2006 Billabong Junior Series

Surfing South Africa
St Mikes, Durban, Cape Town, Victoria Bay & Jeffreys Bay
February - August 2006

Record entry for contest in Cape Town

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 12 May, 2006 : - - The country’s best surfing talent in the 20 years-and-younger brigade will gather in Cape Town next week when the third of five events on the 2006 Billabong Junior Series will run at Tableview from Thursday to Sunday May 18-21.

The event has attracted a 2006 series record of 190 entries, 20 more than the Durban leg in April and 45 more than the corresponding event in Cape Town last year, but still short of the all-time record of 207 who entered the final event of the 2005 series in Jeffreys Bay last August.

The huge entry has forced the organisers to start reschedule the start of the event from 12 noon to 10am next Thursday with the round one of the 70 strong field in the blue riband Pro Junior (Under 20) boys division taking to the surf first.

A total of over R30 000 at stake in the five age categories has attracted a flood of entries from every corner of the SA coastline from U12, U14, U16 and Pro Junior boys and girls. However, local surfers will be determined to upstage their out-of-town peers in the frigid Atlantic waves.

Reigning Pro Junior series champ and Durban local Brandon Jackson is top seed for the event, followed by Keegan Nel (East London), Sun Valley’s Brandon Roberts (Sun Valley), Rudy Palmboom (Bluff, Durban), who will be flying directly from the World Junior Championships in Brazil to Cape Town to compete, and Kommetjie’s Dave Richards  and Wesley Hall.

The wildcards for the Pro Junior boys have been allocated to the winners of the first two events of the 2006 series in Jordy Smith (Durban), who is also with the SA team in Brazil, and former Kommetjie local and full-time ASP World Tour campaigner Damien Fahrenfort whose results this year include three runner-up spots and two victories, one of which was in an international event in the UK last month.

The Pro Junior girls are headed by Durban series event winner Rosanne Hodge (East London) who is currently ranked 12th on the ASP women’s World Qualifying Series (WQS). Scarborough local Tarryn Chudleigh and fellow SA junior team member Nikita Robb (East London) hold the next two spots ahead of 2005 series champ and WQS #10 Tammy-Lee Smith (Salt Rock, KZN) who has been participating on the World Tour with Hodge.

The diminutive Heidi Palmboom (Bluff), who will also be contesting the U14 boys division where she is ranked 11th out of the 31 entries, is another to watch out for, as are Melkbosstrand locals Chantelle Rautenbach and rising star Caylin de Reuck, a finalist in the first event of 2006 at St Mikes.

While multiple series champ Chad du Toit maintains his lead in the fiercely contested U16 boys division, the Durbanite faces a hugely talented crop of emerging stars that ‘graduated’ from the last year’s U14 category. Dale Staples (St Francis Bay), Kommetjie’s Matthew Bromley and Brendon Gibbens and last year’s U14 series champ Shaun Joubert (Mossel Bay) are all ranked in the top eight after two events and determined to succeed at this level.

The likes of third seed Shawn Dennis (Scottburgh), Daniel Mace (Kommetjie), Indi Rooken-Smith (Mossel Bay) and Nick Godfrey (Cape St Francis) sees the U16’s retain their reputation as the most competitive division.

Tyde Gatcke (East London) and Michael February (Kommetjie), each with a victory to their credit, resume their battle at the top of the U14 boys standings. They will be challenged by the likes of Umhlanga duo Beyrick de Vries and Devin Lane, Winkelspruit’s Ryan Klynsmith and Dane Staples (St Francis Bay), who like February has moved up from last year’s U12 division.

And last year’s U12 champ David Brand (Kommetjie) will be carefully watched when he makes his first appearance in the U14’s after spending the last six month’s in Hawaii with his family. The local threat comes from Jacob Mellish (Somerset West), Peter van der Merwe (Claremont) and Kommetjie’s James Lowe while Heidi Palmboom will be joined by SA U14 girls’ champ Tanika Hoffman (Kirstenhof), Jessica Levitt (Constantia), Simone Cilliers (Muizenberg) and Bianca Buitendag (George) in taking on the boys.

St Mikes winner Max Armstrong (Kommetjie) holds a slender ratings lead over Durban victor Michael Venter (Warner Beach) in the U12’s with Josh Smit (Athlone Park, KZN) and Steven Sawyer (Jeffreys Bay) filling out the top four. Benji Brand, brother of David and the winner of two U12 events last year, is likely to upset the results of the first two events in his first start of the 2006 series while Jarred Veldhuis (Sun Valley) and Sarah Baum (Athlone Park) have the talent for a podium finish.

The four full days of competition will include the R1 800 winner-takes-all Von Zipper Airshow for the best aerial manoeuvre and the coveted Zigzag Blowing Up award for the best performance during the event. The Best Kustomised Manoeuvre awards go to the most innovative manoeuvre performed by a local boy and girl.

The Billabong Junior Series is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA), the national controlling body for the sport. The U20 boys’ and girls’ divisions are also sanctioned by ASP Africa.

The series is proudly supported by FNB, who contribute 50% of the prize-pool and cover the travel costs of the four Pro Junior boys and top girl who are invited to compete in the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships in Australia each January; Red Bull whose Bette mobile music centre, Wigwam and Energy Centre are highly appreciated by the competitors; Mentos sweets; Capri Sun juices for U14’s; Mrs Palmers surf wax, Drench hair-care products for the girls; Salt Water Girl and Zigzag magazines and Blackfoot Productions who record, produce and flight the 30 minute television show on SuperSport covering each of the five events.

The 2006 Billabong Junior Series started in St Mikes on the KZN South Coast (February 23-26) followed by Durban (March 30-April 2). After Cape Town the series moves to Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape (June 15-18) and wraps up in Jeffreys Bay (August 5-8) where the 10th annual series champions will be crowned.

For further information on the series and a host of other interesting aspects of South African surfing visit www.billabong.com/africa where entry forms can be found for the events and top performers are profiled.

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

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E. laureen@billabong.co.za

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Junior Contests - Surfersvillage