My final SA Junior Champs

Winning my round 3 heat in the onshore!

So this time one week ago I was preparing myself for my last ever finals day of SA Junior Champs, I have been competing at the SA Junior Champs since 2008, I was 11 and competing at St Mikes in the u/12 girls , now 7 years later I was about to finish off 7 years of good competition with some good friends I had made over the years.

Finals day came, It was going to be a long day with still 2 rounds to go before the final, I kept it together and surfed my way through to the final along with Anoush, Teal and Jade, the stage was set for an awesome final, we all had our hears set on the gold especially with it being our last year.

Carving away!

But it was one of those heats at Point, Flat, long lull, scratching for waves and tactics came into play and 20 minutes later the best I could do was a 3rd, not what I wanted but, that's surfing, well done to Teal for taking the win and Anoush finished second with jade in 4th.

walking up to the key hole for the final my brother Wade said to me

"you have made every single SA champs final since 2008, that's 7 straight finals, that's an amazing achievement in itself so what ever happens out there doesn't matter, you've already achieved something that most people will never."

Snapping

I just wish the Point could have turned on like it did in the u/17 boys final, so I could have given it a real go and gone out on a good note, to lose without getting the opportunity to show what you can do always leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but that's how our sport goes we have no control of what the ocean will do in those 20 minutes.

The BEST team, Team SKZN have been like family over the years, so much fun!

When I look back now it was an amazing 7 year run that had many highlights:

2008 - surfed my first SA Junior Champs
2009 - Won my first SA Junior Title at Nahoon Reef
2010 - Went back to back and won my second SA Junior Title at Long Beach, as well as the Surfer of the contest, one of only 3 girls (I think) to ever have won that award.
2011 - Had the highest heat total of the event winning a paid trip to Bali, I managed to score 19.65 out of a possible 20.00
2012 - First contest I ever surfed at point, I remember scoring a 9.5 on a long wave in the quarter final, that was the highest single wave of the contest.
2013 - Point turned on for us perfect clean 4 foot waves, amazing to surf with just 3 other girls out, scores a 8.75 and a 7.75 in my semi and started the final with a 7.75, but got no back up haha.
2014 - My last ever SA Junior Champs also the longest SA Champs, I had to surf 5 rounds to make the final, dropped scores in the good category the whole event in all conditions was a special way to finish it off.


Now I make the big jump into the u/20 category at the Senior SA Champs, I surfed in the Seniors last year and made the final, so I am looking forward to having a good go at the u/20 title in 2015!

With my recent result I have got a slot in the SA Junior Squad and will be competing for a place in the 2015 SA Junior Team for the 4th time hopefully.

In between all the surfing I have been writing my Matric exams and I have just received my prelim exam marks and I got 2 A's. 1 B and 3 C's, so I think I'm doing a good job at balancing it all!

My Brother and biggest fan been there with me at every SA Champs!

Special thanks to this girl who has kept me on my toes at every event, I surfed against Anoush in my first SA's and it was great to surf our last final together as well, we have had some great heats over the years!

Chanelle
xxx