MORE than 100 surfers took part in this year’s Lizzard Hurricane Summer Surf competition, which formed part of the Umhlanga Summer Festival. The competition, is hosted by the Wave Wizards Surf Club and is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa.
Conditions started off well with contestable two to three-foot waves on offer; however, the surf got tricky towards the afternoon and a lot of the big names were eliminated. On the final day, a solid south-west wind prevailed, but this did not dampen the moods of the contestants, who all put on their best show.
Stand-out surfer of the event was Dale Staples from Westbrook. Dale posted some near-perfect scores during the weekend and won the open men’s category with R5 000 cash from Lizzard, and also took the R1 000 cash win from Zigzag Surf Magazine for the surfer that performed the best over the weekend. Runners-up of the open men were Chad du Toit, Richard Kidd and Shane Sykes.
In the open ladies section, Durban North’s Nicole Pallet won R2 500 cash from Hurricane. Nicole obliterated her opponents with a pair of eights in the final. Nicole beat Heather Clark from Uvongo in second place, then Chanelle Botha and Cana Foster in third and fourth.
The U12 boys’ final was very close between James Ribbink and Nathan Spalding. Less than a point divided their scores, with one judge placing them tied first. Third place went to Brayden Bergset and fourth to Nicholas Dixon.
A lot of fun was had by all participants and spectators and Wave Wizards club chairman, Jestyn Viljoen, was delighted with the outcome.
“It is such a pleasure to see so many families taking part in ocean sports and we are stoked that we had such a great response again this year. The level of surfing was world class and we look forward to an even bigger and better event next year. It was also really good to team up with Umhlanga Lifesaving and have our prize-giving at the club that we will be calling our Wave Wizards club home in the future.”
