Chance to Join Elite Surfing Group

The 2009 Billabong Junior Series champions will be crowned at Victoria Bay later this month when the third and final event in South Africa’s premier national tour for surfers aged 20-and-under is staged at the picturesque Southern Cape point-break from 23-26 September.

The Vic Bay event will determine the 2009 ASP Africa Pro Junior champions and features an ASP Grade 1, R20 000 Pro Junior women’s event. The top woman on the year-end ASP Africa ratings will receive a sought-after invitation to the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships in Australia in January.

Vic Bay local Bianca Buitendag, who triumphed in the first series event at Scottburgh, has the talent and local knowledge to clinch the event title and the series crown at her home-break, while ASP Africa ratings leader Sarah Baum (Athlone Park) will be hoping to earn the invitation to Australia for the second successive year.

Both will be eyeing the form of multiple event champion Tarryn Chudleigh (Kommetjie) who campaigned on the ASP Women’s World Qualifying Series (WQS) earlier this year and missed the Pro Junior women’s events in SA. Kirsty Delport (Durban), Heidi Palmboom (Bluff) and Tanika Hoffman (Kommetjie) are all potential event champions.

The 13th annual series champions in the Pro Junior (U20) women, U16, U14 and U12 boys’ divisions will join an elite group of surfers such as Jordy Smith, Royden Bryson, Ricky Basnett and David Weare who honed their competitive repertoires on the Billabong Junior Series before going on to qualify for the ASP Dream Tour.

The event will also feature the dazzling Von Zipper Air Show where selected contestants are rewarded for their expertise in performing aerial manoeuvres above the lip of the wave with the top performer earning the winner-takes-all R2 000 prize-purse.

Video footage, images, results and news will be available daily during the event at the Billabong website, and a TV documentary produced by Silver Bullet Productions will be broadcast on the channels of SuperSport.

The PST events in the Billabong Junior Series are sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA), the national controlling body for the sport, while the internationally rated Pro Junior events are sanctioned by ASP Africa, the regional office for ASP International.

The series is proudly supported by First National Bank, Von Zipper and Kustom. Online entries for the PST events can be made at at the Billabong website, while the ASP events must be entered via the ASP Africa website. Please note that the closing date for the ASP Africa sanctioned Pro Junior events is next Tuesday, 25 August, while the PST events close two weeks prior to the event dates.