King of the Kowie set to make waves at East Beach

Some of region’s top surfers to compete

Surf’s up for the annual King of the Kowie surfing competition that kicks off at East Beach on Saturday April 20 under the banner of the Kowie Boardriders Club (KBC).

The competition that is contested over three events — weather permitting — is only open to KBC members.

The various divisions in which some of the region’s top surfers are competing are Open Men & Women, U18 Boys and Girls, the Groms, over 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, Kneelos, Bodyboarders and Longboard.

The second and third events of the King of the Kowie series are pencilled in for May 11/12 and June 8/9.

The surfer in each division who secures the highest placing will be crowned King of the Kowie in their respective section.

“However, the winner of the premier division, which is the Open Division is the ultimate ‘King of the Kowie’,” said KBC chair Mickey Wittuhn.

“Daniel Emslie [winner of the recent Rip Curl Cup] who is surfing the upcoming Challenger series as he tries to re-qualify for the world tour in Australia said he would join the club as a member to surf the last event in the competition.

“Top Border women’s surfer Adriel Wolmarans has indicated that she’ll be surfing this weekend,” added Wittuhn.

Another top junior surfer to join the three-event competition is local junior women’s surfer Lily Heny, who represented SA at the ISA World Championships in Brazil towards the end of last year.

“Other junior men’s surfers are Carl Wiersma, who won the recent U14 Rip Curl grom event at East Beach, and Owen Heny.

Caleb Rogers is also in the mix, who in my opinion has shown tremendous improvement and is doing exceptionally well in the Border trials.”

Wittuhn said SA’s legendary surfing champion Wayne Monk, now competing in the over-50 division, would join up with KBS to surf the competition.

“Wayne is a legend in that he has won the SA title in different divisions 14 times,” said Wittuhn.

Monk will also be surfing in the Open division “to keep the young ones on their toes”

Others to look out for among the veterans is Warwick Heny “who still has the energy of a red-hot surfer”.

However, Wittuhn said the final list of surfers and competition layout would only be available later today [Thursday] once entries were due to close.

The membership fee is R400 which includes a T-shirt, R500 per family and an additional R150 per shirt thereafter.

Interested surfers can call Wittuhn on 072-408-1104 for more information.

Top Border women’s surfer Adriel Wolmarans has indicated that she’ll be surfing this weekend