All systems go for surf celebrations

THE City of Durban is ready to welcome hundreds of surfing enthusiast that will grace our warm shores for the much anticipated 50 Years of Surfing in Durban.

This milestone event is a commemoration of the number of years since surfing officially started as a sport in the city and it will also coincide with the World Surf Cities Network Annual General Meeting.

To celebrate this milestone, various activities will take place around the city. These will be attended by professional and amateur surfers. The celebrations will kick-off with the Surfing through the Ages Exhibition, that will take you on a journey of how surfing innovations have evolved over the years from the 60s, 70s up to date.

The exhibition officially opened on 1 July and will run until 30 August at the Pumphouse, Dairy Beach. It will include artifacts that were previously owned by prominent surfing personalities. Among these, is the famous surfing board that World Champion, Shaun Tomson, used when he won the World Surfing Championships in the year 1977.

The industry leaders in the sports and recreation sector will have an opportunity to exchange ideas and engage on how the different sporting codes can work together to produce world-class athletes. This will take place during the Sports Business Networking Dinner that will be keynoted by Mr John Nielsen, former Olympic competitor and CEO of the GoldCoast Surfing Inc. His focus will be on how sporting bodies can leverage on international events such as the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics to create business opportunities and market themselves.

The development of the young surfers will also be on top of the agenda during the Surf Indaba for Groms. This will be a two-hour interactive session targeted at surfers between the ages of six and 16 years. They will be motivated and taught different surfing techniques. A total number of 50 young surfers have been invited to participate. Tom Hewitt, the founder of the Surfers Not Street Children will give a keynote address on the day.

Speaking at the launch on Friday, the city's Eric Appelgren said becoming part of the World Surf Cities network was a good move for Durban, as we have great surfing, and that it was a good platform to promote the city.

“Durban is in the business of surfing and we have produced greats like Shaun Tomson and Jordy Smith. We need to see how we can use the network and our top surfers to ensure tourism becomes top in the city. We have a great winter in our beautiful city, and we hope this event is a success, and must ensure that it grows and we get people down to the beachfront in their thousands again,” he said.