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Many years ago Australian journalist and raconteur Derek Hynd popped in at Warner Beach, after he had heard of a good little surfer enjoying the waves at Baggies Beach. He saw that guy surfing, and immediately signed him up for the Rip Curl Search program – a marketing campaign wrapped up in a free surfing adventure and wave discovery mission. It turned out to be one of the most successful marketing campaigns in the history of the sport, and that surfer from Warner Beach turned out to be Frankie Oberholzer.
Years later and the situation seemed to be repeating itself with young Koby Oberholzer stepping into his dad’s shoes. Koby is a naturally talented young surfer who is starting to enjoy some great success on the junior South African circuit, as well as on an international level. He is fast and powerful, and while he does have a similar weakness to his dad, they both don’t really thrive in competitive situations. Koby has been training with the High Performance Surfing Academy in Durban, and his heat surfing has up-skilled dramatically since he has been attending the coaching.
Koby comes to life when the waves are good, and his style is perfectly suited to point-break surf like Seal Point and Lower Point at JBay. He surfed the Billabong Junior Series Final last week at Seal Point, and is currently surfing in the Billabong SA Junior Champs presented by BOS at Lower Point in JBay.
An onshore wind and some swell saw the contest being with average conditions, but Koby won his first heat in the U17 division, and will no doubt continue all the way through to the final.
Photo by Kody McGregor
