Twig’s Mavericks boost
Baker’s big wave hot-spot a tour stop on 2017/18 schedule
THE new head coach of the Spar Proteas netball team, Dr Elsje Jordaan, says the side will have to hit the ground running next year to raise the level of play across the board with physicality being a major aspect of the modern international game.
Speaking at a media conference in Johannesburg, Jordaan said that the forthcoming two-leg Quadrangular Series between Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa at the Copper Box Arena in London (January 20-22) and at the Ellis Park Indoor Arena in Johannesburg (January 2528) would play a critical part in the selection of the teams of these four countries that would go forward to participate in the 2018 Commonwealth Games to be held in April in Australia.
Bearing all this in mind a Proteas “shadow” squad of 18 players has been selected to assemble for a training camp in Johannesburg from January 10-16 and would be immediately followed by national trials to select the final squad to play in the Quad Series.
Jordaan stressed that the Quad Series would also be the last opportunity for players to impress the selectors ahead of the Games.
“I am not planning to make big changes,” said Jordaan. “Some of the players who have been out injured recently have also been invited to the camp and these include Ziggie Burger and Izette Lubbe who have been sidelined by injury but who, we are pleased to report, are back in action.”
The only member of the team that played in last year’s Quad Series in Australia and New Zealand and who is not available for selection this time round is Rochelle Lawson.
Jordaan said that all the players in the squad of 18 invited to attend the January 10 camp were part of the squad groomed and trained by her predecessor, Australian Norma Plummer, and her assistant, Nicole Cusack. “Norma and Nicole will be in attendance at both the training camp and the trials,” said Jordaan, “and Norma will continue to take the lead part while I learn as much as I can from her.
“The system is working well and I am not planning any dramatic changes to it.”
Jordaan said conditioning and the building up of upper body strength would be areas she would be focusing on.
“We have seen how our players who have played in professional leagues in England, Australia and New Zealand have improved because of their conditioning and that is what we want to get right with all our players. I plan to work closely with the provincial coaches so that we can raise the level of physicality throughout all the regions.”
Asked about the introduction of some of the younger players into the Commonwealth Games squad, Jordaan said she was aware of this need but she was not altogether sure that the Games were the ideal place to blood young players.
“The Commonwealth Games is the closest netball gets to the Olympics. It is a difficult tournament and players don’t go to the Commonwealth Games just to gain experience.”
REIGNING WSL Big Wave Tour (BWT) champion Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker of Durban will be delighted with the news that Mavericks, the iconic big wave venue situated at Halfmoon Bay near Santa Cruz in California, has been included as a stop on the 2017/18 schedule.
Baker is languishing in 26th place in the rankings after suffering an uncharacteristic round one exit when defending his 2016 win at Puerto Escondido in Mexico in July and then narrowly missing the start of his opening heat at Jaws in Hawaii in October.
With just one event before the season ends in March, the Nazare Challenge in Portugal, the South African’s chances of defending his crown, or even making the top 10 who re-qualify for the following season’s tour, were looking slim.
So the World Surf League’s announcement that they had secured the permit to run the Mavericks event with a waiting period from January 3 to February 28 will have raised Twiggy’s hopes of yet another successful BWT season given his stellar results at the best big wave spot on the American mainland.
Starting out as the Men Who Ride Mountains in 1999, the storied location has hosted some of the most memorable big wave contests in the history of the sport.
The first three editions (1999, 2000 and 2004) were all won by local Darryl Virostko who was unbeatable in his home surf before passing the banner to fellow Santa Cruz resident Anthony Tashnick in 2005.
Baker became the first non-local to win the event in 2006 and went on to finish runner-up to good friend and fellow two-time BWT champ Greg Long of San Clemente in 2008.
That year ‘Twig’ also earned US $50 000 (roughly R700 000 at current rates) when he was awarded the Billabong XXL Ride of the Year for one of his rides in the Mavericks event.
There was no event in 2009 before Capetonian Chris Bertish captured the title in 2010.
A combination of the absence of quality big waves and wrangling among the organisers over the permit rights resulted in no events in 2011 and 2012 before Peter Mel, yet another Santa Cruz local, surfed to victory in marginal conditions in 2013.
Baker was back on the victory dais in 2014, defeating Shane Dorian of Hawaii, Long and three Santa Cruz locals in the final, and the last event was run in 2016 with Nick Lamb of – you guessed it – Santa Cruz taking the title.
Renamed the Titans of Mavericks, the event has endured a succession of legal battles over the permit since then, but those appear to have been resolved and, conditions permitting, the event will go ahead with 24 in the men’s field and a six-strong women’s field sometime in January or February under the title of the Mavericks Challenge. JORDY Smith started his battle for the 2017 world surfing title in the best possible way on Monday when he posted the highest heat total on the opening day of the Billabong Pipe Masters, the 11th and final stop on the WSL Championship Tour.
One of four contenders going into the event, Smith needs to reach the final and for the top two seeds, John John Florence of Hawaii and Gabriel Medina of Brazil, to lose early in the event to clinch his maiden world title.
The waiting period for the event runs until December 20. For more details log on to: www.world-surfleague.com