Team South Africa posted a solid start to their campaign for medals and glory at the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in New Zealand today when seven of the eight team members in action progressed to the next round of the qualifying stream in the world’s biggest event for surfers aged 18-and-under.

After the event was officially opened with the Parade of Nations and Sands of the World ceremonies at Mission Bay in Auckland yesterday, the action started in wind affected 1 to 1.2 metre waves at Piha Beach this morning.

Surfers from 17 nations displayed their talent as Round 1 of both the Under 18 and U16 Boys’ divisions were run to completion. The top two in each heat progressed to Round 2 of the Qualifying stream while those placed third and fourth dropped into the grueling, sudden death Repecharge rounds where anything other than a top two finish sees the competitor out of the event under the double elimination format.

Diran Zakarian was the first South African to take to the surf in the U16 boys and the new cap from Melkbosstrand will remember his international debut fondly after recording a heat victory over opponents from France, the UK and Canada.

Kommetjie’s Jarred Veldhuis was next up and narrowly missed out on second spot in his encounter to become SA’s only casualty, dropping into the repecharge rounds after placing third.

The Jeffreys Bay duo of Steven Sawyer and Dylan Lightfoot both held on to second place finishes in their respective heats to complete a three out of four result for the U16 squad who were competing at Podium 1.

At the same time the U18 boys, competing at Podium 2, all finished second to competitors from the USA in their Round 1 match-ups. Michael February (Kommetjie) came the closest to a heat victory, finishing just 0.10 points behind Evan Thompson, as Dane Staples (St Francis Bay), team captain Beyrick de Vries (Umhlanga) and Davey Brand (Kommetjie) comfortably advanced to the next round.

Day 2 of the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship will see the Under 18 Girls division hit the water for the first time as well as elimination rounds in the Under 18 and 16 Boys divisions. 

The order of events will be as follows:

Podium 1
Under 16 Boys Qualifying Round 2
Under 18 Girls Qualifying Round 1

Podium 2
Under 18 Boys Qualifying Round 2
Under 16 Boys Repecharge Round 1
Under 18 Boys Repecharge Round 1

Surfing will commence at 8.00am (9pm today SA time) on both podiums with live action webcast on www.isaworldjuniors.com

The Parade of Nations, where teams parade through the streets clad in their official team colours, and the Sands of the World Ceremony, were completed yesterday along with the official opening speeches. During this traditional parade a representative from each nation deposits sand from their country’s beaches into a specially constructed box.

The Sands of the World ceremony symbolises the gathering of all the “tribes” which make up the surfing world. South Africa was represented by vice-captain Bianca Buitendag who deposited sand from beaches in the Western and Eastern Cape and KZN. See literally hundreds of images from these ceremonies at www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za.

The 2010 South African Junior Surfing Team is supported by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF), clothed by Quiksilver with additional support from Skullcandy and Power Balance.

Surfing South Africa will post a daily Press Release, photos and video footage focusing on the progress of the South Africans on www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za

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Distributed on behalf of:

Surfing South Africa

Contact:            Robin de Kock: General Manager (in New Zealand)
Email:               surfingsouthafrica@gmail.com
Web:                www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za

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