Local Baum Victorious At 12th Annual Roxy Wahine Cup

(L-R) Roxy Wahine Cup Open Women’s Champion Sarah Baum, U16 Champion Chanelle Botha, U14 Champion Gina Smith and Pro Junior Champion Bianca Buitendag won their respective divisions in testing conditions at Durban’s New Pier at the weekend.

Photo credit: Kelly Cestari

Sarah Baum (Amanzimtoti) put on an electric display of surfing on Sunday to clinch the women’s open division title at the 2011 Roxy Wahine Cup.

Photo credit: Kelly Cestari

New Pier, Durban: Sarah Baum (Amanzimtoti) emerged victorious today in the open women's division at South Africa’s biggest stand alone women’s surfing event, the Roxy Wahine Cup. 17 year old Baum scored an impressive heat total of 16.50 out of a possible 20 points to earn herself the winner’s cheque of R10 000. Baum surfed fast and radically in the 3-4 feet solid waves to claim first place.

Bianca Buitendag (George) who had just beaten Baum in the U20 Pro Junior division was convincingly beaten by an on-form Baum to finish second in the open women’s division. “I am very happy with winning the event, I would have been stoked to win both divisions but couldn’t seem to find my rhythm in the previous final. This win definitely gives me a lot of confidence going into my next few competitions,” said an elated Baum who spends most of her time surfing at the competition venue, New Pier. Chantelle Rautenbach (Melkbosstrand) and Tasha Mentasti (Cape Town) finished 3rd and 4th respectively in the same final.

In the U20 ASP Pro Junior division final it was Buitendag who got the better of fierce rival Baum by posting two high scores in the 8 point region. Buitendag won herself R7 000 in prize money and an automatic slot into the ASP World Pro Junior Series to be held later on in the year. Baum managed to place second with a heat total score of 13.25 points, Heidi Palmboom (Bluff) and Faye Zoetmulder (Cape St. Francis) placed 3rd and 4th respectively.

In the girls U16 division final Gina Smith of Jeffreys Bay clinched the title ahead of Nicole Pallet (Cape Town), Inge McLaren (East London) and Courtney Ellish (Amanzimtoti).

The U14 girls final was tightly contested and the girls did extremely well in the testing conditions. Chanelle Botha (Amanzimtoti) claimed first place ahead of Mahe Javengny (Reunion Island), Teal Hogg (Durban) and Kelly Simkiss (Durban).

A new addition to Roxy Wahine Cup was the girls Iron Nippers division. Alice Edward from Pirates Surf Lifesaving Club won the U12 division while Michaela Ferreira from Umhlanga Rocks Surf Lifesaving Club emerged the winner of the U14 division.

For more information, photos and results visit the event’s mini site: www.wahinecup.roxy.co.za <http://www.wahinecup.roxy.co.za>

The Roxy Wahine Cup is presented by the City of Durban in association with Suncoast Casino and supporting sponsors include Skullcandy, Softlips, Liqui Fruit, Supersport and Red Bull. The Pro Junior event is sanctioned by ASP Africa while all of other divisions are sanctioned by Surfing South Africa, the governing body for surfing in South Africa.



by Dane Patterson

for Roxy requests please contact:

Tamara Westbrook
Marketing Manager
Cell: 082 952 2606
Office landline: 031 313 1468
Email: tamara.westbrook@roxy.co.za

KZN Surfers Smith, de Vries & Baum rocking the pro Surfing World

Up coming Roxy Wahine Cup favorite Sarah Baum (Athlone Park) throws a sheet of spray as she carves off the top of wave on her way to third place in the ASP 6-Star rated Swatch Girls Pro France at Hossegor on Friday

Credit: Aquashot / ASPEUROPE.COM

• Sarah Baum surfs into ASP Women’s World Tour contention
• Bianca Buitendag grabs third place in Swatch Girls Pro Junior in France
• Royden Bryson the top South African in South American Prime events
• Beyrick de Vries takes early lead in ASP Africa Pro Junior men’s rankings
• Mid-year international events in Durban, Ballito & Jeffreys Bay
  

Sarah Baum surfs into ASP Women’s World Tour contention

Sarah Baum used her patented forehand attack and full repertoire of progressive manoeuvres to clinch an outstanding third place finish in the ASP 6-Star Swatch Girls Pro France at Hossegor last Friday.

The result rocketed the 17 year-old from Warner Beach up to No. 7 on the latest ASP Women’s World Rankings and into contention for a spot on the 2011 ASP Women’s World Title Race. The Top 6 on the World Rankings at the end of each year join the Top 10 from the ASP World Title Race Rankings to contest all the events on following year’s World Title Race, the series of contests that determine the annual ASP Women’s World Champion.

With three of the women ranked above Baum already well-placed to re-qualify via their World Title Race Rankings, the SA teenager is in fact currently fourth in line for one of the six qualifying spots with three Star series events still to be run in 2011.

Starting the Swatch event in the Round of 48, Baum posted a number of excellent performances including recording the highest scoring ride of Day 2 of the event on Friday – 8.75 out of a possible 10 – and winning a tightly contested quarterfinal over elite tour member Alana Blanchard (HAW). In the semifinals Baum was ousted by eventual runner-up Sage Erikson (USA), pocketing US $2 000 and 2 080 rankings points for third place.

“I am super stoked with a third here,” Baum said. “I didn’t expect to get this far in the event. Last year I made it to the Round of 12 and I am really pleased to beat that. It is my best result for sure. All the girls are ripping and it is a great feeling to be part of it. I am heading down to Estoril on Tuesday and I am now looking towards that contest.”

The Swatch event was won by current ASP World No. 2 Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS). Other South African girls in the event included Nikita Robb (East London, 19th), Bianca Buitendag (Victoria Bay, 19th), Rosanne Hodge (EL, 25th), Tarryn Chudleigh (Kommetjie, 37th) along with Fay Zoetmulder (Port Elizabeth) and Tanika Hoffman (Kom) who placed equal 49th.

The entire SA girls’ contingent has travelled to Portugal for the ASP 6-Star Estoril Surf and Music Billabong Girls 2011 which runs from Friday to Sunday, 10-12 June. The final two events on the 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour rankings, both 6-Star rated, will be run in Spain and on the Azores Islands in September.

Swatch Girls Pro France Final Result
Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 16.00 Def. Sage Erickson (USA) 9.70

Swatch Girls Pro France Semi-Final Results
Heat 1: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 15.67 Def. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 15.00
Heat 2: Sage Erickson (USA) 10.77 Def. Sarah Baum (ZAF) 4.67

Swatch Girls Pro France Quarter-Final Results
Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 10.25 Def. Justine Dupont (FRA) 7.15
Heat 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 12.00 Def. Paige Hareb (NZL) 8.90
Heat 3: Sage Erickson (USA) 8.00 Def. Suelen Naraisa (BRA) 7.20
Heat 4: Sarah Baum (ZAF) 14.25 Def. Alana Blanchard (HAW) 8.40

ASP Women’s World Tour Rankings (After event #4 – Swatch Girls Pro France)
1 Conlogue,Courtney USA 8220
2 Erickson,Sage USA 6080
3 Fitzgibbons,Sally AUS 5580
4 Hareb,Paige NZL 4680
5 Woods,Rebecca AUS 4183
6 Ho,Coco HAW 3880
7 Baum,Sarah ZAF 3423
8 Ado,Pauline FRA 3160

South Africans
17 Robb,Nikita ZAF 2143
22 Buitendag,Bianca ZAF 1843
37 Hodge,Rosanne ZAF 1170
37 Chudleigh,Tarryn ZAF 1170
48 Zoetmulder,Faye ZAF 880
77 Hoffman,Tanika ZAF 250

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Bianca Buitendag grabs third place in Swatch Girls Pro Junior in France

Bianca Buitendag continued her sensational assault on the World’s age-group surfing scenario by grabbing third spot in the Swatch Girls Pro Junior France on Saturday.

The lanky 17 year-old from Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape, who won the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships in Australia in January and finished runner-up in the U18 girls’ division of the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships in Peru 10 days ago, again defeated a slew of the world’s best female surfers aged 20-and-under in France.

Buitendag earned US $350 after defeat by eventual champion Sarah Mason (NZL) in a semifinal encounter held in tricky one metre waves.

“The swell definitely dropped and although the conditions were quite nice I didn’t get any good scoring waves,” said Buitendag. “I have a Pro Junior event coming up in South Africa and it is very important to get a result there to qualify for the World Juniors.”

Mason went on to beat Demitry Stoyle (AUS) in the final held at Les Bourdaines on the Bay of Biscay coast. South Africans Faye Zoetmulder (PE) and Tanika Hoffman (Kom) finished 25th and 33rd respectively.

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Royden Bryson the top South African in South American Prime events

Royden Bryson produced the best results by the South Africans in the two Prime rated events run in South America over the past fortnight. The Hout Bay based Capetonian boosted his ASP World Tour ranking from No. 113 to No. 81 after placing 13th in the Saquarema Surf Pro International near Rio de Janeiro and following that up with 9th in the Super Surf International in Santa Catarina.

Both events were run in huge waves with the final day of the Saquarema event postponed to the Monday when the waves on the Sunday were deemed too dangerous for competition. ASP Dream Tour member Kai Otton (AUS) beat Raoni Monteiro (BRA) to pocket the US$40 000 and 6 500 points there while Brazilian prodigy Gabriel Medina,17, scored two perfect 10 point rides on the final day to claim the title from experienced Australian Tom Whittaker in the Super Surf.

Dale Staples (St Francis Bay), who qualifies for all 11 events on the 2011 Prime Series thanks to his third place finish in the 2010 ASP World Junior Title Tour, and fellow 20 year-old, Shaun Joubert (Mossel Bay), who leapfrogged into the top 100 on the rankings with an outstanding fifth place finish in the first Prime event of 2011, were eliminated in the first round (Round of 96) in both events.

Brandon Jackson (Durban North) and former ASP Dream Tour campaigner Travis Logie (Durban) only competed in the Super Surf event with Jackson ousted early and Logie, in his first event after recovering from a foot injury sustained in April, advanced to the Round of 48 but placed fourth in his next match-up to end the event 37th overall.

Logie has dropped from No. 28 to No. 42 in the rankings but remains the highest placed SA surfer behind Jordy Smith (Durban) who is No. 2 behind 10 times ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA). Joubert has maintained his ranking of No. 80 with Bryson now up to No. 81 while Jackson has held on to his No. 104 spot.

ASP World Tour Rankings (After Super Surf International, Brazil)
1 Slater,Kelly USA 66200
2 Smith,Jordy ZAF 52000
3 Fanning,Mick AUS 43648
4 Burrow,Taj AUS 43177
5 Durbidge,Bede AUS 39370

South Africans (Top 200 out of 784)
42 Logie,Travis ZAF 15162
80 Joubert,Shaun ZAF 8570
81 Bryson,Royden ZAF 8564
104 Jackson,Brandon ZAF 6280
113 Palmboom,Rudy ZAF 5807
141 Strachan,Klee ZAF 4072
147 Fahrenfort,Damien ZAF 3849
157 Gibbens,Brendon ZAF 3357
170 Staples,Dale ZAF 2912
176 Weare,David ZAF 2695
178 De Vries,Beyrick ZAF 2608

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Beyrick de Vries takes early lead in ASP Africa Pro Junior men’s rankings

Beyrick de Vries won the 2-Star rated Quiksilver Pro Junior at New Pier in Durban back in April to take the early lead in the 2011 ASP Africa Pro Junior men’s rankings which determine four of the five-man squad invited to compete in the this year’s ASP World Junior Title series.

De Vries, 18, from Umhlanga, produced an impressive display of progressive surfing to overcome Slade Prestwich (Scottburgh), 16, in the final and take home US $2 500 and 500 rankings points.

Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay) and Michael February (Kommetjie) were sidelined by Prestwich and de Vries in their respective semifinals while Dale Staples (St Francis Bay), David van Zyl (Glenashley), Matt Pallet (Cape Town) and Matt Bromley (Kommetjie) ended their campaigns in the quarters.

The ASP Africa Pro Junior men’s rankings will be finalised after the 1-Star Billabong Pro Junior at Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape from September 1-4. The top four on the season ending rankings plus the highest placed ASP Africa Pro Junior on the ASP World Tour Rankings who has not already qualified via the local rankings will join representatives from the other six ASP regions in the World Junior Title series.

The 2011 series comprises three events starting with the Oakley ASP World Junior in Bali from October 3-14, followed by the inaugural Arnette ASP World Junior in Rio de Janeiro from October 24-November and culminating in the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships which will be staged as part of the recently announced Australian Open of Surfing at Manly Beach in Sydney from 11-19 February, 2012.

ASP Africa Pro Junior Men’s Rankings (After Quiksilver Pro Junior)

1 De Vries, Beyrick 500
2 Prestwich, Slade 375
3 Lightfoot, Dylan 281
February, Michael 281
5 Staples, Dale 211
Bromley, Matthew 211
Van Zyl, David 211
Pallet, Matt 211
9 Gibbens, Brendon 158
Smit, Rigard 158
Godfrey, Nicholas 158
Baum, Sarah 158

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Mid-year international events in Durban, Ballito & Jeffreys Bay

South Africa’s traditional mid-year series of international surfing events will be kick-started by the ASP 1-Star Roxy Wahine Girls Pro Junior in Durban followed by the ASP Prime rated Mr Price Pro Ballito at Ballito in KZN and culminates in Jeffreys Bay with the Billabong Pro J-Bay, stop No. 4 of 11 on the 2011 ASP World Title series.

The inaugural edition of the Roxy Wahine Pro Junior to be an ASP rated event will be staged at New Pier in Durban on the weekend 18 & 19 June. The event features the country’s best 20-years-and-under female surfers competing for a prize-purse of US $2 000 with the winner also earning one of the two coveted invitations to compete in the 2011 ASP World Junior Title series.

The 12th edition of Mr Price Pro Ballito is stop No. 7 of 11 on the ASP Prime Tour and will be run from July 4-10. The event is restricted to the top 88 ranked ASP surfers who enter plus six wildcards and two trialists and offers $250 000 in total prize-money with $40 000 and 6 500 points going to the winner. The field is headed by defending event champion and current World No. 2, Jordy Smith, and includes 24 of the world’s top 34 ranked surfers.

The 26th running of the Billabong Pro J-Bay will again attract all of the world’s top 34 ranked surfers to the waves of Supertubes from July 14-24. The event offers a total purse of $425 000 with the winner earning $75 000 and 10 000 points. The seeding is headed by 10-time and reigning ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) along with former world champions Mick Fanning (AUS) and CJ Hobgood (USA), former event champions Jordy Smith (ZAF) and Australians Joel Parkinson and Taj Burrow and current ASP World Title Race ranking s leader Adriano de Souza (BRA).

ASP World Title Race rankings (After event No. 3 – Billabong Pro Rio)

1 Adriano De Souza (BRA) 20500
2 Joel Parkinson (AUS) 19200
3 Kelly Slater (USA) 16950
4 Taj Burrow (AUS) 16500
5 Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14750
6 Owen Wright (AUS) 12150
7 Michel Bourez (PYF) 12000
8 Mick Fanning (AUS) 11500
9 Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11000
9 Tiago Pires (PRT) 11000

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About ASP: The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the recognized world governing body of professional surfing and has been crowning surfing’s undisputed World Champions since 1976. The ASP sanctions and crowns World Champions for the following tours: the ASP World Tour, the ASP Women’s World Tour, ASP World Junior Tour, ASP World Longboard and Masters Championships.
The ASP is dedicated to showcasing the world's best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and has revolutionized the way the world watches surfing via their webcasts and other media platforms. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Japan, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.

Baum and Buitendag Amongst the Favourites Tipped to Win Roxy Wahine Cup 2011

Photo credit: Geoff Brink

Gearing up ahead of the 12th annual Roxy Wahine cup is

Courtenay Ellish (Warner beach), Carol Bennwith (Roxy) and Nikita Kekana (Glenwood).

New Pier, Durban – The stage is set for South Africa’s premier stand alone women’s surfing event, the Roxy Wahine Cup presented by the City of Durban. On the 18th and 19th of June South Africa’s best female surfers will gather at Durban’s New Pier to compete for the four titles on offer as well as over R33 000 in prize money.

This year is the 12th year that the event will be staged and two of South Africa’s hottest young talents will be competing. Sarah Baum (Amanzimtoti) and Bianca Buitendag (George) have fast become two of the biggest names in South African women’s surfing and have been tipped as joint favourites in the Women’s Open Division as well as the U20 ASP Pro Junior division. The goofy-foot duo of Baum (17) and Buitendag (17) recently represented South Africa at the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships where Buitendag won the silver medal in the U18 Girls Division. They arrive back in South Africa two days before the Roxy Wahine Cup gets under way having competed in a number of ASP events in Europe.

Buitendag won the ASP World Junior Champs in Australia in January while Baum won the U20 Girls division at the SA Championships at Seal Point last month. In 2010 Baum won the Mr Price Pro and the Roxy Invitational. “I am so excited that the event is now at New Pier in winter and still has the backing of Suncoast. There should be a lot of top surfers competing and I am hoping to take both titles out this year. Thanks to Roxy and the City of Durban for sponsoring the event, women’s surfing really needs the support at the moment”, said Baum.

The U20 girls division is a 1 Star ASP Pro Junior rated event. This means that the winner will have an automatic start in the 3 ASP World Junior Championship events in 2011 / 2012. The other divisions at the Roxy Wahine Cup are part of Surfing South Africa’s Pro Surf Tour and include girls U14, girls U16 an Open Women’s division and a new all-girls lifesaving event. As usual the event has attracted top surfers such as former winner and 2010 World Masters Champion Heather Clark (Port Shepstone), talented Stacey Guy (Melkbosstrand), 2011 SA Team members Tanika Hoffman (Kommetjie) and 2011 SA Champion Nikita Robb (East London), a competitor on the 2010 ASP World Tour.

A complete list of all the surfers who have entered the PST divisions is available on www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za <http://www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za>


The event will commence at 8:00am on Saturday morning June 18th with all of the finals and the awards ceremony being held on Sunday afternoon June 19th at the event site.

For more information, images and results visit the event’s mini site: www.wahinecup.roxy.co.za <http://www.wahinecup.roxy.co.za> or terri@aspafrica.com <mailto:terri@aspafrica.com> for entry details.

The Roxy Wahine Cup is presented by the City of Durban in association with Suncoast Casino and supporting sponsors include Skullcandy, Softlips, Supersport and Red Bull. The Pro Junior event is sanctioned by ASP Africa while all other divisions are sanctioned by Surfing South Africa, the governing body for surfing in South Africa.

For all Roxy requests please contact:
Tamara Westbrook
Marketing Manager
Cell: 082 952 2606
Office landline: 031 313 1468
Email: tamara.westbrook@roxy.co.za <mailto:tamara.westbrook@roxy.co.za>