Former South African junior champion Klee Strachan was the lucky beneficiary of the aloha spirit at the Ballito Pro on Wednesday when Hawaiian surfing heavyweight Michael Ho, 51, gave up his spot in the main event for the local surfer.
Strachan, who missed his first heat of the ASP World Qualifying Series event on Monday, slotted into Wednesday's round of 96 in place of Ho, where he did well in the difficult cross-shore conditions, holding on to second position to advance to the round of 48 behind heat winner Brett Simpson (US).
"I'm very stoked that Michael let me take the first alternate," said Strachan. "I've been sitting around here for the last two days just hoping I would surf.
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"Then the chance came and I surfed my best and made it through - and it's all thanks to the Hawaiians, they're all good guys and I'm really grateful to them."
| 'Klee's trying to qualify and I'm almost 52 so I just figured, yeah, he could have my spot' |
Ho, who is in South Africa with his daughter, ASP world No.6 Coco, and son, WQS campaigner Mason, both of whom competed in the event, was only to happy to give up his spot for the campaigning youngster. He was later rewarded with a place back in the event, where he finished in fourth position.
"I normally come to watch my daughter and my son compete in the event but the waves were so much fun this year that I thought I'd ask if I could get a spot as an alternate," said Ho. "I guess Klee's trying to qualify with everyone else and I'm almost 52 so I just figured, yeah, he could have my spot."
Ho's ties with the event go back as far as the 1970's where he competed against six times winner of the Gunston 500, Shaun Tomson. He will now go down in the history books as part of the second family trio to compete in the same event.
The only other time this has happened was also at the Pro Ballito, with Bluff surfing family Rudy Palmboom, son Rudy and daughter Heidi competing together.
"I don't have any high expectations of doing real well or anything but I do feel like I'm going to go out there and catch a good wave," said Ho before his heat.
| 'The kids were just blowing my mind out there yesterday' |
"It was pretty darn gnarly the last few days here. At home there's a channel so when it's real big you can kick out. Here, there's no channel and the kids were just blowing my mind out there yesterday, so I see they know what they're doing."
Ballito waves cranked, with clean two-metre barrels on offer for the third consecutive day of competition that saw the South African WQS contingent suffer a number of casualties.
Event favourites and top WQS campaigners - No.6 Travis Logie and No.22 - Brandon Jackson - were both eliminated in their afternoon heats.
Six out of 18 South Africans advanced, led by Dale Staples, the only surfer to score a perfect 10-point ride in the event so far.
Staples took out top WQS campaigner No.5 Blake Thornton (US), posting an excellent 8.33/10 on his last wave of the heat to shoot into the round of 48.
Ricky Basnett, the 2006 Ballito Pro Champion, captured his second consecutive heat win, revelling in the powerful waves.
The former top 45 campaigner produced good, clean surfing to advance ahead of Glenn Hall (Australia), Kaisa Kawamura (Japan) and Dane Gudauskas (US).
South Coast surfers Gavin Roberts and Rudy Palmboom brought their flair to the North Coast, each advancing in second.
Palmboom held on to second in a close exchange against Australian Matt Wilkinson to secure his spot in the next round.
"That was pretty nerve-wracking," said Palmboom. "I was feeling really confident after that first wave but then I went on a couple of bad ones and Matt and I kept swopping between first and second."
Warwick Wright was the only Durban surfer to join his fellow countrymen in the round of 48, placing second behind former World Tour campaigner Yuri Sodre.
The international surfers gave spectators something to cheer about with Wednesday's standout Dylan Graves earning the day's highest wave score of 9.67 for an incredible barrel ride that earned him the heat win over Marco Parlo of Brazil.
"It was just a magical wave," said Graves. "That thing bowled up on the inside and I managed to stick with it and come out. I was super stoked because the view was insane - whether I came out or not I was happy!"
WQS No.3 Adam Melling produced an amazing performance, with a deep overhead tube for a 7.67, which he followed up with three radical, fast and critical manoeuvres to be awarded an excellent 8.67.
"It's always good to get a couple of scores early on in the heat but it's definitely not over until it's over," said Melling. "Those other guys can get 10s in conditions like this so I just sat and waited for something better to come through."
Brazil's William Cardosa secured the only other near-perfect ride of the morning, the stocky surfer tucking into a clean hollow tube to earn a 9.0 from the judging panel.
"It was pretty hard to judge from the outside and it looked like it might close out," said Cardosa. "I took off and did that first turn then I saw the wave start to barrel so I pulled in and just managed to come out and I was so happy.
"I looked over and saw all my friends shouting and waving so I knew it was going to be a good score!"
As many as 20 heats of the men's round of 96 were completed, leaving just four heats and six remaining South Africans with the chance of earning their places in the round of 48.
Still to surf in Thursday's round of 96 are former top 45 surfer Royden Bryson (East London), Dave Richards (Cape Town), Damien Fahrenfort (Cape Town), Gary van Weiringen (Scottburgh) and Casey Grant (Scottburgh).
- This article was originally published on page 14 of The Mercury on July 02, 2009
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