KZN JUNIORS WIN SA CHAMPS AGAIN!

The KZN Junior Team have just returned from East London where they put on a tremendous show of focus, dedication and stamina to beat arch rivals Western Province yet again and take back the coveted FREEDOM CUP to Durban.

THE WINNING  TEAM

Not only that – but again KZN won the SPIRIT CUP which means that the team showed huge support for each other.

Huge thanks to Maui & Sons for the great kit the provided the team.  The black and white outfits really do stand out and make a great impression.  The Department of Sport & Recreation kindly provided a 17 seater bus for all our surfers, and their driver SEGGIE was great in shuttling the kids and parents to and fro from the beach to Sugar Shack.  Thanks to the Dept of Sport!

In the u12 girls division Teal Hogg who surfed her first SA Champs did so well to make it through to finals, and came 3^rd overall.  Her Dad Andy Hogg was the manager and he did an excellent job of communicating with the team and officials plus supporting his daughter in the event.

Caryn MacNicol was a stand out at the event and won the u14 girls division.  Carryn posted very high scores including 9 point rides during the event and was a clear winner in the finals.  Nicole Pallet also surfed her socks off and placed 4^th overall in the finals.

Sarah Baum battled to get the waves in the finals of the u16 girls, but still managed to come up 2^nd overall.  Everyone believes that Nahoon Reef is a tricky wave and difficult to read -  Heidi got very unlucky during her semi finals and could not find the waves.  Kirsty Delport  had a brilliant quarters final where she combo’d the others in her heat, and managed to surf into the finals and place second to Alice MacGregor. Nikita Kekana from Durban is known for her gutsy surfing and her brave take-offs on enormous waves.  Nikita surfed through the first couple of rounds, but unfortunately did not get the waves to advance.

Shane Sykes who is a really talented u12 surfer really struggled to chose the right waves during his semi finals and came unstuck and came 5^th.  Wazir Surajlall was very brave and with the help of Devin Lane and Kane Bennewith made it through his heats to the quarter finals of the u12 boys.

Slade Prestwich was the u14 boys standout for KZN and had the crowd very impressed with his surfing.  Slade surfed a really good event but could not match Boland’s Diran Zakarian who blew up in the final getting a 10 point ride.  Josh Smit  - who has been surfing really well lately - made it through to semis, and placed 5^th overall.  Unfortunately we ended up with three kzn u14 boys in the same heat in the quarters and it was JJ Harris who is in his first year of u14 boys who bowed out after giving it all he had.  Siyabonga also surfed a brave event.

Davey Van Zyl was on form right throughout the event and won his first SA Champs!  Well done Davey!  Adding 4000 points to the KZN pot and helping us win overall!  Mikey February is a very difficult surfer to beat.  Unfortunately Mikey Venter ended up in a very hard section of the draw and his round three was like a final of a normal event.  But he gave it everything he had despite having tripped over a skateboard minutes before his heat and taking the skin off his hands and body! 

 Unfortunately the surfers could not hear the announcer (Stan Badger) who did an excellent job…  as the onshore was howling.  This was bad news for Chris Frolich who only needed a 2 point ride to advance, and Kane Bennewith who only needed a 3 point ride to get through to quarters.  Chris apparently scored in other areas of the event down in East London!

We had 3 under 18 boys in the semi finals which helped our overall total.  Matt Pallet showed some great surfing and ended up in 5^th place overall, and Beyrick de Vries and Devin surfed their way into finals.  Beyrick came 2^nd overall, after posting some high scores throughout the event but, like the u16 boys  was a bit frustrated when he heard he needed  a low score to take the lead.  Devin Lane had an excellent semi final with some really serious back hand attacks and placed 4^th overall in the finals.  Scotty Lefevre put in huge effort but did not find the waves.

Daniel de Sousa, Fika Ngubane, Trevor Sicelo and Jess Wilson also traveled down with the team and all surfed a great contest – well done to you all.  Especially Jess who placed 5^th overall.

Devin and Scott were a great team of Captain and Vice Captain.  Team meetings were held every night at the Sugar Shack.  (Thanks to Andrew Malherbe and his team at Sugar Shack for making us feel so welcome – we had an excellent stay)

DEVIN (CAPTAIN) ACCEPTS FREEDOM CUP

A huge thanks to Quniton Jones and Shawn Dennis who did a sterling job of coaching the team before and throughout the event.  These guys stood in the gale force winds, rain and cold all 5 days and pulled the team through!  They did pull their hair out on occasion in fact Shawn has new muscles in his left arm... but managed to motivate the team to VICTORY! 

A very special thanks to Meryl de Sousa who organized the kids at the Sugar Shack and got them up early and fed and watered them.  Meryl you are an angel – thanks so very much.   Thanks also goes to Charles Lefevre for providing the parents with some very interesting refreshments throughout the event!  Also to Chris Frolich and Terri Wilson for their braaing skills.  The MacNicols, Sykes, Pallets, Michelle Harris, Sandy, Baums, Nat Kekana & Nalede, the  Hogg family -  for their support and the way the team came together helping with gazebos and the positive vibe overall – THANKS GUYS!  

Also  big thanks to BORDER for hosting the event.  To Andre Malherbe, Dave Fish, Cyril Nel and his panel of judges and friendly ladies in the bus.  To all the staff at Ninos tent and outside catering – they all did a fantastic job.  The vibe at the event  was fantastic.   Thanks to SSA and Robin de Kock for all they do behind the scenes to make it a success.   All the kids and parents from KZN really had a great week.

LASTLY thanks to Western Province for coming 2^nd  J….. We had such a fun time parking our tent right next to WP, the friendly rivalry was so very funny especially when Isaac Feb was trying to take a pic of the WP team and the KZN guys were standing on rocks behind with their flag in full view.   Dev Lane was giving Josh Salie lots of lip during the event.  After day three, WP was way ahead as KZN lost a bunch of surfers, but then KZN made a miraculous come back after day four.    We offered WP a ‘merge’ but they declined the offer.  On the final day it really could have gone either way and none of us really knew what the result was going to be.  DELIGHT when they announced that KZN won again – despite such a small margin.  Well done to all at WP – you guys have got amazing surfers and an amazing team!  And to all at EP who we thought may take the silverware at one point.

ISAAC TRYING TO TAKE HIS WP TEAM PIC - check the KZN guys in the background.

For final heat sheets and team placings please go to www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za

1^ST – KZN  40 826

2^ND – WP 40 350

3^RD – EP 35 506

4^th – BOR 31 662

5^th – BOL 30 482

6^th – SKZN 30 312

7^th -  SC 23 740

8^th – AC 19 982

Gallery will be loaded with lots of pics later in the week.