Over 120 competitors will take to the waves in the 2018 Tigers Milk Winter Surf Classic which gets under way at Surfers Corner, Muizenberg on Friday morning.
Of these, 21 have represented South Africa at international events, four have surfed for Great Britain and one has competed for New Zealand. There are 31 national champions in the mix and 49 of the surfers competing this weekend have earned provincial and district colours.
The local Muizenberg community have provided 24 of the competitors in the three-day event. The top performer in this group will win a custom-made Tigers Milk surfboard.
Tigers Milk Winter Classic 2017 winners and former World Longboard champions Matthew Moir and Simone Robb are both competing as are former Tigers Milk longboard title winners and Tigers Life ambassador Alfonzo Pieters (above) and eight-time South African champion Kay Holt.
South Africa’s current top-ranked female surfer, Nicole Pallett, is also competing as are world-ranked professional surfer Tanika Hoffman and former Tigers Milk shortboard champions Jordy Maree and Dillon Fernandez.
Adding a bit of history to this year’s contest are Therese Russell and George Bunting, who were members of the Western Province team that competed in the 1966 South African Championships in Durban.
The 2018 Tigers Milk Classic will celebrate World Oceans Day with an early morning start on Friday and the event will end with all seven finals on Sunday.
The Tigers Milk Winter Classic includes a World Surf League Longboard Speciality division for men and women, an Over-40 Longboard Division, U23 Longboard Divisions for men and women and Open Men’s and Women’s shortboard divisions.
Over R60,000 in prize money is on offer across the seven divisions.
While the Tigers Milk Winter Classic will showcase the skills of many of South Africa’s top longboarders and surfers, it will also support a Surfing South Africa outreach initiative involving young surfers from the community. This initiative will be coordinated by SSA Development Officer Danielle Powis and will take place at Surfers Corner from 9am-1pm on Sunday, 10 June.
About 60 young surfers from a number of community-based outreach programmes that use surfing to change the lives of marginalised youth will participate in a surf contest with the top four teams winning medals for their efforts. During the programme, a tag-team format will be used, which will see groups of five boys and girls surfing together as teams. In this way, organisers ensure that every participant plays a role in the project.
Although the outreach programme is geared towards giving surfers from disadvantaged communities the opportunity to participate in a team-focused surfing contest, the main objective of the initiative is enjoyment. Each participant will receive a commemorative Tigers Milk T-shirt, a goodie bag as well as refreshments and a meal which will be provided by Tigers Milk.
The Tigers Milk Winter Classic is supported by Corona, Jagermeister, Bacardi and Coca-Cola.
Photo: Top-ranked Pallett (main picture) and Pieters, by Ian Thurtell