Junior surf champs ride crest of wave to Bali
THE 20th annual champions in the Billabong Junior Series were crowned at Seal Point in Cape St Francis on Sunday after the fourth and final event in the 2017 series was completed in contestable waves and glassy conditions.
Jake Elkington (Kommetjie) and Sophie Bell (Salt Rock) clinched the premier U18 boys’ and girls’ titles, earning a coveted trip to the tropical surfing paradise of Bali.
The same pair also topped the World Surf League (WSL) Africa junior regional rankings lists and are this year’s Africa junior champions.
The U16 boys’ and girls’ series titles were won by Angelo Faulkner (Jeffreys Bay) and Tayla de Coning (East London) respectively, despite neither of them winning any of the four events.
Ceara Knight (Cape Town) and Daniel Emslie (East London) each secured two event victories on their way to the U14 girls’ and boys’ series titles, while Kyra Bennie (Vredehoek), the U12 boys’ series champion, won three of the four events this year.
The seven finals run at Seal Point on Sunday produced phenomenal surfing, with Ford van Jaarsveldt (Kommetjie) capturing his first WSL Junior Qualifying Series (JQS) men’s victory after defeating Calvin Goor (Salt Rock).
The lanky 18-year-old Capetonian posted a near-perfect score of 9.0 out of 10 plus three rides in the seven-point range, the best of which was a 7.87. His heat total of 16.87 left Goor still needing a 9.76 when time ran out.
Former Jeffreys Bay resident Kai Woolf, now competing under the New Zealand flag, won both the JQS U18 women’s event and the U16 girls’ division, delivering heat totals in the mid-teens in both finals.
Woolf finished ahead of Taghiti Gericke (Wilderness) in the one-onone JQS final, while Olivia Izzard (La Lucia), Summer Sutton (Kommetjie) and Tayla de Coning (East London) challenged her throughout the U16 final.
Visiting French teenager George Pittar won the U16 boys’ title, relegating last year’s U14 boys’ winner Tide Lee Ireland (Durban) to runner-up spot.
Luke Thompson (Durban) and Zoe Steyn (East London) dominated the U14 boys’ and girls’ finals.
Brazilian Ryan Kanailo was outstanding in the U12 boys’ final, earning a heat total of 18.70 out of 20 that left his opponents needing to replace both of their highest scoring rides to overtake him.
The highly anticipated Von Zipper Air Show was staged after the finals and provided Calvin Goor (Salt Rock) with the chance to shine as he clinched the R2 000 purse for landing the best aerial manoeuvre.