IBA 2012 Stealth Arica Chilean Challenge presented by BSC

Event 3 of 8, Mens Grand Slam Series

Day 1 of the 2012 IBA Stealth Arica Chilean Challenge Grand Slam presented by BSC kicked off in solid 6-8 foot (2-3 meter) surf today. A slight bump in swell and offshore winds provided the GSS riders with heaving barrels and massive ramps. Standout of the day was local wildcard, Danton Correa who posted the highest heat score of 17.5 out of a possible 20 points. Correa managed to scoop into what seemed like a 10 foot close-out, which he somehow navigated through and exited the barrel only meters from the treacherous El Gringo rocks.

Correa commented, “Us chileans have been waiting all year for this event. This is our chance to compete against the worlds best at our very own world class wave. I am so happy I won my heat today”.

Other standouts of Round 1 included, Amaury Lavernhe (REU) and Pierre-Louis Costes (FRA) who both found big set waves that barreled across the entire El Gringo reef providing them with near perfect scores. Australians, Nick Gornall and Dave Winchester and Chilean powerhouse Alan Munoz took to the air in their Round 1 heats with high flying inverts. Gornall landing possibly the biggest air of the event so far, for which the judges rewarded him with an 8.25 out of a possible 10.

Event organizers have asked all GSS competitors to check in at 7:00 am tomorrow morning with a possible 7:30 am start.

For the full draw go to  http://results.ibaworldtour.com/draw.html

Summer in Cape Town is amazing especially when there is a good consistent swell.
I booked 6 months ago and got a cheap ticket from Durban.
First stop was a swim at  Long Beach, so we could get use to the water as well as test out my new HD Hero 2 Go Pro.

Then we went to The Hoek and I’ve been riding this spot since 1991, it’s always good here in the summer.

I also managed to meet up with Lee Moran and Sascha Taljaard. I also bumped into Cameron Nelson as he was down on holiday…

West Coast – First time been up the west coast, this is where all the Cape Town people go on holiday and there are waves here.

Ayzerfontein - No one was out and it was pretty lumpy, I had my Go Pro so I thought ill have a quick session, by myself, which is not good idea any where, so I headed to the rocks and asked the fisherman if it was okay to ride here and where there any sharks around!! He said no sharks but the waves get big. I managed to get a few and a nice left barrel in the middle of the bank…

DK WARS SA was held at long beach in 2-4ft waves all day.
Lee Moran put up did an amazing job for running his first event.
Some of his best body boarders were there to be a part of it.
Sascha Specker,ST, Aden Kleve, DVT were all ripping.
Also there was the legendary Jason Boddy who came to watch.
This was not a contest, it was gathering of body boarders getting together and having a good time.

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Llandudno - Wow, this is such a sick body boarding wave, it’s a chilly consistent right hand barrel off the rocks, which has a sweet end section, all sand, so you can get waves along the whole bay depending on the right tide and swell direction.
I managed to get some really good waves here, with John McDonald and Reech.
Besides all the epic waves I had here, there is plenty to do here…

Other activities, well there are plenty of other touristic things to do and see in Cape Town.
Cape Town also has some of the best restaurants and bars to choose from plus
a great night life!

DK WARS Cape Town 5th January 2012

The first Drop Knee Wars in SA was held at Long Beach, Kommetjie on Thursday the 5th January 2012 with 3-4 ft offshore waves with a left rolling in from the back and also a hollow shore break.

 With the organizers Lee Moran and Karl Liebenberg hoping for good conditions, it was all they could ask for.
From there every thing else fell together.
With everyone not knowing exactly what DK WARS was about , but still coming along to compete, it came together perfectly.

26 riders signed up into 6 x 4 man teams plus one 2 man team and were then split into 3 teams riding for an hour then the next 3 teams going in for the next hour and then the process repeated again giving all teams 2 hours of riding with everyone watching and hooting from the beach. Once everyone had ridden the riders got a voting sheet and they voted who they thought the best team and riders were.

To be honest, the level of riding was extremely high from all the riders with floaters, slashes and shore break barrels being the order of the day. I think all the riders would agree that we were all winners on this day as the level of stoke of overflowing from everyone but the cash had to go somewhere and it went to old school riders, Team SPU (Sascha Taljaard, Hankus Loubser, Euvrard Loubser and Ismael Grant) who consistently threw the moves out winning R2000.

 Best Solo rider went to Sascha Specker who won R1230 cash with Aden Kleve taking best wipe out, DVT taking best charger and Sascha Taljaard taking best wave ridden and best floater winning R1000 from Tribal Surf Shop.

 All in all it was a great day on the beach with a bunch of Drop Knee enthusiasts just pushing and amping each other to do the best they can.

 A big Thank you to Tribal Surf Shop in Hermanus, Sport Unlimited in CT and Keiki in Durban for sponsoring the event and also photographer Billy Ackerman from PB Surfing.
Please support the guys that support us!!!

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  Keep your ears to the ground for when the next battle will happen.
Lee Moran.