DURBAN’S Chad du Toit and Luke Thompson placed third in the men’s and junior men’s finals respectively at the Royal St Andrews Hotel Port Alfred Surf Classic in Port Alfred, stop number three of seven on the 2019 World Surf League (WSL) Africa Tour.
South Africa’s Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay) and Ariane Ochoa from the Basque region of Spain took the men’s and women’s Qualifying Series (QS) titles at the event.
After two days of horrendous conditions in the Eastern Cape, the weather was calmer for the final day, while overhead waves continued to reel down the sandbank at the mouth of the Kowie River.
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The final was a see-saw encounter with all four competitors delivering great scores before Lightfoot posted a 6.55 (out of 10) that saw him overtake eventual runner-up Luke Slijpen (Hout Bay) to secure victory, with Durbanites Chad du Toit and Slade Prestwich having to settle for third and fourth places.
The Junior Men’s final featured four of the country’s top 18-and-under surfers with the spoils going to Thomas Lindhorst from nearby East London.
Luke Thompson repeated his third place result at the previous event in PE this month.
The next event on the WSL Africa Tour is the Zigzag Durban Surf Pro from 10 to 12 May, which is also Stop No. 3 of four on the City Surf Series (CSS).
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