Johno Mellish wins Boland Champs

posted by Werner Adendorff on 2nd September 2009

The annual Boland Bodyboarding Championships, Sponsored by Reef South Africa and Science Bodyboards, took place this past weekend at Koelbay, Caves.

The day started off well with ideal conditions which produced 3-4ft glassy wedges with slight offshore and side shores making an appearance from time to time. The contest kicked off with the junior division. The riders performed well with the top seeds progressing to the finals.

As the day progressed so did the swell and swell period, which caused the 3-4ft conditions to mutate into a solid 5ft ground swell with the occasional 6 footer cleaning out any stragglers unlucky enough to not to be in the back line (some would argue that the 6ft sets tended to proceed ones opening wave).

The contest delivered some excellent riding from some of SA's most well known riders such as Wesley Fischer and Vaughn Harris. But one of the standout performances came from local rider, Tomas Degenaar, who launched some back breaking inverts, with one particular bust earning him a more than fair perfect ten. Not only is Tomas's invert worth mentioning but an unbelievable aerial maneuver which had the whole beach mesmerized and confused at the same time as to what had happened. After sliding down and scooping hard on the bottom turn of a set wave he proceeded to LAUNCH one of the biggest rolls of the contest, on realizing he had more air than anyone should ever have he contorted his body in ways unbeknown to man and continued to rotate into a reverse after the air roll was completed, after this he fell on top of the barrel and got sucked down over the falls. Another stand out was new comer to the Boland team, Keith Millward, who also earned himself a perfect ten in one of his heats for a HUGE invert. Unfortunately trying to repeat the perfect ten performance in his semi final heat, Keith had an unlucky landing on a bomb which ended up snapping his board in two! Vaughn backdoored a wedging bomb on his first Pro heat, which had the whole crowed on the beach gasping and cheering as one entity, and continued riding well which earned him a place in the pro finals.

The DK boys got the heavy task of putting the knee up in the 5ft+ sets rolling in later that morning and afternoon. Some good riding by local boy Mathew Webster show casing his fluid riding with well controlled and linked maneuvers. Vaughn Harris was no slouch either in his DK heats showing why he is one of SA's best DK riders with his unmistakable style and perfectly executed turns.

Due to the conditions changing by the hour (increasing swell) a decision was made by the competitors to finish the Men's and Pro finals . Both the men's and pro finals were spectacular, by this time the swell had mutated into huge slabs as it hit the sand bank. Tomas dominated the Men's final, but could not find the same waves in the pro final. He had been in the water for most of the day by virtue of surfing the two divisions, the paddle out through the bombs was taking up to 10 minutes. Johno Mellish, a Somerset West Local surfing for Western Province, had some bombs, one wave in the final sucked so hard that he free fell 3 meters and pulled into a thick closeout. Wesley Fisher from Central Natal showed his class by picking the waves with the best shape and did a huge invert at the beginning of the heat. During the last 15 minutes of the pro final, the competitors were paddling a rip that looked like the Orange river in flood. Vaughn got some good pits, but the rip got the better of him.

The remaining divisions will be finished this coming weekend at Lamberts Bay, were the BBA will be conducting their third development clinic, sponsored by Kumba Iron Ore, and team training.

Thanks to Reef and Science for the dedicated support and Incredible Prizes which was Up for grabs:

Pro's first prize: Science TR Bodyboard

Second place: Reef thermo vest, Ocean and earth Sun Glasses and a reef bicep leash

The Results of the Men's final are as follows:

1. Tomas Degenaar
2. Douw Steyn
3. Jean Bester
4. Jonathan Berman

The Pro finals results:

1. Johno Mellish
2. Wesley Fischer
3. Vaughn Harris
4. Tomas Degenaar

Finals to be held on the West Coast this coming weekend on 5 September 2009 are:

Juniors

Chris van der Westhuizen
Eugene Meyer
David Lilienfeld
Matthew Lombard

DK

Matt Webster
Vaughn Harris
Sean Tickner
Keith Milward

These results will be posted after this weekend so watch this space for the final results!

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Comments

doclachdoclach
14th September 2009 14:24
Thanks for all the help fellas. Johno's interview is updated on the rippy forum and there is a note in the general section of 6040.
stokin' Doc
doclachdoclach
14th September 2009 07:32
Cheers for getting in contact Werner :) I've dropped a note to Moose to see if maybe I could use a pic or two (even though it will be linked back to here, nice to throw one or two in). I'm pretty sure they are some of his pics accompanying - at least one of johnno's is by him. Anyways I don't know if he drops in the forum much or reads pm's, so if someone could give him a heads up that would be rad. Cheers, Doc
doclachdoclach
8th September 2009 04:40
Onya Johno!! Big congrats man.

Would someone be able to check with Werner to see If I can publish part/all of this write-up in Johno's interview on the rippy forum (with link to here of course!)? That would be rad!!
Doc
johnojohno
4th September 2009 18:33
shot shot guys...
no money ! no life ! no board! tramping it man!
RussellRussell Shaw
4th September 2009 12:00
Well done bro! Did you make any cash to pay wez for the board you broke? HA HA
mac13mac13
3rd September 2009 09:32
Yes Jono!!epic homie ...

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