NELSON MANDELA BAY SURF PRO PRESENTED BY BILLABONG KICKS OFF ON FRIDAY

This weekend sees the inaugural Nelson Mandela Bay Surf Pro Presented By Billabong take place in Port Elizabeth. The first event of its kind in PE, it is a welcome to the world of pro surfing and the World Surf League (WSL).

The event is a WSL Qualifying Series event, and the first event in the brand new Nelson Mandela Bay City Surf Series, a 5 - event series that will take place around the country and the start of a very exciting professional surfing year for South Africa.

“We’re really stoked to be a part of the City Surf Series and a presenting sponsor of the opening event,” said Billabong South Africa Marketing Manager Chad D’Arcy. “It’s a great initiative, and it’s also amazing for Port Elizabeth to be hosting an event of this stature.”

The QS1,000 rated men’s event features a 64 man field including the cream of South Africa’s surfers. The top seed is Michael February (Kommetjie), currently the country’s highest QS ranked surfer at No. 65, followed by 2016 WSL Africa champion Beyrick de Vries (uMhlanga), Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay) and Braden Jones (USA).

The men will be battling for a share of the R30,000 on offer with the winner pocketing R10,000 and 1,000 precious ranking points on the 659 man WSL QS leaderboard.

The QS1,000 women’s seeding is headed by Nicole Pallet (La Lucia), Emma Smith (Jeffreys Bay), Teal Hogg (uMhlanga) and Fay Zoetmulder (Cape St Francis) with Tayla Hanak (AUS) the only international among the 24 competitors.

Reigning WSL Africa Junior champion Adin Masencamp (Strand), Sebastian Williams (Durban) and Kommetjie residents Jake Elkington and Ford van Jaarsveldt are the top four in the JQS1,000 junior men’s event, while the JQS1,000 women’s field is headed by Sophie Bell (Salt Rock), Kirsty McGillivray (Jeffreys Bay), Taghiti Gericke (Mossel Bay) and Olivia Izzard (Umhlanga).

The rankings points accumulated in the JQS events determine the top four men and top two women who will represent WSL Africa at the annual WSL World Junior Championships in Australia in January.

The three day event starts with two rounds of men’s competition on Friday, followed by the earlier rounds of the women’s and junior events on Saturday and concludes with the champions being crowned on Sunday.