Media Release: Friday, 22 February 2008

KwaZulu-Natal stars Klee Strachan (Winkelspruit) and Chad du Toit (Berea, Durban) set the waves alight with stunning performances on day two of the Billabong Junior Series event at St Mikes on Friday.

The country’s top junior surfers took full advantage of the light winds, sunshine and clean one to 1.3 metre Easterly swell to unleash their full repertoire of radical manoeuvres and the judges responded by awarding numerous scores in the excellent range.

Du Toit, the 10th seed in the premier Pro Junior division, started his Round of 32 heat with a high flying double-grab aerial followed by a deep gouge and finished off with another aerial that saw two judges reward him with perfect 10 point scores and the average score for the ride coming in at a near-perfect 9.75.

Adding an 8.0 later in the heat, the national junior team member left his three opponents comboed to move into the last 16 in the event along with second placed fellow Durbanite James Maddocks who caused a major upset by relegating seventh seed Matthew Bromley (Kommetjie) to third place and out of the contest.

Strachan, who turned 19 yesterday, was almost as impressive in the next heat, ignoring the effects of last night’s celebrations to string together a series of high risk rail turns on three successive waves to earn 9.0, 8.5 and a throw away 8.25 point ride while dominating his opening encounter of the event.

Top seed and reigning Pro Junior champion Rudy Palmboom Jnr from the Bluff scored a comfortable victory in his heat despite snapping the nose off his surfboard early on.

In another huge upset second seed Nic Godfrey (Cape St Francis) joined Bromley on the sidelines when he could only finish third in his debut in the event where Brendon Gibbens (Kommetjie) and Bertie Stuurman (Jeffreys Bay) advanced.

Casey Grant (Scottburgh), last year’s runner-up here, again showed his class while former U16 stars Shaun Joubert (Mossel Bay) and Dale Staples (St Francis Bay) advanced to the last 16 along with U14 series champion Michael February (Kommetjie) whose fluid but flamboyant style belied his age.

With a strong rip current running through the break, the U14 and U12 results were dominated by the stronger paddlers as the competitors were swept out of the line-up zone.

Capetonians Greg Visagie (Tableview) and Diran Zakarian (Melkbosstrand), Steven Sawyer (J-Bay) and Mikey Venter (Warner Beach) recorded heat wins to made their way into the U14 semifinals with their respective heat runners-up.

Benji Brand was the standout in the U12 division, destroying the waves with fully committed carves and powerful manoeuvres off the lip. Brand, fellow Kommetjie surfer and 2006 series champ Max Armstrong who turned 12 on Wednesday, and second placed JJ Harris (Scottburgh) and rising star Jordy Maree, 9, from Tokai, all reached the last eight..

Another day of light winds and solid swell is forecast for St Mikes on Saturday with the finals in all divisions scheduled for Sunday.

Tomorrow’s much anticipated Braai Showdown, contested by the parents of the competitors, is also assuming epic proportions with the battle lines drawn along provincial lines. No mixed teams are permitted due to the crucial Super 14 rugby clash between the Stormers and Sharks at the same time.

The food presented by the teams from Billabong, Lizzard, Kommetjie and KZN will be judged by legendary surf coach Graham Hynes, former world surfing champion Ant Brodowicz and event announcer Dene Botha.

The Billabong Junior Series is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA), the national controlling body for the sport, and the ratings points earned in each event also count towards the annual SSA Pro Surf Tour (PST) rankings.

The series is proudly supported by First National Bank, Palmers, Kustom and Von Zipper.