Eastern Cape Surfers Impress At The BOS Cape Crown Presented by Billabong

Long Beach, Kommetjie, Cape Town – Small but perfect conditions greeted the contestants in the BOS Cape Crown presented by Billabong on the opening day at Long Beach. Clean and consistent two to three-foot waves peeled both left and right at the deep south beach break, and the contest organisers wasted little time before getting the event started.

Although being small, the waves were highly contestable and before long there were some excellent scoring rides being recorded, and surfers started picking up their respective games in this important surf event.

Kirsty McGillivray from Jeffreys Bay had a great start to her campaign in the Pro Junior Women’s division, winning her first heat comfortably and advancing through to the next round with ease.

“The waves were pretty small out there and I had quite a slow start to my heat,” said McGillivray. “I was waiting for so long and I knew that I had to get started. Luckily I caught a nice right-hander to open my account, and then I had to wait again for my next wave.”

Being patient worked for the Eastern Cape natural-footed (left foot forward) surfer.

“My next wave was a good one, so the waiting paid off. I guess it was all about wave selection out there, because with not that many sets coming through you really need to be on the good ones.”

With conditions improving as the tide pushed, the contest organisers forged on, making for a long but enthralling day on the beach for all involved. Joshe Faulkner from JBay was another surfer who performed well at Long Beach, sticking to the right-handers running across the beach. Joshe is a goofy-footed surfer (right-foot forward) so he was surfing with his back to the wave with great effect. Joshe grew up surfing the perfect right-hand walls of Supertubes in Jeffreys Bay, so is very at ease and accustomed to surfing with his back to the wave, and put this experience to work on the opening day of this event. Joshe recently received the news that he is an invitee to the exclusive JBU Supertrial in JBay, an exclusive invite-only event that has a wild card into the Corona Open JBay as first prize, so he is no doubt awash with confidence in his surfing right now.

His brother Angelo Faulkner was another stand-out on day one of the BOS Cape Crown presented by Billabong. Angelo surfs natural-footed (left foot forward) like Kirsty McGillivray, but is comfortable surfing either on his backhand or his forehand. He put on a virtuoso performance for the judges, and impressed those five wise men, and advancing through to the next round. Angelo has a big future ahead of him in surfing, with a very polished style, punctuated with a full repertoire of new school aerial moves. Angelo could blow minds on an international scale should he get the opportunity to travel and compete on the World Surf League’s World Qualifying Series.

Long Beach is characterised by left and right-peeling peaks, with either one throwing some good sections for big turns, as well as sometimes frustratingly fading away mid-break. The right-handers are often the waves that have more scoring potential, but when riding right the surfers are actually riding away from the judges, making it sometimes difficult to ascertain the technical finesse in some of the surfers’ turns. The left-handers run straight towards the judges, but they often have big flat sections on them making it a challenge to execute high-scoring moves. They also eventually end up in a fairly severe shore-dump and should a surfer manage to pull off a big move in the shore-dump, that is the way to score the big points.

Summer Sutton from Cape Town also shone in her heats. Being a local from Kommetjie, she knows the nuances of the waves at Long Beach well, and put her local knowledge to good use. She definitely had that local advantage, but the Eastern Cape surfers put on a strong performance to keep their dreams alive in the event. Still, Summer executed some great moves on her backhand on the lefts of Long Beach.

The BOS Cape Crown presented by Billabong is in its second year, and has become a firm favourite on the domestic junior surfing tour. With PST divisions as well as a WSL Pro Junior event, there is something for everyone, and the consistent waves of Long Beach add to the fun.

The BOS Cape Crown will end on Sunday afternoon 21 May, and there will be a prize giving on the beach at the Long Beach car park directly after the final siren has sounded.

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