South Africa’s top under 18 surfers went ballistic in the chunky, overhead waves on the second day of the Billabong Junior Series event taking place at Willard Beach in Ballito on Thursday.
With R20 000 in prize-money at stake, along with rankings points that count towards the Billabong Junior Series, the World Surf League (WSL) Africa junior title and selection for the squad for the WSL World Junior Championships, as well as two spots in the SSA Ballito Pro Trials on offer, the competitors pulled out all the stops as they carved, sliced, diced the waves and flew through air in their efforts to progress to the next round of competition.
Jordy Maree (Kalk Bay) justified his top seeding by winning his Round of 16 heat after riding an incredible 14 waves in the 25 minute encounter. Maree’s powerful turns and gravity defying manoeuvres saw him finish ahead of fellow Capetonian Ford van Jaarsveldt (Kommetjie) and the pair advanced to the last eight in the U18 boys’ event.
“The conditions are super hard out there, you can’t really read how the waves are going to break, but if you wait a bit and find a wedge you can connect a few turns,” said Maree. “This event is really important because it qualifies for the U18 WSL worldjunior champs, which is the biggest event that you can do. And the Billabong Series is the longest running event for juniors, so it’s always a big thing to win an event and at the end of it to win the series.”
Many heats turned on the last ride with Koby Oberholzer snatching second place behind Adin Masencamp in the last seconds of their heat while Alex van Rijswijk’s commitment on hollow, closed out wave saw him earn a berth in the next round.
The U18 girls were equally determined to succeed, pitting themselves against waves that increased in size as the Spring high tide filled in, creating conditions that tested the athletes courage, determination and physical ability.
Diminutive Kai Woolf demonstrated her heart and comfortably won her clash while Zoe McDougall, the only international competitor in the event, showed the value of her Hawaiian experience by advancing along with Taghiti Gericke. Kirsty McGillivray charged to victory ahead of Salt Rock local Sophie Bell, and Kayla Nogueira moved through with the rapidly improving Natasha van Greunen.
The day’s action started with the youngest division, the U12 boys, strutting their stuff in the mellower early morning conditions. Rising stars James Ribbink, Luke Thompson and Dan Emslie won their opening duels and will compete against their respective runners-up in Friday’s semi-finals.
The eight girls in the U14 division were equally competitive with Zoe Steyn and Gabi Lailvaux taking the heat wins and being joined by second placed Kayla Nogueira and S’nenhlanhla Makhubu in the final which will take place on Saturday, along with the finals of all the other divisions.
There are a number of specialty awards that will be determined on Saturday, including:
VonZipper Airshow – surfer landing the best aerial manoeuvre – R2,000
Zigzag Blowing Up Award –standout performance, most impressive surfing over the week – R2,000
BOS Award – Best Carve of the Contest – wins a surfboard
Neff – Forever Fun – “The surfer that spits out something new, exciting and has the most fun doing it” – R2,000
Skull Candy – #StayLoud Award – “Takes risks, steps away from the herd, expresses themselves in their surfing style and lives life to full volume” – R2,500
The U12, U14 and U16 divisions are Surfing South Africa 3A Pro Surf Tour events with prize-money of R2,600 for the U12’s and while the other divisions each share R4,600.
The premier U18 boys’ and girls’ divisions are internationally rated World Surf League (WSL) Junior Qualifying Series (JQS) 1,000 events offering prize-purses of R20,000 and R10,000 respectively.
The U18 boys have an added incentive as the top two placed surfers will be awarded wildcards into the SSA Ballito Pro Trials presented by Billabong on Sunday 26 June. The winner of this 32-man, all-South African trials event will earn the last spot in the R4 million Ballito Pro presented by Billabong that runs from 27 June to 3 July at Willard Beach.
Scheduled for Wednesday to Saturday, 22-25 June, the Billabong Junior Series is supported by KwaDukuza Municipality, VonZipper, Zigzag, BOS, Neff, and Skull Candy, Surfing South Africa and the World Surf League.
Hashtag: #BillabongJNR
RESULTS
(Names in order 1st to 4th ; All South African unless indicated)
Billabong Junior Series U18 Boys Round 2 Results
Heat 1: Jordan Maree, Ford Van Jaarsveldt, Calvin Goor, Luke John Slijpen
Heat 2: Jake Elkington, Alexander Van Rijswijck, Sebastian Williams, Ethan Fletcher
Heat 3: Liam de Villiers, Bevan Willis, Max Elkington, Angelo Faulkner
Heat 4: Adin Masencamp, Koby Oberholzer, Joshe Faulkner, Rewaldo Abersalie
Billabong Junior Series U18 Girls Round 1 Results
Heat 1: Kai Woolf, Olivia Izzard, Crystal Hullet
Heat 2: Zoe McDougall (HAW), Taghiti Gericke, Danica Stockigt, Sam Cele
Heat 3:Kayla Nogueira, Natasha Van Greunen, S’Nenhlanhla Makubu
Heat 4: Kirsty McGillivray, Sophie Bell, Tayla de Coning.
Billabong Junior Series U18 Boys Round 1 Results
Heat1: Ford van Jaarsveldt, Jake Elkington, Tide-Lee Ireland
Heat 2: Sebastian Williams, Luke John Slijpen , Saxton Randall
Heat 3: Max Elkington, Rewaldo Abersalie, Jonathan Coffee
Heat4: Koby Oberholzer, Angelo Faulkner, Donovan Wichmann
Billabong Junior Series U14 Girls Semifinals Results
S1: Zoe Steyn, Kayla Nogueira, Lisa Van Heerden, Aimee du Preez.
S2: Gabi Lailvaux, S’nenhlanha Makubu, Lhea Johnson, Gabbi Herbst.
Billabong Junior Series U12 Boys Round 1 Results
Heat 1: James Ribbink, Christian Venter, Matthew Coetzer
Heat 2: Luke Thompson, Alex Townsend, Kai Hall, Julian Carbonel
Heat 3: Dan Emslie, Matt O’Brien, Callum Whittle