coco Clark surfed her way to a bronze medal behind Buffalo City’s Maya Malherbe – who earned a perfect 10 in the final – and Cape Town’s Emma Schermbrucker.

Although not from iLembe, Westbrook’s Ashton Sangster grabbed fourth in the U14 boys event while iLembe’s Maxine Kauffman matched his feat in the U14 girls section.

The SA Champs mark the end of a thrilling junior surf season from an iLembe perspective.

In the 10-event SAST, Nathan Tayler claimed the U14 boys overall top spot on 6 190 points ahead of Adam Faclier.

His younger brother Sean finished second behind Zedde in the U12 boys section too.

Combined, the performances of iLembe’s young surfers this year paint a rosy picture for the district’s surfing future.

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