Max Armstrong in action at Long Beach © Alan Van Gysen
Some of the stoked winners © Alan Van Gysen
The sun came out, the waves pulsed all day, and the wind forgot to blow as hundreds of people came down to watch the best junior surfers strut their stuff in amongst the peeling Atlantic waves.
"We're stoked the way the event panned out," said Billabong South Africa Marketing Manager Chad D'Arcy. "It was looking a bit problematic with the lack of swell on the horizon, but the waves arrived for the final day and it all worked out perfectly."
The U12 boys was a tight hussle amongst the top super-groms in the country, with local boy Ford Van Jaarsveldt taking the win. Sebastian Williams, who currently resides in Jeffreys Bay, cleaned up the U14 Boys while another Jeffreys Bay surfer, Kirsty McGillivray, dominated the U14 Girls. Jake Elkington from Hout Bay was the U16 Boys champ while Ruth Armstrong used local knowledge to her advantage to win the U16 Girls division.
In the premier U20 Pro Junior Girls Division Emma Smith continued her total dominance of girls surfing in the country by winning the final ahead of sister Gina, with Anoush Zakarian and Chanelle Botha filling the minor slots.
"I'm super-stoked to win. This is one of the biggest events in South Africa at the moment because of qualifying for World Games, so I obviously had that at the back of my mind before paddling out," said Smith. "The waves picked up, were super fun, and we had half hour heats so there were more than enough waves for everyone. What a great event."
Local boy Max Armstrong was the popular winner of the U20 Pro Junior Men, packing the high-scoring moves in on the small waves to take the win from Steven Sawyer in 2nd, Matt McGillivray in 3rd and Joshe Faulkner in 4th. "I went into the final pretty amped. The waves were fun and I was amped to get a few little lefts, and I ended up getting one or two," said Armstrong afterwards. "It's been a great event. I'm really stoked about such a big junior event at Long Beach my home break."
Final results:
|
U12 Boys 1. York Van Jaarsveldt 2. Dylan Hendricks 3. Alex Townsend 4. Manoa Robb |
U14 Boys 1. Sebastian Williams 2. Max Elkington 3. Luke Slipjen 4. Angelo Faulkner |
U14 Girls 1. Kirsty McGillivray 2. Olivia Izzard 3. Anna Jellema Butler 4. Finn Musson |
U16 Boys 1. Jake Elkington 2. Jordan Maree 3. Joshe Faulkner 4. Rewaldo Abersalie |
U16 Girls 1. Ruth Armstrong 2. Cana Foster 3. Pippa Jones 4. Kia Fenton |
U20 Pro Junior Men 1. Max Armstrong 2. Steven Sawyer 3. Matt McGillivray 4. Joshe Faulkner |
U20 Pro Junior Women 1. Emma Smith 2. Gina Smith 3. Anoush Zakarian 4. Chanelle Botha |
Specialty prizes:
BOS Surfer Of The Contest - Joshe Faulkner
Nixon WTA - Jarryd Veldhuis
DaKine Youthful Movement award - Jerry Van Wyk
KR Fins Free Award winners
Day 1 - Tide Lee Ireland
Day 2 - Joshe Faulkner
Day 3 - Kirsty McGillivray
Dennis Ellis Underground Ripper Awards
Girl - Anna Butler
Boy - Paul Sampson
The VonZipper Brainblast Off Airshow was won by Jarryd Veldhuis
The surfers selected to represent South Africa at the World Junior Champs at the end of October in Portugal are
Regional members: Max Armstrong, Diran Zakarian and Matt McGillivray.
QS members: Slade Prestwich and Dylan Lightfoot.
Girls: Emma Smith and Chanelle Botha.
Pre-event video highlights www.youtube.com/watch
Video highlights from day 1 www.youtube.com/watch
There is still a prize up for grabs for the BOS Surfer Of The Series for the most consistent surfer of the series across all age divisions of R10k cash, a custom made BOS surfboard, BOS merchandise and a year's supply of delicious BOS Iced tea.
There is also an Award of a Nixon Limited Edition 48-20 for the series winners in the U20 Boys and U20 Girls divisions.
The event supporting sponsors:
Playstation, Samsung, Techniblock, Nixon, VonZipper, DaKine, KR Fins, Dennis Ellis Surfboards, Future Life.
The Billabong Junior Series presented by BOS is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa. Surfing South Africa is a member of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), and is recognised by the Dept. Of Sport And Recreation as the national governing body for surfing.
The Association Of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the recognised world governing body of professional surfing and has been crowning undisputed World Champions since 1976
Imagery and video content can be found on the various Billabong South Africa Social Media platforms.
Billabong South Africa www.facebook.com/Billabong.South.Africa
Billabong Womens South Africa www.facebook.com/BillabongWomensSA
Billabong South Africa ">twitter.com/@billabongsa
Billabong Womens South Africa ">twitter.com/@bbwomens_za
Billabong South Africa ">@BillabongSA
Billabong Womens South Africa "> @Billabongwomens_za
The Series Hashtag is #billabongjnr
The final event in the series will take place at Seal Point, Cape St Francis on 3 - 5 October.
For more details contact
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t. 079 519 5990
or
Josh Enslin
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For media enquiries contact
Craig Jarvis
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t. 082 376 4443
High resolution images available for media outlets on request.
