Durban’’s Jordy Smith, voted South African Surfer of the Year at the weekend and currently ranked second on the ASP world rankings, is the top seed for the 11th edition of the Mr Price Pro Ballito which starts Monday and runs until Sunday on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast.
The 5-Star rated 20th stop of 38 on the ASP Men’’s Star schedule for 2010, offers $120 000 (approx R900 000) in prize-money along with invaluable points on both the ASP World and local ASP Africa rankings.
The event has attracted a field of more than 90 international and local competitors with Smith being joined by a clutch of current title contenders, including Taylor Knox (US), Chris Davidson (Aus) and Durbanite Travis Logie.
There is also a solid contingent of former world tour campaigners in David Weare (Durban), Nathan Hedge (Aus), Royden Bryson (Cape Town), Greg Emslie (East London) and Ricky Basnett (Bluff), who is the only South African to have won the Mr Price Pro title (2006).
Basnett comes into the first internationally rated event to be staged in South Africa this year in sparkling form, having finished 9th in the recent event in Sri Lanka where he was the highest
placed SA surfer.
The event presents the current crop of South African pros competing internationally with the ideal opportunity to register points on the ASP world rankings in their home waters and the likes of Brandon Jackson (Durban North), Rudy Palmboom (Bluff) and rising stars Shaun Joubert (Mossel Bay), Chad du Toit (Berea), Brendon Gibbens (Kommetjie) and Beyrick de Vries (Umhlanga), who won the Pro Junior event on Sunday, will be eager to take advantage.
The event uses a mobile event format that takes the contest to the beach on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast offering the best waves on each day.
