Junior surfers impress in Jeffreys Bay

CLASSIC conditions with sunshine, light offshore winds and consistent, rippable waves greeted contestants in the opening day of the Hurley SA Junior Champs at the Lower Point in Jeffreys Bay yesterday.

The contest swung into motion with the opening round of the under-17, U15 and U13 boys strutting their stuff.

KwaZulu-Natal Central (KZNC) U17 second seed Bryce Burness caught the first wave and went on to clinch the heat victory and advance directly to round three along with runner-up Jerry van Wyk, the top seed for the hosts and defending team champions, Eastern Province (EP).

Western Province (WP) top seed Max Armstrong perfectly executed an airreverse to take the early lead in the charge for the Red Bull Best Air award.

Jeffreys Bay surfer Matt McGillivray (EP) showed he was going to be hard to beat in his first year in the U17 division.

EP's Jose Faulkner and Rewaldo Abersalie, Boland's Tristan Lev and Adin Masencamp, WP's Jordy Maree and Jake Elkington, Luke Malherbe (Border) and Gabriel Fernandez from the SA Development Academy posted heat-winning performances among the U15s.

Angelo Faulkner (EP), Koby Oberholzer (KZNC), Calvin Goor (Dev Academy) and Julian Zens (Bol) were the standouts in the U13 division. The event runs until Sunday.