Oakley Pro Junior

Grade 2 ASP Junior Men's Event
New Pier Durban South Africa
21 - 22 March 2008

Top Seeded Palmboom the Favourite for Upcoming Oakley Pro Junior

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 March, 2008 : - - The stage is set at New Pier for the inaugural Grade 2 International Oakley Pro Junior surfing event from March 21 to 23. Thirty-two of South Africa’s best junior men's surfers will be looking for an ideal start to their 2008 ASP Africa Junior title campaign.

The Oakley Pro Junior will be a highlight of the 2008 Vodacom Easter Adrenaline festival which takes place from March 21 to 23 showcasing daredevil sports such as freestyle motocross, Jet Ski demos and motorbike stunts.

The 2007 ASP Africa Junior Champion, Rudy Palmboom Jnr (Bluff) is the number 1 seed for the event and looks to be the early favourite but will need to keep an eye on talented surfers like Klee Strachan (Winkelspruit), who won the Expression Session at last years Billabong ASP World Junior Championships in Australia.

Palmboom and Strachan aside, other top seeds and title contenders include, Matthew Bromley (Cape Town), Casey Grant (Scottburgh), Nic Godfrey (Cape St. Francis), Shawn Dennis (Durban) Kyle Lane (Umhlanga Rocks), and Clinton Gravett (East London), to name a few.

Oakley is confident that their sponsored riders and event wildcards Shaun Joubert (Mossel Bay) and Lungani Memani (Port Alfred) vindicate their selection as wildcards. Chad du Toit of Durban, also an Oakley-sponsored surfer, has emerged as a consistent performer throughout the younger age groups, and has his sights set on winning.

Rudy Palmboom, speaking ahead of his ASP Africa Junior title defence, is “feeling no pressure at all”. When asked how he is going to prepare for the upcoming Oakley Pro Junior event, Palmboom said that he “is just going to try and have some fun in the contest”, obviously drawing confidence from what he describes as “some great boards”.

Palmboom’s confidence is not ill-founded, and one need look no further than his KZNSA Senior Champs Open title clinched last weekend at New Pier as evidence of his potential. He is, however, aware of the threat posed “by some of the younger guys, like Nic Godfrey, Matthew Bromley and Shaun Joubert”.

Another motivating factor for all contestants, apart from the R70 000 prize money allocated to this event, is the lure of an overseas surfing ticket. The Oakley Pro Junior is one of five other Oakley Pro Junior competitions to be held at locations around the world in the Oakley Pro Junior 2008 Global challenge.

The other venues are to be found in Australia, France, Brazil, Japan and North America. The two fianalists of each contest will be pitted against each other in Bali in October.

Here, the offer of international exposure and big prize money will surely result in some of the most competitive pro junior surfing the world has ever seen. As the frontrunner for the Durban edition of the Oakley Pro Junior Global Challenge, Rudy Palmboom is “grateful for the opportunity” to compete in such a unique competition which is a sentiment sure to be echoed by the rest of the field.

Last year Vodacom Easter Adrenaline attracted well over 240, 000 beachgoers to the Durban beachfront and this year the inclusion of the inaugural Oakley Pro Junior is expected to pull an even larger crowd.

www.oakley.com  

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Olivia Jones

Junior Contests - Surfersvillage