Excellent one to 1.5 metre (3-5 foot) waves with occasional two metre sets provided the canvas for country’s best 20 year-old and younger surfers to showcase their talent on the second day of the Billabong Junior Series event at Bay of Plenty in Durban.
The seeded surfers in the Pro Junior (U20) girls’ divisions took advantage of the conditions and generally dominated their heats.
The girls again emphasised the growing pool of surfing talent in the country by charging the considerably overhead waves. National junior team member Chantelle Rautenbach (Melkbosstrand) recorded the highest heat tally of the event to date – 16 out of 20 – when she performed a series of flowing manoeuvres on overhead waves to net 8.75 and 7.25 point rides.
Top seed Tarryn Chudleigh (Kommetjie) was another to be awarded 8.75 for one of her two counting rides while the 13 year-old trio of Heidi Palmboom (Bluff), Sarah Baum (Athlone Park) and Bianca Buitendag (George) continued their rise to stardom by winning their respective heats against older opponents.
The four-day event offers a total of over R30 000 in prize-money to the top performers in the Pro Junior divisions, plus U16, U14 and U12 boys.
Saturday’s schedule starts with the Pro Junior boys round of 16 followed by the girls’, U16 and U14 quarter-finals and several rounds of U12’s before culminating with the girls semis. Sunshine, light winds and plenty of surf is predicted and the action in the waves is going be red-hot.
The finals in all five divisions are scheduled for Sunday along with the Von Zipper Air Show where the country’s top ‘fly-boys’ display their aerial talents with the best completed manoeuvre earning the winner-takes-all R1 800 prize-purse.
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