ISA World Surfing Games

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

Three SA men into repecharge rounds at ISA World Surfing Games

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 October, 2006 : - - The South African surfing team at the 21st ISA World Surfing Games in California has a tough task to equal or better their meritorious third place finish in the 2004 WSG in Ecuador after three of the four competitors in the Open division were relegated to the cutthroat repecharge rounds on Monday. 

After all four had made promising starts to their campaigns in the 128 men’s field by comfortably advancing to the second round, only Gavin Roberts (Scottburgh) could maintain his momentum by finishing runner-up in his second heat to progress to round three of the qualifying stream in the double elimination format. 

In deteriorating half to one metre waves, team captain Granville West (Port Elizabeth), prodigious talent Jordy Smith and fellow Durbanite Matthew Kruger all placed third in their second round encounters and face elimination from the event if they place lower than second in any of the nine repecharge heats required to reach the final of the biennial event. 

Much as SA longboarder Matthew Moir (Kirstenhof, CT) was the star of Sunday’s opening day action, so France’s Joan Duru outshone his opponents on Tuesday, recording both the highest single ride score and the highest two-ride heat total – 9.50 and 17.67 points respectively while Gavin Gillette (Haw), Luke Stedman (Aus) and Damien Hobgood (USA) recorded totals of over 14 points out of a possible 20. 

All four men representing defending champions Australia and the hosts USA stayed on track for the easier route with just five more heats to reach the finals, along with three Brazilians, three Costa Ricans and two each from UK, Peru, Portugal, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. 

A high place finish in the men’s division is vital to a team’s success under at WSG events as it is the only category that features four competitors from each nation. The men’s winner earns 4 000 points towards his country’s accumulated total, while those placing lower in the division receive a corresponding percentage of 4 000 points. 

The women’s event, which starts at 17h00 today (Tuesday), and the men’s bodyboarding, have two competitors from each nation fighting for the 2 000 points on offer to the winner while longboarding and women’s bodyboarding have one representative each and 1 000 points at stake. 

The SA team had an encouraging start to the tournament on Sunday, where Moir was in scintillating form to reach round three of the longboard division and both bodyboarding men, Wesley Fischer (Durban) and Sacha Specker (Camps Bay), successfully qualified for the second round. Women’s bodyboarder Lyndall Pells (Plettenberg Bay) was the only casualty, placing third and dropping to the repecharge rounds. 

Today all the South Africans will be rooting for Rosy Hodge (East London) and Tammy-Lee Smith (Salt Rock), rated 8th and 19th respectively on the women’s World Qualifying Series (WQS),  when they take to the surf for their opening encounters. The balance of today’s action sees Open Men’s action and all heats at the main podium in Huntington Beach are streamed live on the internet – see details of websites and the schedule below.

Schedule

Opening Ceremonies – Parade of Nations and Sands of the World ceremony
Saturday, October 14 2 p.m. - 4p.m. Huntington Beach Pier. 

Competition - Sunday, October 15 – Sunday, October 22, 2006.
*Schedule subject to change 

Sunday, October 15 –
8 a.m. - Body Board Men, Body Board Women
10: 00 a.m. - Long board

Monday, October 16 –
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. - OPEN Division 

Tuesday, October 17 -
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. - OPEN Division
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. - Womens

Wednesday, October 18 –
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. – All Divisions

Thursday, October 19 –
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. – All Divisions

Friday, October 20 –
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. – All Divisions

Saturday, October 21 –
8 a.m. - 4 p.m. - Semi Finals

Sunday, October 22 –
9 a.m. - 2 p.m. - Finals followed by Awards Ceremony.

Live coverage: All of the action will be streaming live at http://surfingamerica.org/isa and www.isasurf.org. Additionally Fuel TV will be broadcasting all the action in February please visit www.fuel.tv for air times.

The 2006 Lost Energy ISA World Surfing Games, brings together 32 countries, and is hosted by Surfing America in Huntington Beach on October 14th – 22nd, 2006.  The event is sanctioned by the International Surfing Association (ISA) - the world governing body for the sport of surfing, recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Surfing America is the ISA-recognized NGB for surfing in the United States and is responsible for holding the official USA Championships. The event takes place over the course of nine days with surfing competition and event festivities.

www.isasurf.org  |  www.lostenterprises.com  |  www.surfingamerica.org/isa

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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