The inaugural Siggi’s Open surfing competition proved a huge success at the weekend, raising over R13 500 for the iLembe Surf Riders Association.

Hosted by Siggi’s German Restaurant at Tiffany’s Beach, the competition saw surfers of all ages facing off for some fantastic donated prizes.

And it drew some of the best local board riders too.

“The iLembe Surf Riders are such a good organisation for the community and we just wanted to help out where we could,” said Siggi’s general manager, Kyle Heyman.

“All surfers paid a R250 entry fee, which got them a sponsored Corona surf wax, coffee from Bench Coffee and breakfast rolls from Siggi’s, with all proceeds going directly to the Surf Riders.”

Canelands Boutique Hotel also sponsored a stay for two which was raffled to add to the fundraising amount.

To cap things off, surfers walked home with their share of around R22 000 in prizes sponsored by the Ballito Restaurant Association.

To get those prizes however, surfers in eight divisions had to best the steep competition.

The U14 boys section saw a close-fought affair, with Marcello Zedde (11.10) just edging past Sean Tayler whose score of 10.66 had led for much of the final.

Frances Wang won her U14 girls category with a bit more distance, scoring almost three points more than second placed Zoey Seppings.

It was the turn of the older Tayler brother in the U18 boys contest, where Nathan Tayler came out top in a tight final.

Tayler beat out Ry Colepeper and Riley Balfour, who both finished within 1.63 points of Tayler’s 9.90 winning mark.

The U18 girls final was equally close, with Catherine Jacob (9.83) coming out on top ahead of Lila Aszalos (9.66) and Lola Wang (8.07).

Nathan Tayler came back for more silverware in the Open Men division, where the final score could quite literally not have been closer.

Both Tayler and Janek Ferrandi finished on 13.33 points and it took a tiebreaker to break the deadlock and crown Tayler the champion.

Lola Wang returned with renewed vigour in the Open Women division, where she claimed gold to add to her bronze from the U18 contest.

Next up were the master surfers, who were split into over-50 and under-50 divisions.

iLembe Surf Riders chairman Brian Dougherty showed his skills in the water, claiming the over-50 title ahead of Wade van Straaten.

Ryan Balfour rounded out the winners on the day when he took gold in the under-50 masters.

Heyman thanked all the sponsors for their contributions on the day.

You can find a full list of results at liveheats.com/events/241376.

Stay in the loop with The North Coast Courier on Facebook, X, Instagram & YouTube for the latest news.

Mobile users can join our WhatsApp Broadcast Service here or if you’re on desktop, scan the QR code below.