After three days of competition at Nahoon Reef and one day at Nahoon Corner at the 2019 Mercedes-Benz SA Championships hosted by Buffalo City, thirty six surfers have qualified for the nine finals that will be run tomorrow (Sunday August 25th).
A new Champion will be crowned from the Open Men’s Final, which is made up of Buffalo City Surfriders trio, Bryce du Preez, Tyrell Johnson and Devyn Mattheys and Joshe Faulkner of Nelson Mandela Bay Surfriders.
Defending Open Women’s Champion Zoe Steyn is joined in the Open Women’s Final by Buffalo City team mate Adriel Wolmarans, eight time SA Champion Heather Clark of Ugu Surfriders and Sophie Bell of eThekweni Surfriders.
Buffalo City brothers Tyrell and Orrin Johnson and teammate Devyn Mattheys are joined by Jacques Antoine of Cape Town Surfriders in the Over 35 Men’s Final while defending champion Heather Clark, Michelle Van Kempen of Nelson Mandela Bay, Tasha Mentasti of Cape Town Surfriders and Cindy Anderson of Buffalo City make up the Over 30 Women’s Final.
Defending champion Greg Emslie, fellow Buffalo City surfers Tristan Johnson and Graeme Field and Warwick Heny of Nelson Mandela Bay make up the Over 40 Final while Over 45 defending champion Wayne Monk, Buffalo City teammate Kevin O Brien, Gary Van Wieringen of Ugu Surfriders and Pieter Ben Van Rhijn of Nelson Mandela Bay are the Over 45 Finalists.
Buffalo City brothers David and Andre Malherbe, 2018 champion Gareth Sepp of Buffalo City and Sean Jerram of Cape Town Surfriders are the Over 50 finalists while the Over 55 Final consists of defending champion Nick Pike, Buffalo City teammate Mike Brent, Andre Venter of Nelson Mandela Bay and Reg Horne of eThekweni.
The oldest group of surfers at the Mercedes-Benz SA Championships compete in the Over 60 Division and the four who will be in tomorrow’s final are Gordon Harmer of Buffalo City, David Lipschitz of Nelson Mandela Bay, Warren Wareing of Ugu and Bruce Anderson of Cape Town Surfriders.
The nine finals in the 54th South African Surfing Championships will start at 8am tomorrow at Nahoon Reef and will end with the Open Women and Open Men’s Finals at around 12.30.The Award Ceremony will be held at Nahoon Reef at approximately 1pm.
Scores will be live during every final on www.liveheats.com/surfingsouthafrica and all of the SA Championships results for the first four days of competition including the heat scores are available via that link.
Daily results, photos and videos are posted on Surfing South Africa’s Facebook page @Surfing SA.
The 2019 Mercedes–Benz South African Surfing Championships are hosted by Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality and supported by Sport and Recreation SA.
The event is presented by Surfing South Africa in association with the Buffalo City Surfriders and produced by Accelerate Marketing.
A competitor at Nahoon Reef on Day four of the event. Photo Pierre de Villiers
A view from the hill on Day Four. Photo Pierre de Villiers
