Top women surfers in Bay battle

In a World Surf League (WSL) first, the women’s division will take centre stage at the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing, presented by Hurley, in Nelson Mandela Bay from tomorrow until Sunday.

The women’s premier division event has been upgraded to a WSL Qualifying Series (QS) rating of 3,000, which makes it the biggest women’s QS event in Africa and one of only five in the world.

The event’s high QS rating has drawn a stellar contingent of international entries from Europe, Australia and North and South America, including Championship Tour (CT) campaigner and current QS-rated No 1 Pauline Ado, of France.

They will be competing against South Africa’s best surfers, including Bianca Buitendag and Sarah Baum.

With Championship Tour contender Paige Hareb (New Zealand) picking up an injury that forced her to withdraw from competition, Philippa Anderson of Australia takes the top spot on the event seeding list.

Anderson finished 2017 at 12th on the WSL QS, but has since climbed nine spots to third and will be hunting for every available point to get onto the CT.

Seeded second for the contest is Dominic Barona, an exciting and competitive surfer from Ecuador.

She is a seven-time national champion, a triple Bolivarian Games gold medallist, three-time Latin American champion and twice ISA World Championships runner-up.

She is an Ecuadorian Tourism Ambassador and finished 2017 13th on the WSL QS.

Goofy-footer Buitendag, of Victoria Bay, finished 2015 as the fourth-highest ranked surfer in the world, finishing runner-up in Rio, Fiji and California that year.

Unfortunately, she was unable to carry the momentum through and she dropped off the CT, finishing 2017 at No 18.

Clawing her way back to permanent fulltime Championship Tour status, she will be fighting tooth and nail for a win.

Baum, originally from Durban but now living in Australia, is one of South Africa’s most talented surfers.

Still flying the South African flag, she won earlier this year in Australia and is on a mission to add the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing presented by Hurley title to her tally.

Peruvian surfer Sofia Molanovich is a former world champion and was the first Latin American to win a WSL world title in 2004.

She got to the semifinals at the fifth stop of the City Surf Series in Cape Town at the weekend and will be using her experience and skill to take podium top spot in Port Elizabeth on Sunday and net 3 000 world ranking points.

Also in the mix are Africa’s No 1-ranked surfer, Nicole Pallet of Durban, Zoe Steyn (East London), Josefina Ane (Argentina), Zoe McDougall (Hawaii) and Kai Woolf (Jeffreys Bay), who has five City Surf Series titles under her belt and is frothing for a sixth.

The men’s premier division contest has a WSL QS rating of 1 500 and has also attracted an array of international entries from Europe, North and South America, Australia, Asia and Hawaii, the top seed being Portuguese regular footer Vasco Ribeiro, a former junior European surfing champion as well as a former WSL world junior champion.

He is ranked sixth in the WLS QS and 1 500 QS points for a win would see him leapfrog closer to the top of the QS and closer to the CT.

Jeffreys Bay surfer Matthew McGillivray is ranked 10th on the WSL QS and is in a favourable position to join Jordy Smith and Michael February on the CT.

He is also South Africa’s top seed in the contest and keen to add the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing title to his QS wins earlier in the year in Israel and Lambert’s Bay.

Completing the Jeffreys Bay trio of contenders are Dylan Lightfoot and Joshe Faulkner.