La Lucia’s Olivia surfs to special victory

OLIVIA Izzard surfed to one of her most  memorable victories in her fledgling career at this year’s Durban July Surfing Extravaganza at the Bay of Plenty. Her performance capped off a memorable weekend for North Durban, with a number of top three finishers coming from the area. Ten individual champs were crowned on the day which saw contestable waves of two to three foot.

The three day competition featured men, women, pro junior boys and girls and U18, U16 and U14 divisions for boys and girls. Izzard won the U14 girls division and was a finalist in the U16 category.

One of her rides was an 8 pointer which helped her post one of the highest heat scores of the day.

“I’m really excited. This is definitely one of my most special wins. Conditions were good at first, but then the wind started to pick up, but thankfully I managed to overcome them.

“It was quite tough in the final because there was some really good competition in the water. I was a bit confused in the end as to who had won so it was super to get the win,” she said.

Izzard is now gearing up for the Billabong Junior Series, in Long Beach, Cape Town later this year.