Billabong Junior Series Vic Bay

Surfing South Africa
Victoria Bay Southern Cape South Africa
9 - 12 August 2007

Race for premier surfing titles heats up as Billabong Junior Series resumes at Victoria Bay

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 2 August, 2007 : - - South Africa’s mid-year international contest season is now in the history books and attention shifts to the domestic scene as the race for the country’s most prestigious junior surfing titles resumes at Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape next weekend.

Scheduled for Thursday to Sunday, 9-12 August, the fourth stop on the R220 000 Billabong Junior Series has attracted a massive entry of 167 of the country’s top 20 year-old-and-younger competitors aiming for event and series honours.

And the premier Pro Junior (U20) boys and girls’ divisions also have international glory to aim for as the five highest rated boys and the top girl after the fifth stop in Jeffreys Bay in September earn invitations to the R420 000 Billabong ASP World Junior Championships in Sydney, Australia in January.

The Pro Junior boys’ division is wide open and with all of last year’s top four finishers at Vic Bay now campaigning overseas or over-age, the likes of current ratings leaders Rudy Palmboom (Bluff), Brandon Jackson (Durban North) and Capetonians Brandon Roberts and 15 year-old Matthew Bromley will be pressing their claims for the laurels.

Those rated just below the top contenders after three events will be determined to force themselves into contention and another semifinal or final appearance by Casey Grant (Scottburgh), Kyle Beach (Queensburgh), Kyle Lane (Umhlanga) or Brett Shearer (Kommetjie) will put them firmly back in the race.

Tarryn Chudleigh has reigned supreme in the Pro Junior girls in 2007, winning all of the first three events, and the 16 year-old from Kommetjie will be going all out to reach her first final in a series event at Vic Bay.

But with current WQS No. 13 Nikita Robb (East London) and local phenom Bianca Buitendag (George), both finalists last year, along with recently crowned SA U20 champ Chantelle Rautenbach (Melkbos) and the incredibly talented Sarah Baum (Athlone Park) and Heidi Palmboom (Bluff) all in the mix, it will not be any easier for Chudleigh this year.

The intensely competitive U16 boys title has been thrown open by defending event and series champ Shaun Joubert electing to compete in a Billabong Pro Junior event in Bali next weekend.

Ratings leader Nick Godfrey (Cape St Francis), Dale Staples (St Francis Bay) and Brendon Gibbens (Kommetjie) will be jetting back from this weekend’s international King of the Groms event in France to take advantage of Joubert’s absence alongside Matt Bromley, Blake Freegard (Umdloti) and an in form Beyrick de Vries (Umhlanga).

Reigning U14 champ and runaway ratings leader Michael February, who suffered his first defeat of the campaign at the hands of fellow Kommetjie resident Davey Brand at the last event in Cape Town in May, heads a gifted group of emerging stars that include Dane Staples (St Francis Bay), Jarred Veldhuis (Kom) and David van Zyl (Glenashley).

They will be wary of Brand’s giant-killing potential and that of Heidi Palmboom, the only girl to have reached the final of an U14 boys’ event, who is joined by fellow female standouts in Buitendag and Baum.

The U12 boys - the youngest category in the series – will showcase the talent of leaderboard topping Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay), Durban event winner Slade Prestwich (Scottburgh), the consistent Josh Smit (Athlone Park) and reigning series champ Max Armstrong (Kom).

Newcomer Diran Zakarian (Melkbos) will be looking for his maiden series triumph after second and third placings in the last two events while Benji Brand (Kom) proved his potential by winning the last event in Cape Town with a string of the highest scores in any division.

Each series event also features a spectacular Von Zipper Air Show where the country’s best exponents of new-school aerial surfing really cut loose with the winner taking home R1 800 for successfully completing the single best manoeuvre in the air. There are also Kustom awards for the top local boy and girl and the coveted Zigzag ‘Blowing Up’ award of R1 000 and its unique replica hand grenade trophy at each event.

The Billabong Junior Series is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA) and proudly supported by First National Bank, Palmers, Kustom, Von Zipper, Red Bull and Silver Bullet Productions. 

The 2007 series started at St Mikes in February followed by Durban (March 29-April 1) and Cape Town (May 17-20). After Victoria Bay (August 9-12) the 11th annual series champions will be crowned in the legendary surf Mecca of Jeffreys Bay (September 21-24).

Previous reports:
# 1 : Coming soon
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

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