Surf carnival a success

THE Durban Surf Carnival at New Pier on Durban’s beachfront drew great crowds who enjoyed the exciting surf action throughout the three days.

World class events that included the longboarding, stand up paddle boarding (SUP) and retro surfing brought in prizes worth more than R200 000.

SUP events included the SUPSA sanctioned open men and women’s divisions as well as the juniors and legends (over 45) division.

The winners of the open, men and women’s divisions will be eligible for squad selection to represent South Africa at the 2015 ISA Stand Up Paddle World Championship.

The SUP final was won by Justin Bing from Cape Town who scored a heat total of 15 and Brandon Ribbink from Morningside in second place. Joining them were Western Province surfers, Ethan Koopmans and Thomas King who placed third and fourth respectively.

The women’s SUP final was won by Tarryn Kyte from Cape Town, second place went to Roxy Davis from Cape Town with Tammy Robarts from Boland and Penny Stemmet from Boland in third and fourth respectively.

The SUP junior division was hotly contested with first prize going to Ethan Koopmans from Cape Town with fellow Capetonian’s, Kimon Dos Santos in second, Joshua Roberson in third and Matt Maxwell in fourth place.

The KZN Longboard Open Championships, sanctioned by the KwaZulu Natal Longboard Surfing Association (KZNLSA), was won by Brad Weare from KZN who scored 14 overall with Justin Bing from Cape Town in second place, Gareth Jones from KZN) in third and Damien Stander from KZN in fourth.

In the women’s longboard event, Tarryn Kyte from Cape Town took the win which some impressive surfing, she was followed by Nix Bez from KZN in second, Christy Gilmour from KZN in third and Tracy Phillips from KZN in fourth.

The over 50 longboard final saw some great surfing from Hugh Thompson who took the win with some top class surfing. Hot on his heels in second place was Craig Daniel from KZN, Deon Bing from Cape Town in third and Paul O’Connell from Cape Town in fourth.

The much anticipated event of this year’s Durban Surf Carnival was the retro surfing division, which was held for the second time. Requirements of this event saw surfers having to ride a single-fin surfboard which generally falls into the sub 7’0” category. Here, Justin Maisch from Southern KZN was unstoppable once again, pulling off the traditional maneuvers that were reminiscent of surfing in the seventies. He was followed by Justin Bing from Cape Town in second, Ethan Pentz from Cape Town in third and Damien Stander from KZN in fourth.