ISA World Surfing Games

International Surfing Association
Huntington Beach, California
14 - 22 October 2006 

South African Girls Into Last 16 at ISA World Surfing Games

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 18 October, 2006 : - - The strength of women’s surfing in South Africa was evident at the ISA World Surfing Games in California yesterday when Rosanne Hodge (East London) and Tammy-Lee Smith (Salt Rock, KZN) both progressed through two rounds of competition to reach the last 16 in the qualifying stream of the biennial event. 

And the quality of competition at this gathering of the ‘United Nations of Surfing’ was amply demonstrated when 2000 ASP world champ CJ Hobgood, USA teammate and fellow WCT campaigner Chris Ward and former ISA men’s world champ Heifara Tahutini (Tahiti) were all dispatched to the repecharge rounds, along with SA’s Gavin Roberts. 

Meanwhile SA’s position at the head table of ISA decision making was secured when long serving administrator, Robin de Kock, the GM of Surfing South Africa, was elected to the position of Senior Vice President for a period four years at the Biennial General Meeting of the organisation. 

Hodge dominated both her heats in the women’s division. The current #8 on the WQS rankings left her opponents needing a combination of rides in the opening heat and then clinched a valiant victory over three vastly more experienced girls next up, advancing to the last 16 along with second placed Julia Christian (USA) and relegating Caroline Sarran (FRA) and Patricia Lopes (POR) to the repecharge rounds. 

Smith joined her teammate in the third round of the qualifying stream via a pair comfortable runner-up finishes in her heats. The two SA girls have arguably the easier task of qualifying for the last eight from quarter-finals one and four with heats two and three featuring one representative each from Australia, USA and Brazil and only the top two in each heat avoiding the cutthroat repecharge rounds. 

Roberts (Scottburgh) was in contention to advance throughout his third round match-up and only needed a score of 6.77 when finishing third behind WCT standout Damien Hobgood (USA) and Julian Wilson (Aus). He now joins teammates Granville West (PE) and Durbanites Jordy Smith and Matthew Kruger in the repecharge rounds, although he starts in round four while the other three must still negotiate their way out of round two. 

Elevation to Senior Vice President of the ISA, along with Alan Atkins (Australia), is a deserved acknowledgement of Robin de Kock’s major contribution to surfing both in SA and internationally over more than 30 years. After becoming a committee member of Western Province Surfing in the mid ‘70’s he went on to chair that association for more than a decade while serving on the SA national excecutive. 

Taking over the reigns of the SA Surfing Association as President in the late 80’s, de Kock oversaw the transformation of local surfing in 1990, the formation of the United Surfing Council of SA and its successor, Surfing South Africa (SSA). He became the SSA’s first paid administrator as the General Manager in 2001, and successfully coordinated the ISA World Surfing Games in Durban in 2002. 

A Vice President of the ISA since 1998, the born and bred Capetonian has served as Technical Director for a number of WSG events and has initiated and / or contributed to the creative changes that have resulted in the ISA being recognized as the international governing body for surfing by the IOC and a number of other global and regional sporting federations.

Today’s action at the WSG at Huntington Beach sees live webcasts of the second and third repecharge rounds of the men’s division featuring Granville West, Jordy Smith and Matthew Kruger. 

The second podium will host bodyboarding starting with men’s qualifying round two where SA’s Wesley Fisher and Sacha Specker will be attempting to maintain their unblemished records in the tournament and skip the repecharge rounds later in the day by advancing directly to qualifying round three.  

NB: California is 9 hours behind SA time, e.g. 8am in California is 5pm in SA

WEDNESDAY October 18th

Main Podium

8:00AM 16 Heats Open Rep2
1:20PM 8 Heats Open Rep3
  
 8:00AM  8 Heats Body Board MEN Q2
 10:40AM

Second Podium
  
10:40AM  3 Heats Body Board WOMEN Q2
11:40AM 6 Heats Body Board MEN Rep1
1:40PM  8 Heats Body Board MEN Rep2

The SA team has been funded by a grant from the National Lottery Board (Lotto) and the side has received support from O'Neill South Africa, Island Style and Reef Wetsuits

www.isasurf.org

Team South Africa:  www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za
# 1 : S Afr Surfing Team leaves for 2006 ISA WSG on Tuesday
# 2 : Granville West named captain for 2006 S.A. Surfing team
# 3 : Matthew Moir blitzes opposition at Lost Energy ISA WSG
# 4 : Coming soon  

www.isasurf.org
www.lostenterprises.com
www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za

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