Baum and Buitendag Amongst the Favourites Tipped to Win Roxy Wahine Cup 2011
New Pier, Durban - The stage is set for South Africa's premier stand alone women's surfing event, the Roxy Wahine Cup presented by the City of Durban. On the 18th and 19th of June South Africa's best female surfers will gather at Durban's New Pier to compete for the four titles on offer as well as over R33 000 in prize money.
This year is the 12th year that the event will be staged and two of South Africa's hottest young talents will be competing. Sarah Baum (Amanzimtoti) and Bianca Buitendag (George) have fast become two of the biggest names in South African women's surfing and have been tipped as joint favourites in the Women's Open Division as well as the U20 ASP Pro Junior division. The goofy-foot duo of Baum (17) and Buitendag (17) recently represented South Africa at the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships where Buitendag won the silver medal in the U18 Girls Division. They arrive back in South Africa two days before the Roxy Wahine Cup gets under way having competed in a number of ASP events in Europe.
Buitendag won the ASP World Junior Champs in Australia in January while Baum won the U20 Girls division at the SA Championships at Seal Point last month. In 2010 Baum won the Mr Price Pro and the Roxy Invitational. "I am so excited that the event is now at New Pier in winter and still has the backing of Suncoast. There should be a lot of top surfers competing and I am hoping to take both titles out this year. Thanks to Roxy and the City of Durban for sponsoring the event, women's surfing really needs the support at the moment", said Baum.
The U20 girls division is a 1 Star ASP Pro Junior rated event. This means that the winner will have an automatic start in the 3 ASP World Junior Championship events in 2011 / 2012. The other divisions at the Roxy Wahine Cup are part of Surfing South Africa's Pro Surf Tour and include girls U14, girls U16 an Open Women's division and a new all-girls lifesaving event. As usual the event has attracted top surfers such as former winner and 2010 World Masters Champion Heather Clark (Port Shepstone), talented Stacey Guy (Melkbosstrand), 2011 SA Team members Tanika Hoffman (Kommetjie) and 2011 SA Champion Nikita Robb (East London), a competitor on the 2010 ASP World Tour.
