IT was a moment to savour for local surfer Sam Christianson after he won the inaugural eThekwini Surf Pro, a World Surf League (WSL) Africa Regional Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) 1,000.

Christianson was joined on the podium by Crystal Hulett, who won in the women’s section of the longboard competition.

The win means that Christianson has qualified for the World Longboard Tour (WLT) that kicks off next month in Australia.

“It feels quite surreal. The support from my family and friends was incredible. I’m so stoked. I competed on the world tour in 2019 and 2020, but then the Covid-19 pandemic happened. Re-qualifying for the WSL World Longboard Tour is a dream come true, and it feels like I’ve been given a second chance. My goal is to be a world champion,” he said.

Christianson, who lives in Cape Town but whose family home is in Durban North, also gave some insight into conditions at the competition.

“The first two days, the conditions for the longboarders were dreamy, 2ft and offshore. On finals day, it got more tricky as the day progressed. Having said that, Durban is one of the most consistent surf destinations I’ve ever been to. It doesn’t get perfect very often, but you can surf pretty much every day if you wanted to. The competition level was high. and I’m excited to see what happens in the years to come as people would have taken notice of how efficiently the event was run,” he said.

The eThekwini Surf Pro was supported by eThekwini Municipality, Durban Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Surfing Association and Surfing South Africa.

The other winners at the competition included Louise Lepront and Luke Thompson, who won the women’s and men’s Qualifying Series (QS) 1,000 competition respectively.

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