Locals dominate SA champs
Giant waves force change of venue in East London
THE 52nd edition of the national surfing championships were held in East London last week and local surfers from the Buffalo City Surfriders dominated the results after giant surf forced the organisers to relocate the event from the original venue of Nahoon Reef to the more sheltered beach break known as Nahoon Corner for three of the five days of competition.
The Buffalo City team clinched a clean sweep of all three team trophies – the inaugural Champions Cup, the Presidents Cup and the Masters Cup (for the 12th time) – along with five of the nine individual SA titles at stake, including Tyrell Johnson (Over35), Greg Emslie (O-40), Wayne Monk (O-45), David Malherbe (O-50) and Gordon Harmer (O60)
eThekwini Surf Riders finished runners-up in the Champions and Presidents cup standings and third in the Masters Cup with former multiple South African and ISA World Masters Champion Chris Knutsen securing the Over-55 men’s title and Olivia Brand crowned the Open Women’s champion.
Brandon Benjamin of Cape Town Surf Riders secured the prestigious Open Men’s title while Heather Clark from Port Shepstone won the Over-30 women’s event and finished runner-up in the Open Women. Current World Surf League (WSL) No 1 ranked surfer Jordy Smith will wear the coveted Jeep Rankings leader’s yellow vest for the first time in his career when he takes to the surf during the Hurley Pro Trestles, Stop No 8 of 11 on the Championship Tour which gets under way in California on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old Durbanite now resides in San Clemente, close to the rock-lined point known as Lower Trestles, and will be determined to add to the event titles he won there last year and in 2014 and to extend his lead on the rankings before heading into the two events in Europe and season finale in Hawaii.
Reigning WSL champion John John Florence of Hawaii, who Smith defeated in the 2014 final, holds the No. 2 spot on the rankings going into Trestles. He is followed by Australians Matt Wilkinson, Owen Wright and the in-form Julian Wilson, winner of the previous event in Tahiti, along with Brazilians Adriano de Souza and Gabriel Medina.
However, the biggest threat to Jordy’s chances of the third title could well come from another Brazilian in the form of Filipe Toledo, the winner of the Corona Open J-Bay in July, who like Smith has re-located and now lives near what is considered to be best high performance waves in California.
All the action at the event can be followed live at www. worldsurfleague.com, on the WSL App and via Facebook Live on the WSL page starting at approximately 5 pm daily.