Monday, July 4, 2011

Brad Beck Wins The University Surfing Champs

Brad Beck
Now that the damp wetsuits are dry and the dings in the boards have been patched, we can look back on the 2011 University Sport South Africa Surf Championships. It was a competition packed with great surf, the ecstasy of victory and the pain of elimination. For the Maties team unfortunately the former was tasted more regularly than the latter, but once again Lisa Mace’s progressive surfing helped the team to a top three finish.

The 2011 edition was hosted by the George Campus of NMMU at the legendry Southern Cape break, Victoria Bay. Teams from UCT, CPUT, Varsity College, Rhodes University, NMMU, UKZN and of course Stellenbosch, gathered on the evening Sunday the 26th of June for the opening function, before taking to the water on Monday morning for round one. In the first round the Maties men did remarkably well in sizable and difficult conditions. Of the eight men only Nic Van Wyngaard, who made a disastrous tactical decision, was relegated to the repo-change round. Nic made up for his first round mistake in the second round by winning his heat and thereby joining the rest of the team in round three.


The ladies had been scheduled to surf on Monday too, but as there were rouge sets closing-out across the bay; contest director Tasha Mentasti made the call to postpone the ladies’ first round to Tuesday morning. But before the ladies could take to the water the men had their third round to contest. The swell had dropped and cleaned up overnight and the standard of surfing in the men’s competition was exceptional. Despite all the Maties men putting up good fights, only Devon Ramages, Gabriel Botha and top seed Brendon Booth-Jones managed to progress into the men’s round four.

The four Maties ladies then got their chance to take the fight to the old rival, UCT.  The Maties team has in recent years, been the only ladies team to come close to matching UCT’s female dominance. In round one, 2009 champion Lisa Mace and fourth seed Sarah Havard both progressed strait into round three with wins. But Lisa Auditory and Chloe Humby unfortunately had to surf the repo-round, through which they progressed to join Lisa and Sarah in round three.

Between the ladies rounds one and two the men surfed their fourth round. Once again the standard of surfing was terrific and unfortunately the Maties guys were all eliminated. Brendon Booth-Jones though had reason to feel aggrieved, on his final wave he smashed the close-out section, but because his wave had swung wide the judges were unsighted and they couldn’t score his final turn.

Sarah Nicolson
In day three, all the Maties hope lay with the fairer sex. And they did not disappoint as three of the four advanced into the semi-finals, with Lisa Mace and Chloe Humby winning their heats and Sarah Havard placing second. This set up an awkward semi though, with all three ladies in the same heat. In the semi-final it was only Lisa Mace who progressed, joining Varsity College’s Tammy-Lee Smith and UCT’s Kerri Hodkinson and Sarah Nicholson.

Meanwhile in the men’s competition the finalists were NMMU’s Clinton Gravett and Brad Beck, joined by UCT’s Philip Visagie and Varsity College’s Shawn Dennis. The men’s final was too close to call and with the announcement only being made at prize giving the tension mounted in the teams with an interest in the final.

Eventually the prize giving ceremony was ready to go and the winners were announced by contest organiser Hugo Loubser. In the ladies’ event Tammy-Lee Smith claimed the title and Stellenbosch’s Lisa Mace placed third. While In the men’s event NMMU’s Brad Beck defeated, Shawn Dennis, Phillip Visagie and defending champion Clinton Gravett to claim the 2011 crown.
The Maties Surf Team
And with Beck and Smith’s victories announced the celebrations could begin. But not without a big thank-you to Maties Sport’s, organisational wizard Candice Appollis and the Buitendag family, of Surfai Backpackers for hosting the team.

That is not it for the surf club this year however; in the second semester there will be biweekly busses to Strand, beginner surf lessons and the club trip to Elands. For more information look up Maties Surf Club on Facebook or email surf@sun.ac.za

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