Local February Wins Opening Quiksilver Surf Event in Cape Town
Kommetjie, Cape Town – Local surfer Michael February surfed his way to victory this weekend in the premier open men’s division at the first of three Quiksilver Get Free events. Over eighty of South Africa’s top competitive surfers were greeted with clean offshore 3 feet surf for the final day of competition at Kommetjie’s popular Long Beach.
February was a clear standout and looked very comfortable in every one of his heats throughout the two day event at his local surf break. His radical manoeuvres and flowing surfing proved too good for his competitors. Mother nature delivered and the surf turned on for the latter heats of the day which made for an exciting and close open men’s final. Steven Sawyer (Jeffreys Bay) also managed to put on a great display of surfing to finish in second place behind the inform February. Kommetjie’s Davey Brand and stalwart Llewellyn Whittaker of Mossel Bay both performed well to make the men’s final and finished in third and fourth place respectively.
February was clearly very happy with his win and thanked his family for all of their support, “I haven’t won an event in a while so it feels really good to take this win, the waves were tricky at times but the ocean delivered when it counted most and all the finalists stepped it up. I’d like to thank my family and sponsors for all the support,” said the elated winner at the awards ceremony. The 21 year old earned himself R8 000 in cash, a DRIFT action camera and some valuable Pro Surf Tour points for his efforts.
In the U20 junior boys division it was Matt McGillivray of Jeffreys Bay who stole the show. McGillivray snatched the win in the dying minutes of the heat with his clean progressive surfing to pip Jeffreys Bay’s Jerry Van Wyk into second place. Youngsters Max Elkington (Hout Bay) and Adin Masencamp (Strand) both surfed out of their boots to make the finals while surfing up a division to finish in third and fourth respectively.
The Strand’s Adin Masencamp had a cracker of a final in the boys U16 division to blow his competition out of the water scoring a massive 9.25 points out of a possible 10 on his opening ride of the final. Masencamp was in complete rhythm with the ocean and claimed the title hands down ahead of Joshe Faulkner (Jeffrey’s Bay), Jake Elkington (Hout Bay) and Ethan Fletcher (Kommetjie).
Event sponsors Quiksilver were very happy with the opening event of their series, “Cape Town can be a very tricky venue to run events but we’re happy with how the first event of our series played out, the weather was great, the locals came out to watch and the surf came alive when it counted most. We’re excited for the next two events in Umhlanga Rocks and Port Alfred,” said Quiksilver’s marketing manager Dane Patterson. The next stop of the series is in Umhlanga on the 30th and 31st of May with the final event planned for Port Alfred on the 29th and 30th of August.
Supporting sponsors to the series include Techniblock sunscreen, Drift action camera’s, Skullcandy, Zigzag Surfing Magazine, Neff and Red Bull. The Quiksilver Get Free Series offers a total of R108 000 in prize money as well as generous product prizes for competing surfers.
