Brazil has done it; Japan has done it, and now the African continent is gathering momentum on the world surfing stage.
With an unprecedented four African nations represented at this year’s Ballito Pro, presented by O’Neill, the significant strides made in developing surfing throughout the African continent over the last year is obvious.
Africa is the untapped gem, brimming not only with undiscovered talent that needs to be nurtured but also with remote and hence largely unexplored quality waves.
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Prior to the World Surf League (WSL) Africa undergoing a massive restructuring in April 2023, the regional body was perceived as WSL “South Africa” and not truly representative of the African continent.
However, the surge of entries from Morocco, Madagascar and Mozambique signals a tidal shift for professional surfing in Africa.
“As WSL Africa we have never had four different African countries represented in the Pro Junior or Qualifying Series events. In addition, we also have Aboubakar Bouaouda (MAR) who was given an opportunity to compete in the Challenger Series event as an alternate entry,” said WSL Africa Regional Director, Tasha Mentasti.
One of Mentasti’s mandates is to grow and expand the African region. Her journey with the sport of surfing over the last three decades and deep understanding of the importance of development and growth of the sport has equipped her well to fulfil this duty.
“One of the first things we did after restructuring was to develop internal policies whereby, we can offer more opportunities and be more inclusive as well as help other African surfing nations grow and develop. The aim is to eventually see better African representation on the Challenger Series and the Championship Tour,” said Mentasti.
The global professional surfing tour consists of three tiers.
The first being the regional Qualifying Series from where a limited number of athletes each of the the seven global WSL regions qualify for the extremely competitive global Challenger Series, limited to 80 men and 48 women.
The Ballito Pro is one of only six Challenger Series events on the global calendar. Out of the Challenger Series only the top ten men and five women go on to compete on the elite Championship Tour where the best 36 men and 18 women surfers on the planet compete for the world title.
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There are currently only three African surfers on the apex tour, including South Africans Jordy Smith and Matthew McGillivray along with Moroccan sensation Ramzi Boukhiam.
“Having Ramzi representing has had a massive drive for the next generation of Moroccans”, said Mentasti.
She said developing the Africa’s full potential required a massive collaborative effort between the International Surfing Association (ISA), the WSL and individual countries’ surfing federations.
The Moroccan federation has invested in sending five athletes to the Ballito Pro and they also had a representative on the judging panel. At the same time, Madagascar was represented for the first time by Joe Kennedy while Sung Min Cho returned to fly the flag for Mozambique.
Moroccan surfing federation technical director, Mohammed Khilaji said his athletes have faced many obstacles competing in the WSL Europe region, including obtaining visas and paying in Euros.
Having WSL events spread across the African region would greatly benefit the continent.
“We want to establish a relationship with the South African federation [Surfing South Africa] to do things together for judges, surfers and work together, not just compete,” said Khilaji.
South Africa, Morocco and Senegal are currently the strongest surfing nations on the continent. Incidentally, these are also the only three countries to have hosted WSL events.
Mentasti said WSL Africa was exploring opportunities to host upcoming events in Mozambique, Angola and possibly Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana but it all depended on viability.
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She added the biggest factor to recognise now was that talks with people in higher roles across the continent who can make this happen are in progress.
In addition, with surfing now being an Olympic sport, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has earmarked surfing in Africa as underdeveloped and therefore have opened funding portals through the ISA to the various federations to help nurture and develop Africa’s deep talent pool.
Source link : https://witness.co.za/sport/2024/07/08/record-african-contingent-at-ballito-pro/?amp=1
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Publish date : 2024-07-08 12:51:58
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