Woolf surfs up a storm

Former J-Bay competitor grabs two women’s titles in pro event New Zealand’s Kai Woolf was the standout performer in the Volkswagen Nelson Mandela Bay Surf Pro presented by Billabong in Port Elizabeth at the weekend.

Woolf clinched both the women’s and junior women’s titles while David van Zyl (Glenashley) won the men’s event and Dillon Hendricks (Muizenberg) captured the junior men’s crown in the event that finished in the Bay yesterday.

The first of 13 events on the 2018 World Surf League (WSL) Africa regional tour, the NMB Surf Pro featured Qualifying Series (QS) events for men and women alongside Junior Qualifying Series (JQS) events for men and women aged 18 and under.

Woolf, 16, who grew up in Jeffreys Bay but now lives with her family in New Zealand, won every heat she contested in both events, racking up double-digit heat scores throughout with her impressive repertoire of high-performance manoeuvres.

In the QS 1 000 women’s event, Woolf defeated reigning WSL Africa champion Nicole Pallet (La Lucia) in the one-on-one final, catching two waves early in the final and delivering scores of 6.25 and 7.25 (each out of 10).

A howling southwesterly wind that sprang up midway through the heat altered the lineup significantly and Pallet was left the near impossible task of finding an excellent 8.50 in the deteriorating conditions.

Earlier, Woolf was equally dominating in the four-person JQS 1 000 women’s final.

She again posted her best scores early in the encounter to leave Sophie Bell (Salt Rock), last year’s WSL Africa junior women’s champ, requiring a solid 7.0 when the siren sounded to end the heat.

Anna Jellema-Butler (Cape Town) and Olivia Izzard (La Lucia) took third and fourth places respectively. Van Zyl justified his top seeding for the QS 1 500 men’s event in Port Elizabeth and was in a class of his own, averaging heat scores of 13.56 (out of 20) during his first event of the year.

Ranked No 67 on the QS at the end of last year, and No 2 on the WSL Africa leaderboard, Van Zyl narrowly overcame Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay) in their quarterfinal duel and posted an outstanding 8.75 to pip Jordy Maree (Kalk Bay) in their semifinal clash.

In the final, Van Zyl opened his account against Adin Masencamp (Strand) with a well ridden 7.50 and surfed with power and flow to consistently add to his total in the testing conditions.

He earned three scores in the six-point range before a 7.0 closed the door on his opponent’s hopes and saw van Zyl pocket the R40 000 winner’s cheque and 1 500 precious ranking points.