NICE and glassy three-foot peaks at North Beach in Durban set the scene for an exciting opening day of the Quiksilver Pro Junior presented by Durban and Resolution.
The day of surfing kicked off with round one of the Quiksilver Future Stars event. In the Future Stars event, eight surfers who have come through the Surfing South Africa transformation programme are given the chance to win a wildcard slot into the seeded round of the Quiksilver Pro Junior event. All surfers invited to the event were flown to Durban and accommodated courtesy of Quiksilver for four days, and all received a Quiksilver product package.
After the first round it was Brandon Benjamin from Cape Town, Bertie Stuurman from Jeffrey’s bay, Khaya Ngcobo from southern Kwa-Zulu Natal and Dominic Abersalie from Jeffrey’s Bay who qualified for the final. In a very close finish, it was young Dominic Abersalie who pipped an on-form Bertie Stuurman into second place.
“It was the last few minutes of the heat, and I saw this good wave coming,” said Dominic after the final. “I paddled hard for it, caught it and just went straight into a round house move. It formed nicely and I managed to do four more good moves on the wave and get the highest score of the final.”
Coincidently, Dominic also won the Future Stars event in 2009 from Bertie Stuurman.
In the King Of the Groms U16 round of 32, it was young Dylan Lightfoot from Jeffrey’s Bay who was blowing up, scoring a heat score of 15,75 out of a possible 20 points and the highest heat score thus far. “I had a good wave early in the heat. It was a small one, but had a nice section and I did a little air move at the end and got a good score,” said Lightfoot.
“Towards the end of the heat I picked up another good wave, just off the pier. I did a few little turns on the outside and raced towards the end section and went for a big double-grab air and made it. I was pretty stoked, the judges gave me an 8,5 and that saw me win the heat.”
The waves were still good in the afternoon, and the wind had yet to arrive when the Pro Junior Boys round of 48 hit the water. The sandbanks on the Durban beachfront have been really good of late, and the great waves coming through at North Beach during this round were conducive to some high performance surfing.
Kane Bennewith from Durban, Bertie Stuurman, Rigard Smit from The Strand and Steven Sawyer from Jeffrey’s Bay all surfed excellently to win their heats in this round and advance to the Pro Junior Boys round of 32. This round will hit the water first thing tomorrow morning.
