Western Province win Freedom Cup at the Hurley SA Junior Champs in Durban

Western Province successfully defended the title they won in Cape Town last year when they won the Freedom Cup by the narrowest of margins at the 2011 Hurley SA Junior Champs at New Pier Durban Saturday (October 8).

The team in blue and white edged out hosts KZN Central by 24 points, the smallest victory margin in the 15 year history of the championships. In doing so the 2011 Western Province Junior Team became the first surfing team from the Cape to win a National title in Durban since the first South African Championships were held back in 1965. Next year’s tournament hosts, Eastern Province, were third and Southern KZN produced their best event result to finish fourth. Boland came fifth and the SA Development Team, which was made up of surfers drawn from Surfing South Africa’s transformation and development programmes achieved a hard fought sixth place. Zululand came seventh, Border eighth and Southern Cape ended ninth.

Division honours in the Under 17 age group went to KZN Central, Southern KZN won the Under 15 Division title and Western Province led the way in the Under 15 division.

Although scheduled to be completed on Sunday October 9, organisers decided to take advantage of the highly contestable New Pier surf and completed the event on Saturday. After nearly nine hours of dynamic surfing Individual honours went to defending Under 17 Girls champion Sarah Baum with her KZN Central team mate Josh Smit winning the Under 17 Boys title and Max Armstrong of Western Province taking the Under 15 Boys final.

Baum, Smit and Armstrong not only bagged these important national titles and the trophies and medal that accompanied them but they were also presented with their national junior colours in the form of green Protea blazers. All three are automatically included in the SA Junior Team which will compete in the ISA World Junior Championships in Panama next year.

Tahra Uren of Eastern Province won the Under 15 girls final, Adin Masencamp of Boland became the Under 13 Boys champion and nine year old Kai Woolf of Eastern Province, the youngest competitor in the 150-strong field, confidently surfed her way to victory in the U13 Girls division.

Other significant performances at this year’s Hurley SA Junior Champs came from 14 year old Chanelle Botha of Southern KZN, Jordy Maree of Western Province and Mikey Venter of KZN Central.

Despite finishing as runner up in the Under 15 Girls division Botha bagged the “I’m Off To Oz, Bru” trip to the Australian Open of Surfing presented by Hurley and Billabong at Manley Beach in Australia next year which was awarded to the surfer who posted the highest heat score in the championships. Her 19.15 points out of a possible 20 in her semi final heat secured her this amazing prize which was announced by Jevon Le Roux, MD of Hurley at the opening function last Monday night.

A stoked Botha had this to say after being awarded the Hurley prize: “I am extremely excited. I really didn’t expect to win such an awesome prize or to be the one with the highest heat score! I really want to thank my brother Wade and the rest of the Southern KZN team for their support. I have never been overseas so haven’t been to Australia before and I cannot wait. It’s going to be really exciting being there for the Hurley Australian Open!”

2010 Under 13 champion Maree had to step aside for Adin Masencamp in the Under 13 final this year but was nevertheless named Surfer of the Contest. He won this award as an 11 year old in 2009.

After a disappointing fourth place in the Under 17 Boys final, Venter was still able to make his mark on the event by boosting a front-side no hands aerial into a 180 slide to win the Red Bull Air Show Expression Session R5000 for his effort.

In a first for the SA Junior Champs, Surfing South Africa presented a Tag Team contest featuring the top eight teams in the event. After two tightly contested semi finals and an adrenalin charged final honours went the way of Eastern Province with KZN Central second, Border third and Southern KZN fourth.

The Skullcandy Best Team Trophy, which is awarded to the provincial team that displays the best team spirit throughout the championships, went to Southern KZN for the second year in a row.

Robin de Kock, General Manager of Surfing South Africa, commenting on the event said, "The Hurley SA Junior Championships was a huge success. There was some outstanding surfing in all of the divisions and so much talent that South African surfing looks set for the future. In 15 years of holding this event Surfing South Africa will use the success of the 2011 Hurley SA Junior Champs as a benchmark. We are privileged to be partners with Hurley and grateful to the city of Durban for supporting the event.”

According to Hurley SA Marketing Manager Liam Wood, ““Hurley is extremely proud with the outcome of this event. We are grateful for the support of all of the spectators, managers, individuals from Surfing South Africa, coaches and parents, as their hard work has contributed to the success of the event. We would especially like to congratulate all of the groms for their outstanding performances, we have been impressed by the standard of surfing and we are certain that the level of surfing will grow from strength to strength each year. Having committed to a 5 year programme supporting junior surfing in South Africa, we are super excited about where this event is going, and we remain committed to inspiring SA’s future champions.”

For more information about the Hurley SA Junior Champs presented by Durban, visit www.hurley.co.za, ‘Like’ Hurley South Africa on Facebook or follow HurleyZA on Twitter. Full Heat results and photos have been posted on www.hurley.co.za and www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za.

Supporting sponsors are Skullcandy, Red Bull, Red Bull Mobile, Southern Sun North Beach, Container Conversions and Zigzag.

Surfing South Africa’s Talent ID project is supported by funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the participation of the South African Development Team was supported by a grant from Sport and Recreation South Africa.

Nerve Events were the event organisers and the host province was the KZN Central Surf riders Association.

Surfing South Africa is recognised as the governing body for the sport by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and Sport and Recreation SA. Surfing South Africa is a member of the International Surfing Association (ISA), the world’s governing body for surfing.