Quiksilver KOG Mossel Bay

Mossel bay had cooking surf all week leading up to the contest with medium swell, great tides and favourable winds allowing for some super warm up sessions before the contest.

Saturday 13th saw the annual Quiksilver king of the groms kick off in Mossel bay in cooking 2-3ft surf. The tides were neaps and the wind light which would therefor have little effect on the wave. The waves by the afternoon were cooking breaking right from ze back back.

Saturday evening I had a premier of my new short movie called Gromz Go Crazy 01 at the Waves surf shop. It was a great success and all the kids loved it, there is some amazing surfing and waves on the video so be sure to look out for it. I hope to have sequels to the movie, so any hot groms who want to feature be sure to get in touch.

Sunday 14th contestant and organisers woke up to a disappointing sight of flat wave at the Point. It was a last minute decision and with absolutely no other option of a venue the contest had to be moved to Herolds bay.Having not made prior arrangement to host the event at Herolds bay did cause some hassles with the local law enforcement, nothing like a little morning drama to start the day.

With that sorted the contest ran in super fun 3ft waves with plenty of ripping going on. Davey Brand won the U/16 final by opening up with a 7.25 busting a huge signature first turn on his first wave, Mickey and Davey were in fact in the last KOG finals in Kommetjie were Mickey got the upper hand. However this time round it was Davey who took the honours after dominating every heat, he walked away with the win convicingly.

Other Stand Outs in the U/16 was Daniel Wilson from Kommetjie, this result surely proving what this young mans surfing ability is cabable of finishing equal 3rd. Dark Hoarse Vincent Withers showed some local local knowledge by taking down some big names on his way to a semi final birth and an equal 3rd, pocketing himself some cash and proving hard work does pay off.

The U/20 final was amazing to watch, Brendon Gibbens continued his good form by winning the event in a hard contested final. Chris Lappan looked good from the beginning of the contest and was the man to beat. Both started off with some good scores but it was Chris who took it too the next level by busting out an air 360, Brendon saw this and stepped up to the plate and also busted a bigger and better air 360.

After all was said and done the event ran very well and as usual all parents and kids were stoked after a great weekend in Mossel Bay town of the year.

Next up is the O'neil Cold Water Classic in Cape Town a 4 star WQS followed by the Rip Curl Grom search also held in Cape Town, so be sure to watch this space.

Mr Price WP Open

Well Well Well, it's been a really busy two weeks since the S.A champs. The weekend before saw the Mr Price WP Open where my boys were really kicking up a storm. In almost near perfect Trestles look alike conditions at Long Beach, Kommetjie.

Shaun Joubert was the man to beat making both the u/20 and open final his arch rival Chad du Toit also qualified for both finals showing the older crew that the young guns are coming through fast and furious.

Despite sterling performances from both these surfers it was tall kid Matt Bromley with his new strategy that took the u/20 final convincingly with two strong rides, Mickey Feb was looking hot in the final when he scored a 9 on his first wave but was very unfortunate not to get a back up wave therefor finishing 2nd overall. Shaun Jobubert and Chad du Toit finished 3rd and 4th respectively.

In the open men's division, Gavin Roberts continued his show of form after having just won the S.A senior champs by finishing 4th overall. Shaun Joubert was very stoked to make both finals although slightly disappointed not having won one of the divisions in the near perfect surf, he was ripping throughout the event and managed a consistent 3rd. Brendon Gibbens finished 2nd overall continuing his string of good results this year, Chad du Toit redeemed his fourth place finish in the Juniors by taking out the open men's.

Mossel Bay Ripper Johann Kriek dominated his heats up until the final were he was unable to get a solid back up score which left him with a equal 5th overall, a great result, well done.

MEN'S DIVISION
1. Chad du Toit : Durban : R6000 & 1000 PST points
2. Brendon Gibbens: Kommetjie : R2400 & 860 points
3. Shaun Joubert : Mossel Bay : R1500 & 730 points
4. Gavin Roberts : Scottburgh : R1300 & 670

U20 BOY'S DIVISION
1. Matt Bromley : Kommetjie : R2000 & 1000 points
2. Mikey February : Kommetjie : R900 & 860 points
3. Shaun Joubert : Mossel Bay : R600 & 730 points
4. Chad du Toit : Durban : R500 & 670 points

S.A Surfing Championships/National team trials

Last week saw the 44th inaugural S.A surfing champs held in St Mikes sponsored by South Coast Tourism. It was a highly contested event as usual with plenty of highs and lows, the surf was very demanding with consistent 4-6 foot waves. We were very fortunate to score cooking 4ft Southbroom before the event started this proving to be a positive start of some great surf for the week ahead.

Day 1 saw cooking 4-6 foot offshore waves peeling down the point and a new format, 1st place through to round 4 2nd and 3rd to round 3 and 4th into repo charge round 2.

Friday was a whole other ball game with solid 8 foot sets and a howling NE wind making for extreme conditions, after heats there were some great car park stories of how guys were getting dealt in the solid surf. Saturday and Sunday proved to be awesome conditions not dropping below the 5ft mark, great waves ment there was some world class surfing.

Stand outs in the men's division were DEVYN MATTHEYS, DAN REDMAN, MAMFRED ADRIO, and the man to beat RYAN PAYNE eventual surfer of the contest.

Gavin Roberts beat 2007 SA Champion Devyn Mattheys of Border into second place with Dan Redman of KZN grabbing third ahead of 2009 Surfer of the Contest Ryan Payne of EP.

Nobody could out class HEATHER CLARK in the open woman's division showing that the St Mikes local can still mix it up with the best surfers in the country. From the outset it was obvious that Heather was in it to win it.

Clark successfully defended the title she won at Victoria Bay last year after fighting her way through the repocharge round early in this year’s event. Nikita Robb of Border was second, Tammy Lee Smith of KZN came third and Faye Zoetmulder of EP was fourth.

Kyle Lane was definitely the man to beat in the u/20 boys division with some hard hitting back hand turns. Shaun Denis was also looking good throughout the event, Jaco Stey was a definite threat with a new found confidence showing in his attitude and surfing. Bertie Stuurman was on fine form and looking to take the title.

Shawn Dennis found form in the Under 20 Boys Final to beat fellow KZN surfer Kyle Lane into second place while 2009 Junior Surfer of the Year and Lotto Scholarship recipient Bertie Stuurman of EP came third. Underling KZN’s dominance in this division was Chris Leppan who was fourth.

In the Girls u/20 Sarah Baum was definitely onfire and looking very good on her backhand in the solid surf, she would have been the obvious bet although it was tough cookie Taryn Chudleigh that piped her at the end for the S.A champ title.Chudleigh’s board hit her in the face during her semi final and she had to be taken to hospital but she was back in time for her final and did Western Province proud.

Final team placings after all was said and done:
TEAMS
1. KWAZULU NATAL 47344
2. SOUTHERN KWAZULU NATAL 38690
3. BORDER 38294

4. EASTERN PROVINCE 36922
5. WESTERN PROVINCE 36512
6. BOLAND 33750

During the S.A champs 9 surfers were selected to take part in in National team trials, surfing for one position. Three positions had been already given to top WQS campaigners, Brandon Jackson, Rudi Palmboom junior and Damien Farenfort. In the end it was clear tha Ryan Payne and Llewellyn Whittaker wanted to be in the team more than anyone.

In a round robin type trial over four heats Ryan and Lu had three 1st places but it was Ryan's 2nd place in his 4th heat that beat Lu's 3rd place. So after loads of heats it was Ryan Payne that would be part of the National team going to Costa Rica end of July, Llewellyn will be first reserve.

S.J WINS OAKLEY PRO JNR

Shaun Joubert makes his come back almost half way through the year and wins the Oakley pro junior in Port Alfred over the weekend. The kid was on fine form throughout the entire contest and was so stoked when the end of the heat came and he had won. Shaun has been very patient over the last few months, looking for a solid result. After the experience and the highest place finish at the world Games in Equador, equal 8th, it was just a matter of time till he won an event.

Brendon Gibbons finished a convincing second, Bendon was the man to beat at the event but fell short in the hard contested final. Its great to see the young man applying himself and his talent finally getting the results he deserves.

In almost perfect surf Shaun dominated the event and took down the best surfers in the country as well as some international talent. Friday saw Matt Bromley steal the lime light by surfing exceptionally well and turning heads scoring strong 7 point rides.

Other stand outs were mr consistent the angle grinder Davey Brand who made quarter finals and finished equal 5th with his good friend Jacob Mellish.

Davey, hot off a 3rd place finish at the World Games in Ecuador took down some big names utilising his strong back hand. Jacob Mellish after a slow start this year has come out the gates, firing on all four cylinders and surfed hard and fast throwing down some big turns to make it through some stiff heats and into the quarter finals.

Tanika Hoffman did exceptionally well making the most of the long right handers, the strong back hand Tanika turn assisting her to the semi final, finishing 3rd overall.

Mossel Bay Junior Camp

Hello Boys and Girls,

Last weekend on the 25th and 26th of April i had a mini grom surf camp the surf pumped. I had 5 parents enquire about training on this specific long weekend which made me think i should have a camp. It was small camp with only 5 people attending and a very young group with the youngest been 7 and the oldest 13.

The kids that attended the camp were as follows, Goofy foot ripper from Kalk Bay, Jordan Maree age 10, Strand wave slayer, Adin Mazemcamp age 9 and the eldest of them all Nahoon's style master, Licoln Logie age 13.

The other two that made up the five were the Elkington Brothers, Max age 7 and Jake age 9, both charging and showing ability way beyond their age in the great surf. As you might have noticed i mentioned that the waves were cooking.

Saturday inner pool was all time with a solid little ground swell and a pushing tide most the day, the boys really excelled in the rippable waves even on the high tide when things got a bit tricky and started breaking close to the rocks.

Sunday was disappointing at the Point, we woke up to small 2 foot waves with a devil wind, I made the call and went to one of our semi secret spots where we scored epic 3 foot grinding left handers. The kids absolutely loved the waves and the challenge, it was great to see them out there charging, enjoying themselves.

After scoring such great waves it was evident that this camp's focus was about learning to catch and ride good waves properly and at the same time working on their technique. All sessions were videoed and video analysis done in our Waves school of surfing class room.

Each and everyone of the kids i am sure learnt a valuable lesson whether it be about surfing or just about themselves. All in all a very successful camp.

Big shout out to the local boys for giving me space and freedom to use the Point as a training ground.

S.A long board champs

I though i would share the fantastic news if you have not hear already. The Southern Cape long boarding team did exceptionally well last week in Jeffery's Bay. The contest had great surf everyday against weather and swell forecast which made for great surfing and even better surfing.

Below are the SC Team members who got to finals:

Daniel Buitendag- 2nd boys division- Having surfed a long board for 1st time.

Bianca Buitendag- 1st girls division- on Daniels board also the first time
Tess Saunders-4th girls division.

Bianca Buitendag- 3rd Ladies division- also on board borrowed from Des Sawyer.
Roxy Towill-4th Ladies Division

Glen Thompson-3rd Grand Master

Steven Hair-2nd Veterans

Mike Hornsey- 3rd Super legends

Terry Deans-4th Super Legends

Matthew Moir open division- won surfer of the contest, despite not making finals.

A commendable 3rd place to Southern Cape, the team with the best attitude and team spirit. Congratulations

Please if anyone has any news to share regarding surfing in the greater Southern Cape area please contact me if you would like to share.

Boland Trials

Daar is geen Land soos die Bo-Land,

Boland were kind enough to open up their doors to the Southern Cape community and allowed us to surf their trials. Johan Kriek has been ripping and seems very determined, he has two trials and is confident he will be first seed for the Boland team. Last weekend saw the final of three trials held at Jongensfontein. The conditions were epic 3-4foot right handers peeling all day, neap tides and off shore wind made for rippable waves all day.

There was some really hot junior surfing with guys like Phillip Visagie, Andrew Smith and Tommie Kruger really impressing me in the small to medium perfect waves. U/16 surfer Rigartd Smit was also on fine form doing some big turns and impressing the judges. The final results are as follows.

U/20
1)Tommie Kruger
2)Andrew Smith
3)Philip Visage
4)JP Olivier
5)Rigardt Smit
5)Philip Venter
6)Klaus Schroder
7)Bjorn Larsen

The Open was hard fought with all the guys ripping, the final was an all Southern Cape affair making the most of their right hand point surfing and putting that experience into practice. The waves were super fun and there were only four people in the water at a time, it did not feel like you were in a heat trying to win a contest. The end result was as follows:

Open
1) Johan Kriek
2)Llewellyn Whittaker
3)Shaun Botha
4)Mark Zunkel
5)Andries Dunn
6)Jeffrey Greaves
7)Raymond Trevor

All in all it was a great day. The full team will be announced shortly, so be sure to watch this space.

S.A grommet Games

This event was held in P.E where three of my student shone. Little charger Max Elkington got 1st in the U/8 division and his older brother Jake finished 2nd in the U/10 division.

Big shout out must go to little ripper Adin Mazemcamp who won the U/10 division convincingly, he was also nominated surfer of the event after a sterling performance through the contest consistently scoring 8,9 and 10 point rides in his heats.

Well done Adin your a little ripper keep it up looking forward to seeing more performances such as these in the future.

Billabong Pro Junior

After arriving home after a gruelling 2 day trip from Ecuador the team left Cape Town international to fly to Durban the very next day. A very hectic schedule for such young, up and coming stars.

The disappointing news was that non of their boards arrived as they were left in Amsterdam, this would prove to be a problem for those competing in the event the following day, although this is not never heard of and comes with the territory of being a professional surfer.

The conditions were very testing but contestable averaging 3 foot clean waves in the morning deteriorating throughout the day due to the onshore making for very shifty waves.

Competing in excellent offshore waves that grew from one metre to a board-breaking two metres during the day, Bianca Buitendag, 15, from Victoria Bay, beat SA junior teammate Kirsty Delport (Durban) by 12.75 points to 8.25 in a one-sided final with Delport. Well done Bianca you deserve it, I am very proud of you.

Other stars at the event in the U/20 division were Brendon Gibbens who finished 2nd and defiantly deserves a good result as he is a very hot talented surfer, my main man Matt Bromley finished 3rd and Jaco Steyn finished equal 5th showing that hard work and determination will get you results. Congrats Casey on the win, you have been impressing for some time and its finally payed off, keep it up.

U16 saw Mr consistent Davey Brand finish 3rd overall and dark hoarse Danile Wilson shinning by putting effort into his approach, finishing 5th overall. Congratulations to Davey Van Zyl for his win and Mikey Feb for 2nd.

Welcome back to Benji Barnd after an extended stay in Hawaii, clearly doing him the world of good. He put all his North shore winter knowledge to practise and walked away with a convincing win in the U/14 division

In the U/12 Shane Sykes took the win over goofy foot style master Jordan Maree, Well done to Jordy for and excellent result who also competed in the U/14 division where he finished 7th overall, Jordy Maree has only just turned ten and he showing talent beyond his years, congratulations young man.

Wish i could have been there to watch all these kids ripping it would have been very entertaining.

ISA world surfing games

Hi Guys and Gels,

I am sure you have all heard the final results and the achievements of the Junior team in Ecuador, I know the news is a bit late but this is what the news is from inside the camp.

We arrived early and quickly acclimatised to the weather, accommodation, waves and food. Having arrived early would help put us in a positive frame of mind knowing we had more time practising at the contest arena, it also allowed us to have our competition with New Zealand.

Every year S.A surf against NZ in a warm up event before the world games. This year for the first time in four years we beat them, we not only beat them we absolutely annihilated them. Shaun Joubert the only U/18 to make the final won the division, we got 1st and 2nd in the U/16 and 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the girls U/18 division. Team S.A went on to get a 1st and 2nd in the tag team which led to a convincing win over the All Blacks, they literally went home with their tail between their legs and we went home with spirits high.

It was a grueling 8 day event and every single team member would contribute in some shape or form to the end result. The waves at Le Farre were very consistent we only had one day where we battled for surf due to the high tide, during this time we took part in the tag team event where we placed 2nd in the semi final to secure us a spot in the tag team final to be held on the last day. Without Matt Bromley in the tag team we would never have made the final, in the semi final we tactically sent him to the point as our power surfer and he continued to blow up scoring a 9 and two 8 point rides.

It all went down to the wire, team S.A on the second last day was lying third and in contention for the title with five surfers still remaining in the event. Unfortunately it was not to be our day and we lost four kids going into the last day.

We finished 6th overall one better than last year although accumulating a lot more points as a team, we were proud to have a finalist in Davey Brand who finished a well deserved 3rd overall. We also received a silver medal in the tag team finals, a true testament of our sheer determination as a nation to never give up.

Stand outs for me were Shaun Jobert who placed highest out of the South Africans in the U/18 division who placed 8th overall, Bianca Buitendag finished a convincing 11th overall and was not finished kicking butt and only got knocked out due to some hard core hassling from the two Americans. Davey Brand did us really proud by finishing 3rd overall and was on fire the entire event, consistency proving to be the way to win and ISA world junior title.
Well done team we are all very proud of your effort.