Billabong announces junior surf series

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Billabong South Africa has announced the 2014 edition of their long-running junior surf series - the Billabong Junior Series presented by BOS. The best young surfers in the country have been competing in this prestigious series since 1997. There have been 48 events run and over a million Rand paid out in prize money over the series history.

These events are the ideal platform for the top junior surfers in South Africa to hone their competitive surfing skills in a fun and healthy environment, with many surfers having used the Billabong Junior Series as a crucial stepping stone into a successful professional surfing career.

“Billabong is really excited to be running the Billabong Junior Series again for 2014. It is such a prestigious series with a long history in this country. It’s amazing to see what this series has meant for junior surfing in South Africa over the years. We will be approaching a great landmark by hosting the 50th event since the series began, in Cape Town, this year. Along with an amazing line-up of supporting sponsors we are proud to continue the legacy of the Billabong Junior Series,” says Chad D’Arcy, Billabong South Africa Marketing Manager.

This year the series comprises 3 x 3-day events in Mossel Bay (25th-27th April), Cape Town (8th-10th August) and Cape St Francis (3rd-5th October). For 2014 there will be a total of 9 age divisions with the introduction of an U/16 Girls division. The premier U/20 Boys and U/20 Girls divisions will now carry a 1* ASP Pro Junior rating.
"ASP Africa is very excited and honored to once again be involved in one of the longest running junior series in the world, The Billabong Junior Series," said ASP Africa's Colin Fitch. "It’s always very important for the ASP to partner and work with the local ISA federation. In this case Surfing South Africa."
"We're very proud to be the presenting sponsor for the Billabong Junior Series again", says Marié van Niekerk, Marketing Director at BOS. "We believe that being healthy can also be lots of fun and surfing really demonstrates this outlook on life. We've been involved with surfing since our launch in 2010 and it's wonderful to be able to support the sport at grassroots level and provide a platform for the kids to grow and develop their talent."
A number of exciting specialty awards will also be on offer per event, including the “BOS Surfer Of The Contest”, the “Nixon WTA” (Winner Takes All) for the highest heat score of each event, the “DaKine Wave Of The Day” award for the best wave of each day of competition and the “KR Fins Free” award for the most radical fins free manoeuvre of each event.

There will be some fun mini-events at each stop of the series with VonZipper hosting the “VonZipper BrainBlast-Off” airshow and the “Coaches vs Judges Tag Team Tussle”.

The Series Awards comprise the “BOS Surfer Of The Series” prize valued at R20k, as well as Nixon Limited Edition watches for the U/20 Boys and Girls series winners.

Samsung and Playstation will also be sponsoring high-tech product prizes to winners in each of the divisions per event, and Techniblok will be the sunscreen sponsor of the series.

The Billabong Junior Series presented by BOS is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa, recognised by the Dept of Sport and Recreation as the national controlling body for surfing.
The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the recognized world governing body of professional surfing and has been crowning surfing’s undisputed World Champions since 1976.

pic: top Jeffrey's Bay junior surfer Dylan Lightfoot
photo credit Luke Patterson