Day 2 RVCA Junior Challenge

The contest venue Lower Point, from above. Don McGillivray

Solid four- to five-foot pumping surf made for epic conditions on Day Two of the RVCA Junior Challenge at Lower Point. While the waves offered high scoring potential, the increased size also made for physically demanding conditions with long paddles back up the point. 

Not to be outdone by the big boys who were competing in the JBU Supertrial presented by RVCA up the point at Supertubes (eventually won by Slade Prestwich), the youngsters seemed to up their game.
 
Kommetjie’s Ford van Jaarsveldt showed what needed to be done in the premier U20 Boys division. The stylish regular footer rode three waves only, carving his way to pocket 7s. “My strategy was to just sit and wait for the sets,” he said afterward. “If you are on the bigger waves they’re going to give you the bigger scores,” he said.

“I’m super stoked it’s picked up, these bigger waves really suit my style of surfing. Was also so much fun to be out there with just three other guys out. If the conditions were like this on any other day it would be so crowded,” he said. 

Ford, perhaps more favoured in his own division, was knocked out of U16 boys. Other favourites to lose out were Jake Elkington in the U16 Boys and Anoush Zakarian in the U20 Girls.

Arguably the best heat of the weekend was semi final one in the U16 Boys. Adin Masencamp, Joshe Faulkner, Sebastian Williams and Ryan Lightfoot traded wave-for-wave as the sun dipped and the ocean went smooth as glass. At the end of the epic encounter it was Adin Masencamp with both the highest single wave score (9.5) and highest heat score (18.25) who advanced to the finals with JBay local Joshe Faulkner who was surfing his fourth heat of the day.

They will meet Calvin Goor and Ethan Fletcher tomorrow. 

Other standouts on the day included Julian Zens in the U14 Boys, who convincingly beating local Ryan Lightfoot to advance into that division’s semi finals and Mossel Bay’s Nina Harmse, who posted a 9.0 in her U16 Girls quarter final. 

St Francis Bay’s Crystal Hulett also impressed, dropping two big scores within the first 10 minutes in her U20 Girls heat, having to run around after the second. “Getting that first wave is crucial,” she said afterward, having beaten Olivia Izzard into second, with Anna Jelema Butler in third and Jade Mets in fourth. “It’s always my strategy to get that first one. There were a lot of wide sets, but on the inside there were smaller, hollower waves running along the shelf which you could really hit and do some powerful turns on,” she said. “So I tried to vary between the outside sets, by watching Supers to know when they’d be coming down the point; while trying to maintain the inside.”

She later advanced to the final, along with Robyn van der Merwe; Nicole Pallet and Kai Woolf.

Crystal Hulett in action at The Lower Point © Luke Patterson

The forecast looks favourable for tomorrow when the winners will be crowned. Other action to look forward is a the Paddle Battle in association with Red Bull. This paddle battle is open to surfers 16 years and older, and there will be a Rayne Camera, Stance socks and other sponsor products in the prize package. As well as the Spraymate Paint Jam where the groms will be let loose with hundreds of cans of paint to go wild in an expression-session paint jam.

Co-sponsors include Stance, Firewire, Future Fins, Posca, Havaianas, Nixon, Rayne Cameras, Zigzag Magazine, Posca and Red Bull.
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The RVCA Junior Challenge is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa. Surfing South Africa is a member of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), and recognised by the Dept. of Sport and Recreation as the national controlling body for surfing.

Images below by Alan van Gysen