The day after the Women’s Day public holiday in South Africa, the country’s top 20-and-under female surf stars celebrated with an awesome display of high performance surfing as Victoria Bay continued to produce great surf for the Billabong Junior Series.
Seven of the top eight seeds started their campaign for the Pro Junior (U20) girls’ title with heat victories in the round of 32, led by No. 1 seed and runaway ratings leader Tarryn Chudleigh from Kommetjie who tallied over 14.0 points (out of 20) for her best two rides, the second highest heat total of any division on the day.
Chantelle Rautenbach (Melkbosstrand) and Vic Bay local Bianca Buitendag, 13, who occupy the two positions below Chudleigh in the ratings going into the fourth of five events on the 2007 series, both posted comfortable victories to advance to the last 16.
The most exciting heat of the day saw another 13 year-old in Sarah Baum (Athlone Park) and Adele Nortje from nearby Mossel Bay go head-to-head, both earning scores in the excellent range as the lead changed hands after each ride. When the final siren sounded it was Baum who was ahead but both progressed to the next round.
Only current WQS No. 13 and the fourth seed here Nikita Robb missed out on this feast of spectacular surfing, when she turned out in the 5 Star R175 000 Rip Curl Boardmasters women’s event at Fistral Beach in Newquay, England, on Friday.
As Robb did not appear for her heat, she gave Capetonians Danielle Johnson and Sabrina Scott an unexpectedly easy walk through to round two.
And later in the day Baum and Buitendag both placed second in their respective U14 boys’ first round heats, to progress to the last 16 in that division also.
The surf is predicted to get well overhead on the Southern Cape coast on Saturday, and Vic Bay will certainly provide a stern test, particularly for the younger competitors.
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