A Brazilian Storm blew through New Pier on the Durban beachfront on Thursday when 12 surfers from the biggest country in South America advanced to the last 64 of the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing pres. by Hurley in small wind affected waves that tested the ability of the world’s best surfers.

Alex Ribeiro was crowned Men’s Champion at the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing pres. by Hurley in Durban on Sunday, leading a near clean sweep of the top eight positions by South American surfers on the final day of the World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) 3,000 rated event.

Zoe McDonald of Hawaii was crowned Women’s Champion at the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing pres. by Hurley at Dairy Beach in Durban on Saturday, winning the closely fought final held in contestable shoulder-high waves.

Mateus Herdy (BRA) and Zoe McDougall (HAW) claimed the junior men’s and women’s titles respectively at the inaugural Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing pres. by Hurley and became the first to lift the prestigious John Whitmore Cup.

JBay – with just a few short weeks to go, the excitement around the upcoming JBay Winterfest 2017 is tangible. Construction has started on the Corona Open JBay setup, the Lower Point hub is starting to take shape and the event organisers are hard at work in getting their sites and venues prepared.