The country’s best surfing talent in the 20
years-and-younger brigade will gather in Cape Town for the
third of five events on the 2005 Billabong Junior Series.
The event has attracted a record 147 entries and
caters for surfers in the prestige Pro Junior (Under 20) men and women
categories along with boys U16, U14 and U12 divisions. A total of more
than R25 000 is at stake along with ratings points that count towards the
annual series titles and for the Pro Junior divisions, towards the ASP
Africa Pro Surf Tour (PST) titles as well.
Local surfers will be determined to upstage their
out-of-town peers in their ‘home’ surf after the first two series events
at St Mikes on the KZN South Coast and in Durban. This is particularly
relevant in the U20 men where Ricky Basnett (Bluff, KZN), Brandon Jackson
(Durban North) and Shaun Payne (St Francis Bay) have finished first to
third respectively in both events.
The Kommetjie contingent headed by Dave Richards,
winner of the Pro Junior division of the Cointel WP Open in Cape Town in
March, and including Adam Hansen, Wesley Grey and Luke Christie-Smith, and
Fish Hoek’s Brandon Roberts, will be at home in the cold Atlantic waters
and while Big Bay cannot be deemed their ‘home break’, they are all
capable of reaching the final four.
Likewise, national junior team member Tarryn
Chudleigh (Kommetjie) is the only local girl in a top four that sees her
placed behind the in-form Tammy-Lee Smith (Salt Rock), Nikita Robb (East
London) and Nicole Annells (Warner Beach). These four will be challenged
by the likes of Telana Flanagan (EL), Roxy Louw (Durbanville), Chantelle
Rautenbach (Melkbosstrand) and the Kommetjie duo of Sarah Nicholson and
Holly Armstrong in the 32 strong field.
There is also R1 800 up for grabs in the
winner-takes-all Von Zipper Air Show that accompanies each series event
while the Zigzag ‘Blowing Up’ award of R1 000 and a novel replica
hand-grenade trophy is awarded to the surfer who is deemed to post the
best performance. The Kustom Performance awards go to the top performing
local boy and girl. Red Bull is in attendance at each stop on the series
with their energy centre that provides welcome shade and refreshment for
the competitors.
The top four Pro Junior men and the top Pro Junior
woman receive invitations to the Billabong World Junior Championships in
Sydney, Australia in the first week of January 2006. The air tickets for
this squad are sponsored by First National Bank who also provides a R17
500 prize-pool in the form of fixed deposit accounts that is shared
between the top 3 in the yearend series ratings in each division.
The 2005 Billabong Junior Series started at St
Mikes on the KZN South Coast in February and the third event will be
staged at Big Bay in Cape Town (20-22 May) followed by Victoria Bay in the
Southern Cape (16-19 June). The series concludes in Jeffreys Bay over the
period 5-8 August.
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