O'Neill SA Jr Surfing Champs

Surfing South Africa
Port Elizabeth South Africa
26 - 30 September 2007

O'Neill SA Junior Surfing Championships brings top provincial junior surfers to Port Elizabeth

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 September, 2007 : - - Pollock Beach in Port Elizabeth will host over 160 girls and boys representing seven Provincial teams when the 2007 O'Neill South African Junior championships takes place in the Friendly City from Wednesday September 26 to Sunday September 30.

This will be the 12th edition of the South African Junior Championships,  a premier Surfing South Africa's tournament which will determine National Champions in the Under 18, Under 16, Under 14 and Under 12 boys and girls age divisions and decide the winnings provincial team for 2007.

All the surfers in the event have been selected from trials conducted within their provinces over the past three months or so and every surfer will contribute points which will count towards their team's total score. The Provincial team with the highest overall score at the end of the tournament will win the Freedom Cup which was first presented on Heritage Day at the SA Junior Championships in 2004.

The defending provincial champions are Kwazulu-Natal. The team from Durban broke Western Province's three year stranglehold on the trophy when they beat the Cape side by less than 100 points at New Pier last year. KZN had held the trophy from 1996 to 2002 until WP beat them in 2003 at Wilderness Beach. Western Province followed this first time win with victory in East London in 2004 and at the Strand in 2005.

The other provinces competing for the Freedom Cup are hosts Eastern Province, Border, Boland, Southern KZN and Southern Cape. After the narrow loss to KZN in 2006 WP are determined to win the trophy back and on paper look a well balanced side in all six divisions.

However their Under 18 boys group, who are headed by 2006 national junior team member Jaco Steyn, will have to work hard to upset the form of a strong KZN contingent which is made up of 2006 Under 16 champion Chad du Toit, 2006 Under 18 champion Kyle Lane and Kyle Beach, all of whom have represented the SA Junior Team over the last three years. The fourth member is Shawn Dennis, who is  a surfer with plenty of promise.

Other surfers in the Under 18 division who could do well are Bertie Stuurman , who earlier this year came second in the Under 20 division at the SA Championships and fellow EP surfrers Justin Grey and Donovan Zoetmulder, James Maddocks (KZN) and Samuel Mabetshe (EP) of the SA Development Team, 2007 SA Junior Team member and ISA scholarship winner Lungani Memani of Border, 2007 national junior team captain, Klee Strachan and Southern KZN teammates Kyle Whitaker and Brian Palmboom,

 Tarryn Chudleigh, the best South African surfer at the 2007 ISA World Surfing Championships and winner of the recent O'Neill Cold Water Classic in Cape Town, is in the top seed in the WP Under 18 team where she will be backed up by former national junior team member Lisa Mace.

Chudleigh has a great record at the SA Junior Championships having won the Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16 titles at this event but she will need to overcome defending champion and fellow national junior team member Nikita Robb of Border and another national team mate, Chantelle Rautenbach of Boland, if she hopes to add the Under 18 crown to her growing list of achievements.

Surfers to watch in this group are O'Neill team rider Caylin de Reuck of Boland and Adele Nortje of Southern Cape.

 In the Under 16 boys division two time national junior team member Matthew Bromley and fellow WP surfers, 2006 finalist Brendon Gibbens, JC Susan and Peter van der Merwe , national junior team vice captain Shaun Joubert and national teammate Dale Staples of Southern Cape, the KZN trio of Beyrick de Vries, Devin Lane and Blake Freegard and Bolanders Jacob Mellish and David Solomon look the pick in this division.

In the under 16 girls 2007 national junior team member Tanika Hoffman and WP teammate Holly Armstrong, Alice Mc Gregor of Border,Kirsty Delport of KZN, Faye Zoetmulder of EP, Morag Steele of Boland and Laura Oppel of Southern KZN have the best contest pedigrees.

Defending champion Michael February and Jarred Veldhuis hold the flag for WP in the under 14 boys division where Dane Staples of Southern Cape, David Van Zyl and Mikey Venter of KZN, Steven Sawyer of EP and Jeandre Blignault of Boland look set to be their toughest opponents.

In the under 14 girls divisions the battle between Southern Cape star Bianca Buitendag and KZN prodigys Sarah Baum and Heidi Palmboom looks set to continue in PE but Alex Morris and Sabrina Scott of WP could surprise the favourites..

The under 12 boys division features the youngest surfers in the 2007 O'Neill SA Junior Championships but  is certainly one of the most competitive divisions  in next weeks tournament. Diran Zakarian of Boland, Max Armstrong of WP, Slade Prestwich of Southern KZN, Daniel Buitendag of Southern Cape, KZN's Josh Smit, Dylan Lightfoot of EP and Simo Mkhize (SKZN) of the SA Development Team are the surfers to watch in this division.

While in the under 12 girls group Anoush Zakarian of Boland, Paige Meecham of Border, Carryn Mc Nicol of Southern KZN and Nicole Pallet of KZN are the pick of the group.  The 2007 O'Neill SA junior Championships gets under way with an opening function at Summerstrand Hotel at 7pm on Tuesday September 25 and the heats will start after the team march past on Wednesday.

The tournament will end with the finals next Sunday. Sunday will also showcase the traditional  O'Neill Superfreak Show, which is a fancy dress heat where participants can win up to R1000 for the most outrageous costume. Members of the National Selection Panel  will be in attendance at the O'Neill event and an announcement of the names of the SA Junior Surfing squad from which the 2008 SA Junior Team will be made at the prizegiving.

The SA Junior Team of four Under 18 boys, four Under 18 Girls and four Under 16 Boys will participate in the 2008 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Capbreton, France at the end of May next year. The heats, daily information and results of the 2007 O'Neill SA Junior Championships will be available online from Wednesday September 26.

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

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