He competed, with the rest of the Southern Cape team, in the South African Championships for the first time when the tournament was held in Margate.
The "Hero of the Week" accolade went to the Southern Cape lady rider Nikki Gericke who ended with a convincing 2nd place overall after some tough round heats in challenging conditions.
The Southern Cape Men's riders, all four being ranked in the top 10 Mens division in the country, showed good riding with De Kock and Michael Meyer both winning their respective first round heats in dominant fashion. Francois, Michael and Johan Nortjé made the top 16 cut off where after some good riding in their quarterfinal heats saw both Francois and Johan qualifying for the round of 8.
Heat draws for the semifinals were tough with both team mates being in the same heat. Both Francois and Johan got eliminated after a third and fourth place finish respectively. This meant that Francois was placed in a joint 5th and Johan a joint 7th overall position for the 2012 South African Championships.
The revived Southern Cape Bodyboarding Association succeeded and was able to send an almost full team to represent their province for the first time since 2007. Teams from all over the country gathered their best riders to compete in this 5 day event for the individual division championship and the prestigious Team Fishman Trophy.
The Southern Cape Bodyboarding Team 2012 comprised of six boys (u.15), three juniors (u.18), four mens (o.18), two Dropknee, one lady and four pro (open) riders falling short of only one master (o.32) rider. The team was filled with a range of experienced riders with the likes of international bodyboarding contender, Adam Morley, down to riders who competed in their first event of a such scale.
The first two days were held at Lucien Beach with small, yet contestable 2 to 3 foot waves, where after the event was moved to the more challenging Uvongo beach for the last three days swells ranged between 3 and 6 foot.
In the boys division, with all the Southern Cape riders experiencing their first time at SA Championships, there was some excellent and well composed wave riding by the young fellows.
Standouts were Colin de Kock sealing his first heat win in dominant style, Johan Rademeyer, Camron Watkins and JB Coleman.
The Junior division showed some classy wave riding as this is the division that shows upcoming talent for future pros of the sport.
All three Southern Cape junior riders, Michael Searle, Niklas Martin and Luan du Toit showed dominance with exceptional rides in heats one and two.
Michael was the standout with high scoring Air Roll Spin manoeuvres. All three Southern Cape Juniors advanced through to the round of 16. Quarter finals (round of 16) proved to be very tough with Michael and Luan falling victim to some exceptional competition. Niklas showed that he is a force to be reckoned with and managed to advance to the round of 8 quite comfortably.
With a tough draw for the semifinal heat, Niklas managed to get a third which eliminated him from the event placing him in joint 5th place overall at the 2012 South African Championships.
Niklas was also announced as the overall 3rd place Junior for the year of 2012 on the South African National Bodyboarding Circuit.
An overall good week of wave riding by the Southern Cape Bodyboarding Team which showed good team spirit, gave them a 5th place on the Team Standings log, edging out Eastern Province and Northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Southern Cape will play host to the 27th Annual National Bodyboarding Championships in 2013.
If anyone would like to get involved, young or old, contact Francois on 082 260 2887 or francois@quansur.com.
The members of the Southern Cape Bodyboarding team are from left (back) David Camacho, Francois de Kock, Michael Meyer, Adam Morley and Bjorn Coetzee. Middle: Johan Nortjé, Luan du Toit, Michael Searle, Tiaan Hoeben, Colin de Kock. Front: Nikki Gericke, Niklas Martin, Johan Rademeyer, Camron Watkins, John-Barry Coleman, Paul Rademeyer, Andrew Searle.
