SPORT & OUTDOOR

2005 O'Neill South African Junior Surfing Championships

Venue: The Pipe, Strand Beach
Time: -
Price: -
Performances: 29 Sep - 2 Oct 2005

The Western Cape is set to host the country's best junior surfers at the Pipe at Strand beach at the end of the month.

The O'Neill championships will be the first national contest of any kind to be hosted by Boland Surfing Association who became members of Surfing South Africa some fourteen years ago.

Over 160 girls and boys in the Under 18, Under 16 and Under 14 divisions who qualified through trials to represent their respective provinces as well as a SA Junior Development Academy Team will be in action over the four days of competition.

At stake are three boys and three girls’ individual national championship titles as well as the Freedom Cup which is awarded to the team with the highest total points at the end of the tournament. Each surfer in all of the participating teams contributes towards the winning of the Freedom Cup so every competitor plays a vital role in their team's final points tally.

This year the rivalry between the provinces will focus on the KZN, who won the team title seven years in a row and Western Province who took the team title at the Wilderness in 2003 and at Nahoon Reef in 2004.

KZN are sending a strong team down to the Strand but Western Province have spent the last few weeks practicing at the venue and have an advantage over their rivals from Durban.

Last year's O'Neill Junior Championships hosts Border, neighbours Eastern Province, Southern KZN and northern neighbours Zululand, event hosts Boland and 2003 hosts Southern Cape have all entered competitive teams and could produce finalists in every division.

The ninth team competing in the event is the SA Junior Development Academy side which is made up of surfers from all eight provinces. Many of these surfers just missed selection into their provincial teams and their selection to compete in the event will give them another opportunity to showcase their talent.

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