NATIONAL NEWS - The South African Junior Surfing Team leaves for California later today (Wednesday) to join 34 other teams from all parts of the World in the annual ISA World Junior Surfing Championships. The event gets under way at Oceanside this weekend and ends on Sunday October 18th.

The team, which is made up of four U18 Boys, two Under 18 Girls, four Under 16 Boys and two Under 16 Girls, has been preparing for this event since February and after a string of successes in local events recently they depart full of confidence and determination.

Michael Monk of East London, Shane Sykes of Salt Rock, Ntando Msibi of Durban and Richard Kidd of Ballito are the Under 18 Boys while Teal Hogg of Umhlanga and Chanelle Botha of Warner Beach are the two Under 18 Girls in the team. Adin Masencamp of the Strand, Jeffreys Bay surfers Joshe Faulkner and Sebastian Williams and Luke Malherbe of East London are the Under 16 Boys group with Sophie Bell of Umdloti and Olivia Izzard of La Lucia the two Under 16 Girls in the side. Isaac February is the Team Manager, Greg Emslie is the Head Coach and Dave Malherbe is the Assistant Coach.

The Teams will gather for the Parade of Nations and the traditional Sands of the World Ceremony on Saturday and the first rounds will start at 8am on Sunday morning.