Good Surf Conditions Predicted For Quiksilver Pro Junior in Durban This Weekend

The sand dredging project that has been taking place in Durban has started to show benefits, with excellent sand bank formations at all of the town beaches. North Beach, the contest venue for the upcoming Quiksilver Pro Junior, Quiksilver King Of The Groms and Quiksilver Future Stars, has a great sand bank in place and the wheels are in motion for an awesome event. Combined with the sand bank that has formed, there is a clean south-east to southerly swell predicted, and the land breeze offshores have kicked in – all the correct conditions that make for good, high performance waves in Durban.  

This Thursday April 1 will see Quiksilver stage the Quiksilver Surf Day – a day at the beach where Quiksilver and Durban bring together surfers from various backgrounds and have them interact with professional surfers and top juniors in attendance for the Quiksilver Pro Junior. I-Care will be bring down 8 of the street kids in their care, Umthombo will have 12 surfers in attendance, and last but not least, 10 surfers from Umzumbe Surf Club will be attending the day’s events.

The morning of Friday 2 April will kick off the Quiksilver Future Stars event, an event within the main contest structure, that will comprise 8 invited surfers that have come through the Surfing South Africa transformation program. The winner of this event will get a wildcard into the main event and all other finalists will earn a spot into round one of the Quiksilver Pro Junior.

Then it will be time for the Quiksilver King Of The Groms event. In this event there are two divisions, the U16 and the U14, with the winner of the U16 division heading off to compete in the International King Of The Groms event to be held in France. The winner of the U16 division also gets R5000. The King Of The Groms event is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa and will count towards crowning the PST (Pro Surf Tour) champions for 2010.

Finally we have the highlight of the event, the Quiksilver Pro Junior. This event is the main feature, and is an ASP Grade 2 Pro Junior event. The winner of the Quiksilver Pro Junior will take home US$ 2,500 (R20 000) and 1500 valuable ASP points. All the points on offer for this event will count towards the crowning of the 2010 ASP Africa Junior Champion. The event minisite is live at www.quikprojunior.co.za <http://www.quikprojunior.co.za/>  where you can find out more about the event and the surfers.

There will also be a speciality ‘Express Session’ taking place during the event. The surfer that performs the biggest and best aerial move in the Expression Session will win the ‘Red Bull Got Wings Award’ and R1500, while the surfer that surfs the best on any single wave in the Expression Session will win the ‘Resolution Best Wave Award’ and R1500.

Every competitor in the Quiksilver Pro Junior and the Quiksilver King Of The Groms will also receive a free ticket to go watch the Ultimate Wave Tahiti at the IMAX Theatre in Gateway. The movie features Kelly Slater and Raimana Van Bastolaer surfing one of the planet’s most challenging waves, Tahiti’s Teahupo’o.

These events are brought to you by Durban and Resolution. Other sponsors include Supersport and Red Bull. ASP Africa sanctions the Pro Junior division and SSA sanctions the Quiksilver King Of The Groms and the Quiksilver Future Stars

Surfing South Africa is recognized by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Body (SASCOC) and Sport and Recreation South Africa as the national governing body for surfing. Eight provincial organizations and three national associations are affiliated to Surfing South Africa, which is a member of the International Surfing Association.

About ASP: The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the governing body of professional surfing. Crowning surfing’s undisputed world champions since 1976, the ASP sanctions the following tours: the ASP World Tour, the ASP Women’s World Tour, the World Qualifying Series (WQS) and the World Longboarding, Junior and Masters Championships. The ASP is dedicated to showcasing the world's best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and has revolutionized the way the world watches surfing via their webcasts. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Japan, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.