History made as first SUPSA Surfing Champs is held in Cape Town

South Africa’s SUP wave-riding national titles were awarded to the winners of the four divisions last night at the closing function of the 2011 South African SUP Wave Championships.

“The event finished on a high note in very tough surf conditions at the Wreck, Tableview, Cape Town with each of the four finalists in the Men’s Open, Ladies Open, Juniors and Legends showing why they deserved to be on the podium,” said Gary van Rooyen, contest director for the national championships.

After a sunny, windless day on Saturday with clean 3-4ft waves all day, the final day of the South African SUP Surfing Championships saw the weather turn by later morning from light winds to a strong south-easterly buster with solid 5-6ft waves making for very bumpy, difficult surfing conditions – let alone paddling or riding a stand-up paddle board.

The Open Men’s final saw a trade-off of waves between SUP pioneer Ivan van Vuuren and Justin Bing, who is leading the charge of a new school of SUP surfers in the country. Wave selection, length of ride and progressive surfing were what the judges wanted to see. Francois Frick and Jonathan Rosslind played catch-up in the shifting line-up. Eventually the tussle went down to the wire on who had the best back-up second wave, with Ivan van Vuuren taking the South African title in the Men’s Open division.

In the Ladies Open final it was all about wave-selection in the strong cross-shore winds. Penny Stemmet opted for the inside and drew on her years of surfing experience to pull two waves out the bag and win the South African title in the Ladies Open division. Karin Figl, who took second place, looked to the outside sets but did not find the waves she wanted while Tamsyn Brown and Chelsea van Rooyen battled to find the waves they wanted. All the women finalists were awarded with a floating trophy to honour their determination to surf no matter the conditions.

In a highly contested Junior division, the four under eighteen SUP surfers showed that there is lots of talent hungry for titles – three of these finalist also made it into the quarter finals of the Men’s Open division. Leading the charge was Dylan Frick, who took the South African title in the Junior division. Hot on his heels was Oswald Smith, Bas Koopmans and Diran Zakarian, all of whom showing where the future of SUP surfing in South Africa is heading.

The Legends division was contest between SUP paddle race rivals, with the Peter Petersen winning the wave-riding accolades and the South African title in the Legends division over Andrew Cillie. Pushing hard on their heels were Gigs Cilliers and Rob Munro but, as in the other heats, it was all about picking the right wave in those extreme SUP surfing conditions.

With this first the South African SUP Wave Championships under the belt, and with some 80 participants surfing, the standard has been set for running a successful national event and the bar lifted in terms of progressive SUP surfing performance in the country. We can only look forward to better this in 2012.

The South African SUP Wave Championships were being hosted by Stand-Up Paddling South Africa (SUPSA), the national association for stand-up paddling boarding, at the Seli Wreck, Tableview in Cape Town over the weekend of 30^th and 31^st July 2011. The closing function was held at the Blouberg Surf Lifesaving Club.

Full Results

Open Men’s Division

1^st - Ivan van Vuuren

2^nd - Justin Bing

3^rd - Francois Frick

4^th - Jonathan Rosslind

Open Ladies Division

1^st – Penny Stemmet

2^nd – Karina Figl

3^rd – Tamsyn Brown

4^th – Chelsea van Rooyen

Legends Division (45yrs and over)

1^st – Peter Petersen

2^nd – Andrew Cillie

3^rd – Gigs Cilliers

4^th – Rob Munro

Junior Division (17yrs and under)

1^st – Dylan Frick

2^nd – Oswald Smith

3^rd – Bas Koopmans

4^th – Diran Zakarian

Top Achiever Awards (for their contribution to the sport)

Peter Petersen

Ivan van Vuuren

Top Judge

Sasha Liversage

Most Improved

Thomas King

Top Scoring Wave

Peter Petersen

About SUPSA

SUPSA was established in late 2010 as a national association to promote stand-up paddle boarding in South Africa as both a sporting and lifestyle activity. It caters for the both surfing and race paddling SUP disciplines, and encourages competitive and social SUP riders to participate in sanctioned SUPSA events. For more information about Stand-Up Paddling South Africa (SUPSA), or how to become a SUPSA member, visit us at www.supsa.org.za.