Top bodyboarding for Durban
14 June 2006
A star-studded line up, including former women's world champion Karla Costa-Taylor and former US tour winner Alistair Taylor, will be in action at the Vodacom Bodyboarding Showdown. The event takes place on Friday 30 June at the Bay of Plenty Beach during the Durban Beach Africa Festival.
The Bay of Plenty is known for being more open to swell than some of the neighbouring breaks on the Durban beachfront.
The showdown is one of the watersports highlights of the festival, which runs runs from 30 June to 9 July along the Golden Mile.
SABA-sanctioned
The event is a South African Bodyboarding Association (SABA) sanctioned specialty contest which boasts R10 000 in prize money, to be shared among the five divisions - pro, drop knee, under-20, under-15 and ladies.
It is a national competition open to all bodyboarders from around South Africa and will be run by the North Beach Bodyboarding Club.
To
spice up the pro division title race, Costa-Taylor has opted to take on the men and has her heart set on first place. The petite bodyboarding powerhouse grew up in Brazil and moved to South Africa a few years ago with her husband Alistair.
At the KwaZulu-Natal trials last month Costa-Taylor claimed an easy victory, bruising egos with near-perfect scores over her husband and 20-year-old North Beach hotshot Rylin Richardson.
Challengers
National bodyboarding team member Wesley Fischer and winner of the most recent SABA event, Mark Watts, are also among the favourites to take top honours in the pro final.
Reigning South African boy's bodyboarding champion Ian Campbell is expected to dominate the under-15 heats, with big names like Jake Rosenberg tipped to win the under-20 division.
2004 SA women bodyboarding champion Robyn Sorenson will have the upper hand of local knowledge in the ladies contest, while Wesley Fischer and Sasha
Taljaard are perennial favourites to win the drop knee division, where bodyboarders are judged on their manoeuvres executed while riding in a half-kneeling stance.
Beach Africa
"Durban will always be the hub of surfing in South Africa and we at SABA are thrilled that Vodacom has sponsored our event and that we are a part of Durban Beach Africa," commented bodyboarding champion Alistair Taylor, who is the current SABA chairman.
There will be no second chances for competitors in the Vodacom Bodyboarding Showdown. Due to the event running over one day only, the organisers have selected a straight elimination format which allows no room for error.
SABA's ongoing national development programme is expected to attract newcomers hoping to topple the old guard in the Showdown. The Taylors will be running a Vodacom Development Bodyboarding Clinic for free, open to all members of the public at midday.
History
The sport of bodyboarding started in 1971 in Hawaii, thanks to surfing legend Tom Morey. From its humble beginnings it has grown into an international sport and is an immensely popular alternative to surfing.
Due to the easy entry level, bodyboarding attracts a large number of competitors. At the highest level of riding, bodyboarding is a supremely acrobatic sport where most of the manoeuvres are pulled off in mid-air.
The event's entry fee is R50, while joining the North Beach Bodyboarding Club is encouraged but not mandatory for the event. Entry forms will be available on Sixty40.co.za as well as on the SABA website.
The closing date for final Vodacom Bodyboarding Showdown entries is 17:00 on Tuesday 27 June.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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