Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Training camp a success

Hi everyone, i am so proud to inform you that the first of many training camps was an absolute success. During the S.A champs i rounded up 10 of the best surfers in the country including Shaun Joubert, u/18 S.A champ Matt Bromley, U/16 S.A champ Davey Brand his brother Benji brand, u/16 girls S.A champ Bianca Buitendag just to name a few. Jacob Mellish and Tanika Hoffman also attended from Cape Town , Arthur and Vincent Withers as well as Daniel Buitendag also attended the camp.

On the first day we woke up to a beautiful sunrise but very disappointing surf, howling onshore and lumpy. We started the day with a nice run along the the beautiful Bosbokduin beach, we did a dynamic warm up session and played some touch rugby. On the run back we found a lekker big dune which we ran a few times to finish off the morning training session we did about 30 min stretching.

Everyone retired to their castles for breakfast, i had arranged 4 thatch roofed houses in the Bosbokduin nature reserve right on Dolphin point, the perfect setting for such a camp. After breakfast we headed to Still bay main beach where we played some more touch as if we were preparing for the Currie Cup final we topped the session off by playing the life saving game, flags. The idea was to add an element of fun into the rigorous fitness regime.
As the surf was not playing along it was impossible to do heat drills, at this point the kids just wanted to surf. The kids surfed and where filmed after which we went home for late lunch and video analysis. We finished the day just in time to go to the local pub to watch the Currie Cup finals on the big screen. That evening we got together and had a lovely braai fortunately we had an indoor braai as the wind was still very strong.

Day two the onshore was still blowing so we started the day with a very similar warm up and fitness session. After breakfast the sun came out and the wind dropped off to turn out into a perfect day. We were also pleasantly surprised to find a super fun right hander right on our door step, this would be the venue for the mini contest.

The contest went down really well and the on form Shaun Joubert took the win over a hard working absolutley ripping Matt Bromley, Davey Brand finished 3rd and Jacob Mellish 4th. Families hung out on the beach while the kids competed, all in all i believe everyone had a great time. It was a great way for the families to have a weekend away and the kids to learn, it was an awsome weekend which everyone enjoyed. I am really looking forward to holding more of these camps in the future.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

O.M.G



The Oakley Global Challenge serves up perfect barrels and perfect all round waves at
the high performance wave of Keramas Bali, Indonesia. From the get go Shaun was clearly out on a mission to win the event with massive heat score all through the event.
The 19-year-old was all class in the barrelling right-handers, weaving through the eye of two reeling tubes to snare a pair of near-perfect 9’s (9.5 & 9.43). After the heat, Joubert said he was pleased to be in Bali.

The duo of Nick Godfrey and Shaun Joubert were flying the flag high with both of them having sterling performances. Both making a name for themselves and South Africa by showing the rest of the world the level of talent we have here on our home soil.

Nick Godo was on fine form and made it all the way to the quarter finals finishing 5th overall. Quintin Jones was also there as Nick's mentor and coach and was able to bare witness to the amazing world class surfing that went down at Karama's.

Shaun Jobert went on another round to the semi finals where he met his match in the talented Marc Lacomare from France and unfortunately bowed out and finished 3rd overall.

The boys are still in Indonesia enjoying a solid ground swell, the event finished a few days earlier which has allowed them to sit back and enjoy some good surf with friends after a there hard work and big effort. Look forward to hearing all about it when you get home Kido.
Other news hot off the press is that Mossel bay charger and all round ripper and nice guy Indy Rookin-Smith has been selected to surf the Springbok trials after an excellent performance at the S.A surfing Championships. The trials will be held in Port Alfred on Saturday 29th of November. Well done and good luck

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Reef Wetsuits S.A junior Champs


WOW! What an event. Last week i drove up to Durban 16 hours to go coach the Southern Cape Junior team. The team overall did really well and placed 5th out of 8 which means there is room for improvement. All the kids really did well and for those who did not make the semi or finals they gave it their all and went down fighting.
Stand outs in the Southern Cape Team were Indi Rookin-Smith & Adel Nortjie both from Mossel Bay and both placed equal 5th in the U/18 division. Bianca Buitendag from Victoria Bay won the U/16 division, she not only won but smoked her fellow competitors scoring 17.65 out of a possible 20 the closest was second place Heidi Palmboom with a heat total of 9.00.
Roxy Giles competed in her first ever S.A champs and with pure grit and determination qualified for the finals where she finished 3rd overall.
Other stand outs in the Southern Cape Team were Daniel Buitendag 5th in the U/14, Dylan Reddering from Plet who surfed the bigger conditions with courage and Vincent Withers.
The surf was fantastic the whole event except the first day which was onshore, for the the rest of the event the surf was cooking. It was almost called the Reef Wetsuits big waves S.A junior champs.
Other students that i am currently working with that were also very impressive at the event was of coarse overall S.A u/18 208 junior Champion Matt Bromley. Matt was surfing smooth and polished the entire event to take the win over my main man Brendon Gibbens. Brendon was looking to take the title with some really hard committed surfing, he was a standout at the event and has finally broken his 5th place rut that he has been stuck in. The hard work these kids are putting in finally paying off.

In the U/16 Davey Brand walked away with the win over fellow competitor Jacob Mellish who finished 3rd. Davey was looking hot from the first day and was the man to beat surfing to the criteria, hard fast and tight in the pocket. Jacob has been putting allot of effort into his surfing and his results are proof, he has come along way in the last couple months and can be very proud of his improvement.

Little power house Benji Brand walked away with a win in the u/12 division putting the rest of his competitors to shame by scoring 17.00 out of 20 his nearest threat was the ripper from Cape Town Max Armstrong who placed second with a heat total of 8.75.
Well done to all the competitors i am very impressed with the standard of surfing and am looking forward to seeing these kids grow into mature rippers one day.