Buitendag in contention
SA surfer impresses to keep hopes of tour qualification alive
Paul Botha
BIANCA Buitendag kept her hopes of re-qualifying for next year’s WSL Women’s Championship Tour alive by posting the highest heat total of the opening day of competition in the season-ending Maui Women’s Pro in Hawaii on Wednesday.
Ranked 12th going into the event, and needing to finish among the top 10 to qualify for a fourth successive season in the highest echelon of women’s surfing, Buitendag earned scores of 7.60, 6.33 and an excellent 8.67 for a two-wave total of 16.27 in defeating current No 11 Nikki Van Dijk of Australia and advancing to round three.
Coco Ho of Hawaii, who is just behind Buitendag in 13th place in the rankings, did the South African a huge favour by eliminating current No 10 Laura Enever of Australia in their round-two clash.
Buitendag revels in the waves at Honolua Bay and has finished fifth, third and fifth in Maui over the past three years. However, the surfer from Victoria Bay in the southern Cape needs to finish runner-up to overtake Van Dijk and become the first alternate for Championship Tour events should any of the top 17 withdraw through injury or any other reason.
To finish ahead of Enever and ensure that she qualifies for the entire Championship Tour season, Buitendag needs to win the Maui event. That will entail defeating the likes of defending two-time event champion and three-time world champion Carissa Moore of Hawaii, newly crowned world champion Tyler Wright of Australia and current world No 2 Courtney Conlogue of California, who Buitendag faces in round three.
Watch the event live and get results, images and video footage of every ride online at worldsurfleague.com. BIG-wave charger and allround nice guy Frank Solomon of Cape Town has spent the past three years filming his signature movie Let’s be Frank, and the past four months attending premieres of the 90-minute show around the world.
After winning several bestfilm awards at film festivals including London and Portugal, Let’s be Frank has been nominated for the top honour in the Surfer Awards, considered the Oscars of surfing.
The awards ceremony takes place in Hawaii and can be watched at SurferAwards.com starting at 9am SA time on Wednesday, December 7. COLIN Fitch, the seemingly tireless head of the WSL Africa regional office, has been hard at work ensuring that local members get the best opportunities to advance their surfing careers.
Along with developing an exciting schedule of local events for the 2017 season, Fitch has managed to secure an additional wild card for the WSL Junior Championships in Australia in January.
The lucky recipient is Bevan Willis of Salt Rock, who will join Adin Masencamp, Jordy Maree, Sebastian Williams and Jake Elkington, along with girls Sophie Bell and Kirsty McGillivray, in the WSL Africa squad to compete for surfing’s most prestigious 18-and-under titles in Australia.