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Surfers in the Deep South finally paddled out into some frigid juice on the weekend after the fortnight of gale-force South-Easters that turned the Atlantic coast into a lake and False Bay became a maelstrom of churning froth and bluebottles over the festive season.

Further afield though, local surfers enjoyed plenty of success, with Kommetjie's Damien Fahrenfort repeating his 2004 highest placing by a SA surfer in the Billabong World Junior Surfing champs in Australia last week. The lanky 19-year-old defeated a clutch of the world's highest rated u/20 surfers, including defending event champion Pablo Paulino (Brazil), on his way to the quarter-finals, finishing fifth overall in 48-strong field for the R380 000 prize.

Kommetjie residents Brett Shearer and Dave Richards, along with Brandon Roberts (Sun Valley), will be contesting a number of events on the Australian Pro Junior circuit over the next couple of months.

Other locals enjoying foreign surf are WP u/14 champion Matthew Bromley and renowned big-wave charger Andrew Marr, who are on the North Shore of Oahu, the epicentre of surfing in Hawaii.

Andy had his travel plans disrupted en-route and arrived in Hawaii 54 hours after leaving Cape Town.

However, a solid five-metre swell saw him paddling out at Waimea Bay within an hour, and after getting caught inside a huge three-wave set, he proceeded to ride half a dozen three-storey waves. "That got rid of the jet-lag," giggled Marr.

The new year is shaping up as a big one, with the Quiksilver SA Open Surfing Championships scheduled to be held here at the end of April; the Billabong "Girls Get Out There" Summer Surf Series early in February; the inaugural leg of the Quiksilver King of the Groms in March, and the third leg of the Billabong Junior Series in May.

The second half of the year will see the O'Neill Coldwater Classic pro event in August, the Roxy Surf Jam and the three-event Kahuna Surf Series.

Professional surf coaching is growing rapidly and the imminent roll-out of Surfing South Africa's surf school accreditation program has led to SSA Level One surf coaching courses being scheduled for February and May, both of which will be staged at the Kahuna Surfing Academy, Kommetjie. Anyone contemplating a career in surf coaching is urged to book as the courses are likely to be oversubscribed.

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