Ballito centre of attraction
World’s best surfers take stage at the KwaDukuza coastal hub
Teyes of the surfing world, and many who don’t surf too, will be firmly fixed on Ballito for the next week as a huge contingent of the world’s best competitors converge on the KwaDukuza coastal hub for the 49th edition of the Ballito Pro.
The world’s longest running professional surfing event, which started as the Durban 500 in 1969, has been one of the most prestigious surfing events on the annual World Surf League (WSL) calendar.
This year it is the first of just five Qualifying Series (QS) 10000 rated events and has attracted 17 of the elite top 34 surfers who contest the Championship Tour (CT).
They will be challenged by 29 of the top 32 QS surfers, who are desperate to snare the 10 000 points awarded to the winner so they can qualify for a place among surfing’s highest echelon, and another 70 hungry challengers seeking to upset the favourites.
The field is led by Durban’s own Jordy Smith who is a strong contender for the 2017 world title. Smith, who won the Ballito Pro in 2010, is No. 3 on the CT rankings and just 600 points behind Matt Wilkinson of Australia.
The CT surfers include defending event champion Connor O’Leary and fellow Australians Jack Freestone, Ethan Ewing and Josh Kerr; Brazilians Italo Ferreira, Wiggolly Dantas and Ian Gouveia; Reunion Islander Jeremy Flores; Ezekiel Lau of Hawaii; Californian Kanoa Igarashi and Leonardo Fioravanti of Italy.
Jordy is joined by six other South Africans with Mikey February of Kommetjie, Beyrick de Vries of uMhlanga and Matthew McGillivray qualifying via the 2016 QS rankings, and van Zyl of Glenashley and Dylan Lightfoot allocated wildcards as they are the highest ranked locals who did not automatically gain entry.
The final wildcard went to Ballito local Richard Kidd who won the 32-man SSA Ballito Trials at Willard Beach yesterday afternoon in a hard fought final where he finished ahead of Slade Prestwich, Shane Sykes and Jordy Maree.
“This whole event I’ve just kind of been trying to push aside the pressure, I’m a local here so I surf this spot pretty much every day,” said an elated Kidd on the podium.
“My girlfriend was telling me just to go out there and free surf like I do every day, so that kinda worked. I’m definitely going into the main event with the same strategy! I’m stoked on my boards, stoked on the vibe, just stoked in general!”
The Ballito Pro men’s event gets underway on Monday and is the anchor event of the Ballito Pro Surf Festival which started on Tuesday and has already crowned Samuel Pupo of Brazil and Zoe McDougal of Hawaii as the Billabong Junior Series U18 men’s and women’s champions, plus winners in the U16, U14 and U12 boys’ and girls’ divisions, along with Kidd winning the Trials.
The QS1 000 Ballito Women’s Pro starts today with 14 internationals in the field of 32 and Willard Beach is alive with activity with a beachside festival site hosting extreme sports demonstrations, free live music acts at Salt Rock and plenty more fun in the mid-winter sunshine.
All the surfing action can be followed live at www.worldsurfleague.com on the free WSL App or via the WSL QS social media pages.