A talented group of young iLembe Surf Riders Association girls dominated the waves at junior nationals last weekend, winning or medalling in every girls’ division.

Lila Aszalos (U16 girls), Ella van der Made (U14 girls) and Lexi Lockhart (U12 girls) all won their age groups at the Sea Harvest SA Junior Championships, held at Lower Point in Jeffreys Bay from Thursday to Saturday.

Max Kauffman earned bronze in the U18 girls division, Lily Jameson finished fourth in the U14 girls category and Billi Bo Baker claimed silver in the non-points-scoring ‘Super Groms’ section.

Marcello Zedde capped a fantastic local performance with iLembe’s sole boys’ medal – a silver in the U14 event.

Aszalos progressed from her opening heat in second place in the premier U16 division, then found her rhythm to go unbeaten for the rest of the competition. In the final, she strung together scores of 6.67 and 4.57 to finish a combined 1.5 points ahead of Cape Town’s Emma Schermbrucker.

“I couldn’t be happier to win this event, especially having the best team there supporting me. Thanks so much to everyone!” she said.

Van der Made earned two heat wins and one second place on her way to the final. She kept her cool in a tight contest against Nelson Mandela Bay’s Brin Jarvis, posting a combined score of 11.0 to take victory by just 0.40 points.

“SA Champs is always so much fun and I love seeing and surfing with all my friends from around the country. There were so many strong competitors, so I’m really happy to have won back-to-back SA titles,” she said.

Lockhart won her opening heat and claimed an automatic berth in the final, where she faced stiff competition from Nelson Mandela Bay’s Olivia Shooter and eThekwini’s Adriana Canning. The three were separated by just 1.16 points, with Lockhart’s opening wave score of 6.50 proving the difference.
“This was my first big contest and it was awesome! I had such a great time and winning made me feel so stoked. I can’t wait for next year,” she said.

iLembe Surf Riders Association chairman Simon Tayler said he was proud of the spirit shown by the group, which secured the district’s most medals and best-ever result at the competition.
“Our girls deserve a special mention. The strength of women’s surfing in iLembe is growing fast and their results this year showed exactly that,” said Tayler.

“We were also thrilled to include four surfers from the Small Steps Surfing programme. It’s a fantastic initiative where volunteers from our local communities teach youngsters to swim and surf, and help them learn to respect the ocean.”

See full results here.