RIP CURL Surfers Vintners 2014 Classic held

Wednesday, 27 August, 2014
Jessica Faircliff
Forty-five of the Cape’s best wine makers showed off their surfing skills on some small but clean surf at the Jongensfontein Point on Friday 15th August at the Rip Curl Vintners Surf Classic 2014.

For the past 15 years an ever-growing group of vintners have gathered once a year to celebrate two common passions: surfing and the art of making good wine. Wine makers representing some of the top wineries in South Africa head up the East Coast as the first daisies of spring turn their faces to the sun. For one day, they leave their veldskoens behind, let the wine sit quietly in the barrels and turn their attention to the waves.

The Vintners Surf Classic is a truly unique event and one with so much gees that one has to remind oneself that it is actually a serious competition. Contestants are split into 4 categories of Ladies, Juniors, Seniors and Veterans. Professional judges score each heat with the top surfers going on to the semi’s and then finals.
Gunter Schultz from Tamboerskloof Wines won the seniors event yet again this year. He manages to somehow get the best wave of every set, heat after heat, year after year. No one knows how he does it. Chris Boustred from Remhoogte won the Juniors and big wave surfer Ross Lindsay took the veterans division. Only two ladies competed and Trizaan Barnard from Trizaan wines was the clear winner there.
“The most amazing part of the event is the spirit in which it is held. It’s a celebration of our love for surfing coupled with our life’s passion, which is wine. It has also become a family affair with wives and children all joining in,” said organiser Sebastian Beaumont from Beaumont Wines.
After a wonderful day on the pristine beach at Jongensfontein, watching highly entertaining surfing filled with antics from handstands to close encounters with dolphins, contestants and their families reconvened at the Stilbaai golf club for a prize giving and a delicious meal provided by the Stilbaai United Church.
The prize giving was packed with some incredible prizes thanks to the generous sponsors, which in the spirit of the event were handed out via a lucky draw. No one went home empty handed.
The event is famous for a magnum of wine called the Big Red, which is a blend of wines donated by the competitors and bottled by Christo le Riche. The label, done by Fanakolo design, and the list of contributing wineries on the back, is very impressive. It is a collector’s item and though made to be drunk at the event, there were not many magnums present on the admittedly crowded tables.
Most of the ladies took tired children home after dinner, leaving a close knit crowd of very relaxed, very unaffected, very happy and content men, sharing their wine, reliving moments of a sublime day, catching up on wine trends and news and talking about life in general.

THE RESULTS:

Ladies final Winner: Trizaan Barnard- Trizaan Wines
2nd Penny Stemmet - Natural Energy

Juniors winner: Chris Boustred - Remhoogte Estate
2nd -Nicky de Villiers - Durbanville Hills
3rd - Duncan Savage - Cape Point Vineyards
4th - JT vD Westhuizen - Kleinroosboom

Seniors winner: Gunter Schultz - Tamboerskloof Wines
2nd - Pieter Walser - Blank Bottle
3rd - Francois Hanekom - Viticulturalist
4th - Bevan Johnson - Newton Johnson Vineyards

Veterans winner: Ross Lindsay - Nixon
2nd - Johan Reyneke - Reyneke Wines
3rd - Anthony de Jager - Fairview Estate
4th - Kobus Joubert - Joubert Tradouw Wines

Spot Prizes:
Body board of the Event- Jan Schlieman for longest wave ridden lying down
Dolphin Award - Bernard Le Roux for being the first to be knocked off his board by dolphins
Nerd of the event - Carsten Migliarina, replied the most to emails
Top Wave of the day - Callie Louw 
Surfer of the day - Cobus Joubert
Wipe out of the day - John Kotze
Longest wave - Nicky de Villiers
Newest and youngest contestant - Marcus Sadie

Sponsors:
RR Cork ; Rip Curl ; Consol Glass; JF Hillebrand ; Tonnelerie Bordelaise ; Zig Zag ; Estate Mobile Bottling ; SWOX; Bantu Wax, Ocean Minded ; Cool Dandy; Nixon ; Wavescape ; Thales Wine Services ; Roto Label ; Fanakalo Design ; Lombard Promotions ; Natural Energy ; Vineyard Connection ; Country Digital ; Chapmans Peak Hotel

Photo credits:
Thys Lombard and Adriaan Oelofse

Video links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0799NssjJ3I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4mDkqOoXuk

Press Release disseminated by:
Country PR
Jessica Faircliff
028 312 4799 | 083 4692966
jess@databias.co.za