The Buccaneers Surf Classic at Eastern Beach in East London will be the first stop on the 2012 Pro Surf Tour (PST) and, if the success of last year’s event is anything to go by, Buffalo City looks set to cater for most of South Africa’s top men and women surfers come month end.
Scheduled for March 31 and April 1, the event is the first of at least five that Surfing South Africa has planned for 2012 and comprises a 4A rated PST contest for Men and a 2A rated Women’s event with a total prize-purse of R45 000.
According to Dave Fish, the SSA Board member responsible for the Pro Surf Tour, the 2012 calendar is looking good already. “The Buccaneers Surf Classic is always a great start to the PST as it offers a bunch of PST points and some significant prize money to the surfers. We plan to announce the names of the 2011 PST champions and present them with their trophies and prize pool cheques during the Buccaneers. Then we will look ahead to this year’s PST,” he said.
Surfing South Africa has announced that the Billabong SA Championships, which will take place as a mobile event in the Cape Peninsula in May this year, will be a 4A rated PST event for Men, Women and Under 20 Boys and Girls. This means that surfers hoping to do well on the 2012 PST will have to qualify for their respective provinces and compete in the SA Championships to be in the running to bag some precious PST points.
Dave Fish added that “Apart from the prize pool cheques that will be awarded to the annual PST champions at the culmination of the 2012 PST, the winner of the Men’s division will earn himself a slot into the South African Team that will compete in the ISA China Cup in early 2013.”
The Buccaneers Classic at the end of this month and the Billabong SA Championships in the Cape Peninsula from May 24-27 are followed by a possible PST contest in Durban in June. Then SSA presents the 2A rated Women’s Day Challenge in PE, Durban and Cape Town on August 9th.
The Cape Open is scheduled to run in the Peninsula in September and the Guidos SA Open is scheduled for Port Alfred in mid-December.
Dave Fish is confident that there will at least two more PST events added to the 2012 calendar and is hoping that Mossel Bay and the KZN South Coast will become part of the tour. “I urge anyone who would like to find out how to become a sponsor of a PST contest to contact me on 0832619285 or Robin de Kock, the SSA General Manager, on 0824541149. We will give you all the details and be happy to welcome you into the PST fold.”
All the details about how to join the 2012 Pro Surf Tour and enter the Buccaneers Surf Classic are available at www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za. Entries into the Buccaneers Surf Classic close on March 27.
