West Beach Warfare Results & Report
posted by James Jones on 14th August 2013
The Inaugural West Beach Warfare 4A Rated SABA
contest was held over this past weekend 9-11 August 2013. The event attracted
60 entries to the West Beach to battle it out for the crowns in the various divisions.
Day 1 produced some really wild seas in the 4-6 foot range
and the event organisers had no choice but to postpone the riding of the event until
early Saturday morning (Day 2). However, the lay day meant that some of SA's
top riders did get a chance to chance their arms at the infamous West Beach and
take on some big and heavy conditions. Many of the riders came out of the water
exclaiming the extreme power and quality of the wave if conditions were to be
perfect.
Day 2 dawned with the huge drop in the swell to the region
of 2ft+, the event was started at 07:30 due to West Beach needing to be ridden
on a high tide, winners of the early Pro Rounds were Dane Beales and Port Elizabeth's James Jones (event co-organiser), showing their fellow competitors
that they would be seriously tough to beat. The early Drop-Knee rounds were
also ridden, and with the tide dropping, wave selection was at a premium.
After a break for the tide
to push in more, the event resumed and, with the wind picking up onshore,
conditions became really tough for most competitors! Although it was tough,
there was some top class riding that still took place, Standouts were - Samuel (Sampi) Kamffer with a perfect
10 point ride - to win him the "Wave of
the Contest" - with an Invert to 2 rolls after it. Dylan van Tonder also pulled off an extremely critical Invert in
his heat and Iain Campbell showed everyone why he is regarded as one of the top
talents in SA and World bodyboarding with a technical display of riding and
combo waves. South African Champion 2012, Tristan
Roberts once again impressed all with his riding in the Pro division with
his textbook back flips.
The DK semi-finals were also took place in the
afternoon and 2 former SA representatives, Dylan van Tonder and Iain Campbell, asserted their authority
with a very high calibre of riding.
Day 3 started off once again at 07:30 with the Pro division
moving into a Man-On-Man contest with Iain Campbell, Dane Beales, Adam Waites and Michael Ostler all making it into the Semi Finals - they all
displayed cool heads in testing 1-2ft conditions.
In the Masters division, Jason Lodge was the victor with some
smooth combinations, local Riders David Le Roux and Ryan Owsley came 2nd and
3rd respectively.
After another break to wait
for the push of the tide, the Pro Semi Finals got started and with, the SABA
Pro Title on the line, competition was fierce. Iain Campbell unfortunately
couldn't do enough to beat Adam Waites and, after an agonising wait, Michael Ostler beat out Dane Beales, to
advance to the Final and also clinch the South African Bodyboarding Association
Pro Circuit Title for 2013!
The Ladies and Grand Master
final was joint into one heat due to very few entrants in those divisions. In
the ladies division, Melissa Bowles
took home the title at her local break with Georgi McKeone, the 2012 u16 SA team representative, taking home 2nd
place. Riaan Nutt won the Grand
Masters division.
The Drop-Knee, Boys and Mens
finals followed. The Drop-Knee division was a blow by blow battle between Iain
Campbell & Dylan van Tonder, trading off some seriously critical snaps with
Iain Campbell coming out tops.
In the boys final, the
conditions were extremely shifty and there were a lot of waves caught by all the
competitors, but in the end, Alex Nutt
picked the right waves to win.
The Mens final was also a close affair with Jot De Lauwere pulling off some really
big powerful manuveours and Ryan Botha
getting some serious combinations going of his own, but it turned out that Jot
De Lauwere's strategy would pay off and he claimed the Mens title.
As always, the Junior final
didn't fail to impress, with a very high level of riding in the trying conditions.
It became a 2 horse race between Niklas
Martin and Tristan Roberts, both
exchanging ARS, roll combos and a backflip here and there. Tristan was crowned
the champion ahead of Niklas Martin with some clean backflips and combination
waves
The Pro final finished up
the West Beach Warfare event with a battle between two Central Kwa-Zulu Natal
riders, Michael Ostler and Adam Waites. It was final of twists and
turns and no one could put a handle on who was edging in front of the other.
With super clean flips on the sets by Michael Ostler and really clean roll to
invert combos by Adam Waites, it was a close contest. In the end, Michael
Ostler took home the title, and was crowned "The Champion of The West
Beach Warfare Event 2013."
The West Beach Warfare Event
concluded the 2013 SABA circuit and aims to be back next year and for many
years to come. Next up is the South
African Championships in Mossel Bay
from 22-27 September 2013. West Beach and the Eastern Province Bodyboarding
Association will be playing host to the SA Bodyboarding Championships in 2014.
Thank you to all the
competitors that made this event happen and for travelling from all over the
country. Also would like to thank the officials for all their hard work in what
ever capacity that were serving under.
Results:
Grand Masters
- Riaan Nutt
Masters
- Jason Lodge
- David Le Roux
- Ryan Owsley
Ladies
- Melissa Bowles
- Goergi Mckoene
Boys
- Alex Nutt
- Wian Oosthuizen
- Joshua Pascoe
- Henry Van Breda
Mens
- Jot De Lauwere
- Ryan Botha
- Chris Green
- Keegan Jordaan
DK
- Iain Campbell
- Dylan Van Tonder
- Terence Pieters
Juniors
- Tristan Roberts
- Niklas Martin
- Garryd Ensor-Smith
- Ruan Botha
Pro
- Michael Ostler
- Adam Waites
- Dane Beales & Iain Campbell (Tied)
Sponsors
- Billabong
- VonZipper
- Dakine
- Rossi Bodyboards
- Settler Sands
- Guidos Port Alfred
- Multi Security
- Protap
- Gear4Gear
- Red Bull
- Tsitsikamma Crystal Mineral Water
- Eastern Province Bodyboarding Association
- Nutritech
Media downloads: http://bit.ly/1bk32q1
Event Contact:
Jot De Lauwere
[email protected]
(+27)82 552 0386
www.sixty40.co.za/event/566
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