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Cape Town Surfriders Dominate Final Day of the 2015 Billabong SA Junior Champs.
The final day at the Billabong SA Junior Champs kicked off in spectacular fashion at Lower Point in Jeffreys Bay. The coveted junior surfing event is the pinnacle of the junior series and each and every young surfer dreams of owning the coveted SA Champ title next to his or her name. The majesty of the event was evenly matched to the incredible conditions that the competition was greeted to on the final morning. Like every great tale, there was an element of drama and the predicted onshore wind was set to kick in full force during the day. The final day had arrived and champions were going to be crowned!
The first heats of the morning were contested in corduroy head high waves that would have any seasoned surfer chomping at the bit to head out there. The great conditions were met with equally exceptional surfing and the event favourites made it through the Semi Finals with out a hitch. The only surprises were the advancement of dark horse competitor Pippa Jones from Cape Town Surfriders and the shock elimination of Eden’s Adin Masencamp.
The highly anticipated VonZipper Airshow was won by eThekweni’s Bevin Willis for a full rotation air reverse that left the crowd temporarily gob smacked before erupting into massive applause.
The U13 Girls Finals was dominated by an-inform Gabi Lailvaux from eThekweni who surfed with extraordinary skill over her competitors to take the win.
eThekweni’s Brayden Bergset showed competitive maturity beyond his years in the U13 Boys and out manoeuvred fellow finalists York van Jaarsveldt, Manoa Robb and Dillon Hendriks respectively.
Kirsty McGillivray from Nelson Mandela Bay, whom scored one of the two perfect tens of the event, continued her utter dominance of the U15 Girls division and decisively took the win.
Conditions had deteriorated quite drastically by the time the U15 Boys division hit the water and was won by Cape Town Surfriders’ Max Elkington in a pillar to post final that had the former SA champ take top honors over event favorite Sebastian Williams.
“The waves were really tricky out there and the other guys weren’t making it easy to catch anything” said Elkington. “I am really happy to win SA Champs again”
The premier U17 Girls division was up next and Nelson Mandela Bays’ Crystal Hulett took out event powerhouse Pippa Jones from Cape Town Surfriders, Eden’s Taghiti Gericke and Nelson Mandela Bays’ Kia Fenton respectively in a tightly knit final.
The superb day of surfing was capped by the U17 Boys division in which Western Cape had a strangle hold with Springbok capped surfer Jordy Maree claiming victory over Cape Winelands’ Ford van Jaarsveld, Cape Town Surfriders’ Jake Elkington and Cape Town Surfriders’ Ethan Fletcher respectively.
The Freedom Cup overall team award was won by the seemingly unstoppable Cape Town Surfriders coached by Christopher Bond. When asked about what the Cape Town Surfriders did during heats at the Billabong SA Junior Champs to claim the most victories, Bond remarked ” There are two different levels, there is heat strategy and there is heat tactics, where choosing your waves and getting your positioning right, knowing when you have to paddle someone further up the point and knowing when you have to come down and sit on someone at the end of the heat. The other side is the actual surfing side, with the focus being on what the judges are wanting and what they are scoring. Two excellent turns out at the back can get you a much better score than 6 or 7 ok turns throughout the wave. We have been listening very carefully to what the judges are scoring and trying to get the surfers to ride to that criteria. ”
Overall the event was a massive success and the best surfers in South Africa had possibly the contest of their lives in the seemingly relentless perfect waves. Billabong can take a bow as they have set the new standard as to how an event should be run and the level of surfing definitely set the precedent for metamorphosis onto the world stage.
2015 Billabong SA Junior Champs Results
Freedom Cup (Provincial team points)
1st Cape Town – 32 576 points
2nd Nelson Mandela Bay – 27 956
3rd eThekweni – 25 170
4th Cape Winelands – 21 526
5th Buffalo City – 18 735
6th Eden – 17 620
7th Ugu – 16 314
8th SA Development Academy – 12 955
9th uThungulu – 6 920
Boys U17
1st Jordy Maree
2nd Ford van Jaarsveld
3rd Jake Elkington
4th Ethan Fletcher
Girls U17
1st Crystal Hulett
2nd Pippa Jones
3rd Taghiti Gericke
4th Kia Fenton
Boys U15
1st Max Elkington
2nd Sebastian Williams
3rd Luke Slijpen
4th Angelo Faulkner
Girls U15
1st Kirsty McGillivray
2nd Sophie Bell
3rd Olivia Izzard
4th Christy Gilmore
Boys U13
1st Brayden Bergset
3rd York van Jaarsveldt
4th Manoa Robb
5th Dillon Hendriks
Girls U13
1st Gabi Lailvaux
2nd Summer Sutton
3rd Kayla Nogueira
4th Lisa van Heerden
Photos by Alan van Gysen and Ian Thurtell
