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It was all happening at Willard Beach in Ballito, with the start of the Billabong Junior Series getting underway with great surfing conditions. The semi-finalists in the Under 14 and U16 Boys and U16 Girls divisions were decided on the exciting opening day of the event.
Overcast conditions and clean three foot waves were reeling across the sandbank and gave the country’s top junior surfers the canvas on which to utilise their full repertoire of manoeuvres as they battled to advance to the business end of the prestigious 3A rated SSA Pro Surf Tour (PST) events. The Billabong Junior Series is the longest running junior series in the world and this year it goes into its 18th edition.
Sebastian Williams, the reigning Billabong Junior Series U16 Boys champion, was one of the standout performers on the day, with some futuristic aerial surfing and some polished performances, winning both his opening heat and his quarterfinal clash to move into the semi-finals.
“That heat went good, I saw the previous heats were slow but I got a decent wave in the first 5 minutes and that kind of set my tone for the rest of the heat,” said Williams. “I’m hoping to defend my title as it’s my last year in the under 16’s. I’ve been doing this division since I was under 12, but I enjoy competing a couple of divisions above my age.”
Max Elkington was seeded into the quarterfinals and won his opening heat to advance to the semis along with heat runner-up and fellow Kommetjie resident Eli Beukes. The young Eli has been training hard recently under the High performance Surfing Academy in Durban, and it seems the coaching is paying off. Elkington and Beukes will be up against Williams and Koby Oberholzer in the second semi-final where the top two will progress to the four-man Final.
Kai Woolf produced her customary display of high performance surfing in the U16 Girls, moving into the semis along with runner-up Sophie Bell. Kayla Nogueira and Zoe Smith won their Round 1 encounters and newcomer S’nenhlanhla Makhubu finished second to reach the semis in a PST event for the first time.
In the U14 Boys division the three Round 1 heats were won by York van Jaarsveldt, Nate Spalding and Mitch du Preez who advanced to the last six together with their respective runners-up.
The forecast is looking good for the next few days, and hopefully into the next week when the Ballito Pro presented by Billabong kicks off. The Billabong Junior Series continues today.
Photos by Kelly Cestari
