Surfing icons honoured
Plaques unveiled at SA’s monument dedicated to the sport
SOUTH Africa’s surfing icons from the past 60 years gathered in Cape Town last Sunday when the first 30 plaques in the Surfers’ Circle Walk of Fame were unveiled at Muizenberg.
Shaun Tomson, the 1977 world champion and universally acknowledged as one of the most influential surfers of all time, presented the keynote speech on the importance of preserving and cherishing surfing’s heritage before cutting a surfboard leash to officially open the country’s only national monument dedicated to the sport and lifestyle.
Surfing luminaries like four-time SA champion and national team captain George Thompson Thomopoulos, who came from London with his wife Lorna to attend, legendary surfing coach and surfboard builder Graham Hynes, 1978 ISA world champion Ant Brodowicz and surf industry pioneer Cheron Kraak of Jeffreys Bay were among those honoured.
Seven years in the making, the monument is situated at Surfers Corner in Muizenberg, the epicentre of surfing in Cape Town and the place where UCT student Heather Price became the first South African recorded riding a wave standing on a surfboard back in 1919.
See more on the monument on the Facebook page at Surfers.Circle.Muizenberg STEVEN Sawyer of Jeffreys Bay posted the best result of the Kumul PNG World Longboard Championships, the first of two events that will determine the 2017 WSL world longboard champion and the first international surfing event ever held in Papua New Guinea.
Sawyer, who was the runner-up for the 2016 title, advanced to round four of the event held in idyllic waves and conditions before bowing out in ninth place overall. Twotime ISA world longboard champ Matthew Moir of Cape Town placed 13th while former street child Alfonso Peters, 27, of Muizenberg, made his debut on the international stage with a 25th place result.
The second and deciding leg of the world longboard tour is tentatively scheduled for Hainan Island in China in December. THE first event in the Billabong Junior Series, the world’s longest running junior surfing series, gets underway in Port Elizabeth this weekend when competitors in the U16, U14, U12 and the newly introduced U10 division take to the surf at Pollock Beach. The U18 men’s and women’s divisions will form part of the Nelson Mandela Surf Pro, also in Port Elizabeth, from April 7-9.
Set to crown its 20th annual champions after the final event at Cape St Francis in October, the series has been the springboard for the likes of 2016 world title runner-up Jordy Smith and countless other South African standout performers such as Bianca Buitendag, Travis Logie, Beyrick de Vries and Michael February.