Words: Craig Jarvis ǀ Photo: © Roy Harley & © Kody McGregor
This weekend will see the first in the three-part Billabong Junior Surfing Series, which is taking place in Mossel Bay from 25-27 April 2014. The best junior surfers in the country will converge around the Point area of Mossel Bay in preparation for a Friday-morning start.
Photo credit: © Roy Harley
The best juniors in the country have been competing in the prestigious Junior Series since 1997. To date, there have been 48 events run and over a million rand in prize money handed out to the junior surfers.
The series forms an ideal platform for the top junior surfers in the country to hone their competitive surfing skills, as well as develop into healthy sports people and ambassadors for their sponsors and provinces. The series has also led to many successful professional and other surfing careers, thus providing a crucial stepping stone to greater things for our juniors.
The nine divisions catered for in the event are: U12 Boys, U14 Boys and Girls, U16 Boys and Girls, U18 Boys and Girls, and the U20 Pro Junior Boys and Girls. The U20 Pro Junior divisions are 1 Star ASP Africa Pro Junior rated. The Pro Junior girls will be going all out to win R10,000 in prize money, while the boys will going head-to-head for R20 000.
One of the top seeds in the event is Joshe Faulkner, from Pellsrus in J-Bay, who placed 6th in the world at the recent ISA World Junior Games in Ecuador. Joshe is a surfer who has come through the Eastern Province and Surfing South Africa transformation and development surfing programme, and has a very bright future ahead of him.
Photo credit: © Kody McGregor
Apart from the contest format, there are a number of exciting side events to keep everyone interested. There's the BOS Surfer of the Contest award, as well as the BOS Surfer of the Series award.
Nixon have solidified their commitment to the series with a number of specialty prizes, including a Nixon Blaster (a weatherproof portable blue tooth speaker) to the winner of every division at every event. For the U20 Boys' series winner, there's also a Gold 48-20 Nixon Watch that is valued at R5,000, as well as a R4,000 Gold Camden Nixon Watch for the U20 Girls' winner. Furthermore, the surfer with the highest score in each event will receive the Nixon WTA (Winner Takes All) award, a fantastic Nixon Supertide.
Then there's the DaKine Wave of the Day award for the best wave of each day of competition, as well as the KR Fins Free award for the most radical fins-free move of each event.
So don't miss this epic showdown featuring our talented surfing youth this coming weekend.
More information
To follow the event please go to the Billabong South Africa Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/
