South African girls Sarah Baum and Chantelle Rautenbach have advanced to the last 12 in the US Open of Surfing as the top seeds and former champions tumbled out of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star rated women’s event at Huntington Beach in California.

Both Baum, 16, from Athlone Park in KZN and Rautenbach, 20, from Melkbosstrand, started their campaigns for the priceless ratings points and ground-breaking US $50 000 winner’s prize-money in Round 1 of the event and yesterday progressed through three rounds of competition against the world’s top female professional surfers.

While the likes of reigning three-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), fellow ASP Dream Tour campaigners Coco Ho (HAW), Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Lee-Ann Curren (FRA) and SA’s Rosanne Hodge, along with defending event champion Courtney Conlogue (USA), were eliminated in the tricky one metre conditions, Baum and Rautenbach both finished runners-up in all their heats to reach the round before the quarterfinals.

Baum, who placed seventh overall in the US Open Pro Junior Women’s event on Sunday, has already matched her best result in a Star-rated event this year and faces former Dream Tour standout Jacqueline Silva (BRA) and Alana Blanchard (HAW) today with the top two advancing to the one-on-one quarterfinal heats.

By reaching Round 4, Rautenbach has recorded her best result of 2010 and will be up against current ASP World No. 8 Carissa Moore (HAW) and wildcard Lakey Peterson (USA) when competition resumes.

Women’s ASP 6-Star action will kick off today’s (Tuesday) schedule with the Round of 12 before beginning the men’s ASP PRIME event with the Round of 128. For all of the LIVE action log on to www.usopenofsurfing.com

US Open of Surfing Women’s Round of 24 Results:

Heat 1: Carissa Moore (HAW) 14.94, Laura Enever (AUS) 14.67, Courtney Conlogue (USA) 14.37, Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 10.30
Heat 2: Lakey Peterson (USA) 9.50, Tyler Wright (AUS) 9.07, Sayuri Hashimoto (JPN) 10.10, Paige Hareb (NZL) 4.00
Heat 3: Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 7.33, Chantelle Rautenbach (ZAF) 6.66, Malia Manuel (HAW) 6.40, Felicity Palmateer (AUS) 4.87
Heat 4: Justine Dupont (FRA) 11.83, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 8.50, Sage Erickson (USA) 7.73, Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 4.43
Heat 5: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 17.17, Sarah Baum (ZAF) 13.60, Cannelle Bulard (REU) 7.70, Karina Petroni (USA) 6.17
Heat 6: Alana Blanchard (HAW) 11.57, Nicola Atherton (AUS) 8.93, Claudia Goncalves (BRA) 5.07, Mizuki Hagiwara (JPN) 3.95

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SA Surfers chase rankings points in California and England

South Africa’s top men will be in action at Huntington Beach in California and Newquay in England this week as they chase invaluable ratings points towards qualification for the ASP Dream Tour.

Jordy Smith, who heads both the ASP World Title Race and ASP World Tour rankings, is the top seed in the ASP Prime-rated Hurley US Open of Surfing which features a stellar 156 man field of the world’s top surfers vying for the massive US $100 000 winner’s payout.

Smith starts in the Round of 96 along with the rest of the top 42 seeds and six wildcards who include fellow Durbanites David Weare and Brandon Jackson. With the trials completed, the Round of 128 starts today and features former Capetonian Damien Fahrenfort, now living in California, Royden Bryson (Hout Bay) and Rudy Palmboom Jnr. (Bluff).

Meanwhile a solid contingent of Saffas will commence their campaigns in the ASP 5-Star Relentless Boardmasters at Fistral Beach in Newquay where SA’s Travis Logie (Durban) is the top seed.

Logie is joined by former event winner Antonio Bortoletto (Durban), former ASP Dream Tour member Ricky Basnett (Bluff) and a host of aspiring SA Pro Juniors, including Chad du Toit (Berea), Klee Strachan (Winkelspruit), Brendon Gibbens and Michael February (both Kommetjie), Beyrick de Vries and Kyle Lane (both Umhlanga) and more.

All the action can be followed live via the webcast at www.relentlessboardmasters.com

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Beyrick de Vries takes fifth place in Bali

Much traveled 17 year-old, Beyrick de Vries, was one of the stars in the Billabong Pro Junior Bali, taking down a host of the top seeds from Australia, Japan and Indonesia on his way to a fifth place finish.

While Kyle Galloway was an early casualty, Slade Prestwich (Scottburgh) advanced through two rounds and David van Zyl (Glenashley) through three to the round of 32.

Enjoying the world-class conditions at Keramas, rated by de Vries as one of the best contest waves in the world, the Umhlanga based teenager ousted the likes of highly rated Davey Cathels (AUS) and defending event champion Sam Wrench (AUS) before falling victim to the dreaded ‘Bali-belly’ prior to his quarterfinal clash with former Kommetjie surfer Thomas Woods, now living with his family on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Woods was subsequently eliminated by older brother James in the semis before Wade Carmichael (AUS) clinched the title in a come-from-behind victory after the elder Woods started the final with a near-perfect 9.0 ride.

De Vries currently occupies the No. 4 slot on the ASP Africa Pro Junior Men’s rankings and is in line for one of the four coveted invitations to the inaugural ASP World Pro Junior Championship Series. The Series starts with the Oakley World Junior in Bali (Oct 2-13) and crowns the 2010 ASP World Pro Junior Champion at the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships at North Narrabeen in Sydney, Australia (Jan 8-16, 2011).

There is one ASP Africa Pro Junior event remaining, the Billabong Pro Junior at Victoria Bay (September 1-4), before the top four on the rankings plus the highest rated Pro Junior on the ASP World Tour rankings receive their sought-after invitations.

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Historic clean sweep of local ASP events by SA surfers

Greg Emslie’s victory in the 4-Star rated O’Neill Cold Water Classic in Cape Town last Thursday, combined with Jordy Smith’s earlier victories in the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay and the Mr Price Pro Ballito, completed an historic clean sweep by local surfers of all three ASP events staged in this country.

SA’s two top-earning pro surfers also rewrote the record books in many other ways with Emslie (East London) going one better than Royden Bryson, the runner-up in the CWC in Cape Town last year, to become the first winner of the contest since it became an ASP sanctioned event.

And Smith’s triumph in J-Bay made him the first SA winner of an ASP World Tour event and the first to lead the ASP World Title Race rankings, which will determine the 2010 ASP World Champion, since Shaun Tomson back in the mid-80’s.

Meanwhile his win in the Mr Price Pro saw the 22 year-old Durbanite become only the third SA surfer to capture the title after Tomson (1973-78) and Ricky Basnett (2006) in the event that crowned its first champion back in 1969! And at the same time Smith rose to the top of the ASP World Rankings which combine the all the ASP World Tour, Prime and Star rated events.

Other notable achievements in the annual mid-year ASP events included Royden Bryson (Hout Bay) taking sole possession of the lead in the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series rankings ahead of Australians Stuart Kennedy, Dion Atkinson and Shaun Cansdell with three if the five events completed. The Series winner collects US $50 000 after the final event in Santa Cruz, California in October.

Capetonian Sean Holmes once again confirmed his status as the Dream Tour’s most dangerous wildcard by carving his way through the world’s top surfers to reach the quarter-finals of the Billabong Pro J-Bay for the third time, notably eliminating nine-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) and three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons (HAW) at Supertubes on the same day.

And Casey Grant’s (Scottburgh) runner-up finish to Jordy Smith in the Mr Price Pro Ballito was the first time two South Africans had contested the final of an ASP 5-Star rated event anywhere in the world.

ASP World Title Race Rankings: Top 5 (after Event No. 4 – Billabong Pro J-Bay):

1. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 28500 pts
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 24750 pts
3. Kelly Slater (USA) 23500 pts
4. Dane Reynolds (USA) 20000 pts
5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 19500 pts
6. Mick Fanning (AUS) 19250 pts
7. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18750 pts
8. Bobby Martinez (USA) 16500 pts
9. Jadson Andre (BRA) 16000 pts
10. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14750 pts

South Africans

30. Travis Logie (ZAF) 6500 pts

ASP World Rankings: Top 5 (after event No. 30 – O’Neill Cold Water Classic, Cape Town):

1 Smith,Jordy ZAF 34428
2 Burrow,Taj AUS 30625
3 De Souza,Adriano BRA 23807
4 Slater,Kelly USA 23500
5 Durbidge,Bede AUS 22683

South Africans (top 200 of 885)

27 Logie, Travis ZAF 10651
39 Bryson, Royden ZAF 8560
66 Palmboom, Rudy ZAF 5372
91 Jackson, Brandon ZAF 4094
105 Weare, David ZAF 3367
120 Basnett, Ricky ZAF 2993
132 Joubert, Shaun ZAF 2819
141 Gibbens, Brendon ZAF 2576
153 Grant, Casey ZAF 2218
164 Fahrenfort, Damien ZAF 1985
180 De Vries, Beyrick ZAF 1611
195 Staples, Dale ZAF 1504
200 Du Toit, Chad ZAF 1395

Ends

Issued on behalf of:

ASP Africa
Contact: Colin Fitch – Operations Manager
Tel: 021 534 5738
Email: colin@aspafrica.com

Compiled & Distributed by:

Life’s a Beach Communications
PO Box 48272, Kommetjie 7976, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 21 783 4965
Fax: +27 (0) 86 684 6250
Mobile: +27 (0) 82 423 1964
Email: lifesabeach@mweb.co.za

About ASP:

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the governing body of professional surfing. Crowning surfing’s undisputed world champions since 1976, the ASP sanctions the following tours: the ASP World Tour, the ASP Women’s World Tour, the World Qualifying Series (WQS) and the World Longboarding, Junior 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. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.