Two local surfers, Simon Fish from Cape St Francis, and Mike Burness from Jeffreys Bay, won in their respective categories at the South African Masters Championships 2024 in Victoria Bay and Mossel Bay between August 7 and 11.
Monstrous surf at the Victoria Bay venue saw contest organisers Surfing South Africa switch venues for the final day, heading 40 km down the coast to Mossel Bay.
Contestable three to four-foot waves at Inner Pool saw a few semi-finals run off before it was straight into the finals.
Participating in the surf event were former champions, professional surfers, world title holders, and amateurs, who took to the water for some hard-core competition.
The judges were looking for commitment and degree of difficulty, innovative and progressive manoeuvres, a combination of major manoeuvres, a variety of manoeuvres, speed, power, and flow.
Burness showed a great variety of moves to take the over-60 men’s title from Stephen Hair. He also won the Dave Fish Trophy for the Most Consistent Surfer at the contest.
Burness scored a 10-point ride and was consistently one of the best performers of the event over the five days.
The late Dave Fish was a legendary surfer, originally from East London, who moved to Cape St Francis many years ago.
The Dave Fish Trophy was established in his honour and handed over to Burness at the event by his son, Simon Fish, who won the over-40s men’s title.
The winners in each category:
. Gordon Harmer (BC) – over-65 men
. Mike Burness (NMB) – over-60 men
. Gareth Sepp (BC) – over-55 men
. Charlie Reitz (Eden) – over-50 men
. Greg Emslie (BC) – over-45 men
. Simon Fish (NMB) – over-40 men
. Tamarys de Maroussem (ILM) – over-35 women
. Clinton Gravett (BC) – over-35 men
. Buffalo City – Masters Cup
The districts competing for the Masters Cup were Cape Town Surfriders (CTS), Cape Winelands Surfriders (CW), Eden Surfriders, Nelson Mandela Bay Surfriders (NMB), Buffalo City Surfriders (BC), Ugu, eThekweni (ESA) and Ilembe Surfriders (ILM).
The SA Masters Championships is a Surfing South Africa event hosted by Eden Surfriders. It was supported by the Western Cape Government, George Tourism, Sea Harvest, the Eden Sport Council and the Department of Sport, Art, and Culture.
