Maties Surfing set to take on all comers at Vic Bay

Chris Faure, first round action in 2011

From the 27^th to the 29^th of June 2012, the Maties Surf team will be duking it out with surfers from five other institutions of higher education, for the right to call themselves the top surfing university in the country. As they take to the winter waters of Victoria Bay on the Southern Cape Coast they will be taking up the challenge of University Sport South Africa’s Student Surfing Championships. Or as most students still call it, SAU’s.

Logan Eals's bad hair week in the 2011 event

Hosted by the Saasveld Campus of Nelson Mandela Meropolitan University, for the third year running, this year’s event sees surfers from the hosts, NMMU; Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Varsity College; Rhodes University and the old enemy, University Cape Town take on the Stellenbosch surfers. If the previous two editions hosted in Vic Bay are anything to go by the surf will be big, the level of surfing through the roof and the gees on the point a sight to behold.

The sleepy resort will surely be swarming with strange haircuts and rowdy students sporting them. Leaving the locals to shake their heads and mutter about the days of yore, when SAU’s was a mobile event hosted alternately in the Cape or KZN. But while many things have changed over the years the initiation tradition of bringing out the sheep shears for the first-timers remains. Weird and wonderful hairstyles separate the newbies from the old hands and many a club captain will already be plotting potential styles.

Lisa Mace

With student competitions being what they are, and information on the other teams hard to come by one can only assume that NMMU’s Brad Beck and Varsity College’s Tammy-Lee Smith have not yet graduated and will be back to defend their 2011 titles. Beck’s sternest opposition could well come from the UCT duo of Phillip Visagie and Logan Eals, while new comer Arne Von Delft, could well follow in his brothers footsteps and lead the Maties vanguard. In the ladies event Lisa Mace, entering her fourth and possibly final universities surfing competition, would dearly like to win back the title she won as a doe-eyed first year in 2009.

Here are the Maties Teams for 2012:

Ladies:

1. Lisa Mace           
2. Lisa Auditoire                
3. Chloe Humby
4. Azel Crous

Kurt Dreyer

Men:

1. Kurt Dreyer
2. Arne Von Delft
3. Peter Thorpe      
4. Devon Ramages
5. Chris Faure
6. James Lowe
7. Peter Turner       
8. Calvin Quirke

Reserves: Ruan Kruger and Ricki Allardice

                                                             

You can follow the progress live by making your way down to Victoria Bay or following the club on twitter @MatiesSurfing for regular updates of the events as they unfold.