OPEN TRIALS KZN 2010

Easter Monday had KZN’s top open surfers down at New Pier  Beach enter in the 2010 KZN men’s and ladies trials.  These trials determine who will represent the KZN surfing team who take on the rest of the country in the SA Champs which will take place at the end of May this year.

The criteria for surfing now rewards ‘innovative’ and ‘futuristic’ maneuvers, and surfers are scored higher for doing high flying ‘double grab airs’ and ‘360 air reverses’ where a surfer takes off,  does a complete 360 circle turn  in the air, lands and continues with the wave.

The morning started off with light onshore conditions and 2 to 3 ft running waves which the surfers described as ‘fun’.  However with the draining tide the waves got a little trickier.  This did not stop the action as one judge said “I have never seen so many airs performed by so many surfers in one day”.

In the open ladies division Heidi Palmboom beat Amber Kilfoil to take top seed.  The Masters (35+) division was also surfed and Shane Thorne placed first, followed by Mike Frew and John Israel.

The Open Men’s division had many entries all aiming for top four places in the team.  The younger surfers have the advantage of having practiced the ‘innovative futuristic’ surfing for some time and were hard to beat.  Beyrick de Vries came first, followed by Chad du Toit, Chris Leppan and Hilton Lawrence.

The trials for the Open/Masters are now complete and the team is as follows:

Click here for full results: