On Saturday Nikita Robb recorded the first perfect 10 point ride in the 2007 Billabong Junior Series, but it was local girl Tarryn Chudleigh who prevailed on the final on day four, ending the first of five events at St Michaels-on-Sea.
The day before Nikita smashed three powerful top turns on her backhand as she streaked across a head high wave to claim the perfect score in the morning’s quarter-finals.
She went on the produce another stellar performance in the afternoon, convincingly winning her semi-final encounter to place favourite to clinch the Pro Junior (U20) girls title in the final.
Come Sunday, a large crowd was treated to exceptional surfing under cloudless skies, the Pro Junior girls’ final a closely-fought affair, and with all four girls recording one of their counting rides in the last five minutes.
The event was too close to call, and the result only announced at the awards ceremony, with Tarryn Chudleigh maintained her phenomenal record on the Hibiscus Coast by winning her fourth title in the area in three years.
Chudleigh scored a narrow win over Nikita Robb with a vertical backhand attack on the crumbling waves. Sarah Baum, 13, continued her rise to the top of SA girls surfing by taking third place with Chantelle Rautenbach in fourth.
On Saturday young guns Heidi Palmboom (Bluff) and Bianca Buitendag (George) also claimed the spotlight when both reached the semi-finals of the U14 boys division, the girl’s emergence as serious surf competition confirmed when KZN South coast local Caryn MacNicol (Scottburgh) clinched a spot in the U12 boy’s semis with a last second ride.
When Heidi beat a trio of boys on Saturday to claim the second quarter, who would guess that history was in the making when the 13 year-old became the first girl to reach the final four in the U14 boys division?
Heidi’s victory in her quarter-final heat and runner-up spot in the semis will have the rest of the boys in the division wary of her talent in future events.
The Kustomised Awards for the best local girls’ performances went to Caryn MacNicol, who reached the semi-finals of the U12 boys division even though she was competing in girls’ Novice events three months back!
The next stop on the five-event R220 000 Billabong Junior Series will be in Durban (March 29-April 1) followed by Cape Town (May 17-20) and Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape (August 9-12) before wrapping up in the legendary surf Mecca of Jeffreys Bay (September 21-24) where the 11th annual series champions will be crowned.
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