DEFENDING champion Nikita Robb returns this year to compete for the coveted title at the Ballito Women’s Pro presented by Billabong at Willard Beach, Ballito from 27 June to 3 July.
The QS 112-rated surfer will be up against a tough line-up with SA’s highest ranked QS surfer Tanika Hoffman (QS 87), the runner-up to last year’s competition Faye Zoetmulder (QS 100), and one of the country’s most exciting up-and-coming female surfers Emma Smith (QS 71), all hungry for the prize.
For the second consecutive year the internationally rated women’s surfing returns to the shores of KwaDukuza. Last year saw the East Londoner local produce a winning performance in tricky one metre waves to outshine South Africa’s top women surfers. This QS1000 rated event offers prize-money totalling R50,000 along with priceless points on both the World Surf League (WSL) qualifying series (QS) rankings and the WSL Africa regional women’s rankings.
First run in Durban back in 1992, when the event was known as the Gunston 500, the women’s event established a proud tradition over the next 17 years with former winners including world champions Layne Beachley, fellow Australian Stephanie Gilmore and Sofia Mulanovich (Peru).
Run once in Ballito, in 2008 when gigantic waves and inclement conditions forced the cancellation of the event with 32 women still in contention, the women’s event was only resurrected again last year after a seven-year siesta.
This year the women’s competition will for the first time be held in conjunction with the men’s event, where reigning world champion Adriano de Souza (BRA) heads a line-up of elite surfers runs. Entries for the first World Surf League (WSL) qualifying series QS10,000 rated event closed last Thursday with more than 150 local and international surfers applying for a start in the 112-man field to contest the 48th edition of the world’s longest running professional surfing event.
The women’s and men’s competitions are preceded by the Surfing South Africa (SSA) trials (for a spot in the Ballito Pro line-up) on Sunday, 26 June and the Billabong Junior Series running from Wednesday to Sunday, 22 to 25 June.
As usual Ballito Pro fans can look forward to an incredible entertainment line-up. Fire Up Your Stoke, a night of food and wine, is a one-night-only culinary extravaganza at the main festival area at Willard Beach on Wednesday night, 29 June. This will be followed by three consecutive nights of free music concerts at Salt Rock Beach from 30 June to 2 July.
