Sarro is new Nam surfing champ

JAY Sarro was crowned as the new Namibian open surfing champion at Swakopmund over the weekend.

He won the ninth Namibian National Surfing Championship in a fiercely contested competition held at Thicklip in Swakopmund. Torsten Gossow came a close second with Michi Mater and Henner Rodenwoldt taking third and forth positions.Sarro also won the award for the highest scoring wave, while Rodenwoldt won the “Wipe out of the Day” award.He snapped a long and a short board, and a leash.According to Rod Braby of the Namibia Surfing Association, this showed his fearless approach to the powerful surf that prevailed for the duration of the competition.Braby described the conditions as four seasons in one day with east winds, fog on the ground, rain clouds and the normal “Benguela-functioning winds”.Nature supplied the organisers with six to wight foot ground swell and glassy conditions that remained consistent on Saturday and Sunday for Namibia’s premier surfing event.A total of 27 entrants were brave enough to face the winter swell and compete with the country’s best surfers.The competition ran five categories with open surfing receiving the most followed by bodyboarding, junior surfing, longboarding and development surfing.The bodyboarding crown remained with Shaun Loubser who impressed the judges the most with some very high performance manoeuvres.Tyrone Kotze, Aubrey Meyer and Thorsten Viljoen were not far behind.The organisers will look into starting a junior division in future with the numbers of bodyboard contestants growing fast.Thorsten Viljoen and Kyle Cyriax would then be the top juniors.Junior surfing had a disappointing turnout with only one heat and five contestants.Craig D’Oliveira took the title of junior champion from Robert Roxin.The remaining positions went to Enric Rattger, Ramon van der Merwe and Franco Horn.The Longboard event was won by Rod Braby with Hardy Hofmeister and Henner Rodenwoldt closely contesting the title.This is when Rodenwoldt unfortunately snapped his longboard early in the final.The development category was contested by young up and coming talent.Lee James took the title, as well as the “Most Improved Surfer” trophy.He was challenged by Bianca Hartenstein and Katja Kring who took the second and third places respectively.The event was given a festive atmosphere with a parachute display, while kite-surfing were show-cased.The judging was done by Sigi Braby, Marina Loubser, Dale Peppler, Frank Heuschneider and Rod Braby.Torsten Gossow came a close second with Michi Mater and Henner Rodenwoldt taking third and forth positions.Sarro also won the award for the highest scoring wave, while Rodenwoldt won the “Wipe out of the Day” award.He snapped a long and a short board, and a leash.According to Rod Braby of the Namibia Surfing Association, this showed his fearless approach to the powerful surf that prevailed for the duration of the competition.Braby described the conditions as four seasons in one day with east winds, fog on the ground, rain clouds and the normal “Benguela-functioning winds”.Nature supplied the organisers with six to wight foot ground swell and glassy conditions that remained consistent on Saturday and Sunday for Namibia’s premier surfing event.A total of 27 entrants were brave enough to face the winter swell and compete with the country’s best surfers.The competition ran five categories with open surfing receiving the most followed by bodyboarding, junior surfing, longboarding and development surfing.The bodyboarding crown remained with Shaun Loubser who impressed the judges the most with some very high performance manoeuvres.Tyrone Kotze, Aubrey Meyer and Thorsten Viljoen were not far behind.The organisers will look into starting a junior division in future with the numbers of bodyboard contestants growing fast.Thorsten Viljoen and Kyle Cyriax would then be the top juniors.Junior surfing had a disappointing turnout with only one heat and five contestants.Craig D’Oliveira took the title of junior champion from Robert Roxin.The remaining positions went to Enric Rattger, Ramon van der Merwe and Franco Horn.The Longboard event was won by Rod Braby with Hardy Hofmeister and Henner Rodenwoldt closely contesting the title.This is when Rodenwoldt unfortunately snapped his longboard early in the final.The development category was contested by young up and coming talent.Lee James took the title, as well as the “Most Improved Surfer” trophy.He was challenged by Bianca Hartenstein and Katja Kring who took the second and third places respectively.The event was given a festive atmosphere with a parachute display, while kite-surfing were show-cased.The judging was done by Sigi Braby, Marina Loubser, Dale Peppler, Frank Heuschneider and Rod Braby.