SABA 5A rated event (Words and Photos by Ian Thurtell)
Hosted by Boland Bodyboarding and Reef South Africa
Product Sponsors: Reef South Africa, Science bodyboards, Ocean & Earth, Viper Fins, Gyroll leashes, Matunas eco-wax and Stomp wax, Coca Cola, Powerade, BONAQUA, Glider Sunglasses and Namaqua Wines.
Other Sponsors: Eureka Holiday Accommodation, OK Sentra, Cederburg Municipality
For those that again didn’t want to make the “schlep” to the west coast, can look at the photos and wonder why they didn’t enter this contest. For the 2nd year in a row the Kumba West Coast Classic produced epic waves and perfect conditions making this event one of, if not the best SABA tour stop on the calendar.
Arriving the day before the contest the waves were small and the wind was hard cross shore and expectations were not exactly on a high for the first day of the Kumba West Coast Classic. The plan for day 1 was to run as many heats as possible as the forecast told of a dropping swell.
Once again the west coast did its thing and surprised everyone. On arrival at Famers we were greeted with a perfectly groomed lined up 2-4ft swell.
The juniors were the first to hit the ledgy reef break .Gustav Lillienfeld, Matthew Fowle, Ian Viljoen, Kyle Cabano, Aiden Wilson and Corban Warrington were all winners of their respective heats.
As the tide drained and the reef became almost knee deep on every wave the call was made for the Pro’s to battle out their round 1 heat. The first heat of the pros was an extremely trying one with the ocean deciding to play games and hand out only a few good high scoring waves. Simon Heale obviously had a chat to Neptune and knew what to do. He grabbed every good wave and won his heat comfortably.
Wesley Fisher, Keith Millward, David Lillienfeld , Johnny Maritz and Charles Pass were the other standouts in their heats. Mathew Lombard from the juniors division also surprised a few of the usual pro riders and advanced through to the Semi finals.A special mention must be made to Tristan Roberts who is a boys rider and entered the Pro division. His age was the only difference in the heat and he dealt a few of the pro riders a good beating. He placed 2ndin his heat and will progress to the quarter finals.
Simon Heale kept up his good relationship with the waves and won his DK round one heat. Peet Verreyne, Sean Tickner, Keith Milward, Vaughn Harris and Matthew Webster advanced into the semi –finals.
The forecast for tomorrow looks like a smaller swell. The contest is planned to be completed over the mornings dropping tide and land offshore breeze.
So who will walk away with the divisions titles? Stay tuned for the final days report!
