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PRESS RELEASE DETAIL Click here to read Previous Releases Saturday 03rd of April 2010 Abersalie Takes Quiksilver Future Stars at Day One of the Quiksilver Pro Junior A very stoked Quiksilver Future Stars winner Dominic Abersalie from Jeffreys Bay amongst the rest of the finalists. From left to right: Brandon Benjamin (CTN), Dominic Abersalie (JBay), Khaya Ncgobo (SKZN) and Bertie Stuurman (JBay). Photo - Luke Patterson. Abersalie Takes Quiksilver Future Stars at Day One of the Quiksilver Pro Junior Nice and glassy three-foot peaks at North Beach in Durban set the scene for an exciting opening day of the Quiksilver Pro Junior presented by Durban and Resolution. The day of surfing kicked off with round one of the Quiksilver Future Stars event. In the Future Stars event, eight surfers who have come through the Surfing South Africa transformation program are given the chance to win a wildcard slot into the seeded round of the Quiksilver Pro Junior event. All invited surfers invited to the event were flown to Durban and accommodated courtesy of Quiksilver for four days, and all received a Quiksilver product package. After the first round, Brandon Benjamin from Retreat in Cape Town, Bertie Stuurman from Jbay, Khaya Ncgobo from SKZN and Dominic Abersalie from Jbay qualified for the final. In an extremely close result Dominic Abersalie pipped Bertie Stuurman into second place. “It was the last few minutes of the heat, and I saw this good wave coming,” said Dominic after the final. “I paddled hard for it, caught it and just went straight into a round house move. It formed nicely and I managed to do four more good moves on the wave and get the highest score of the final.” Coincidently, Dominic also won the Future Stars event in 2009 from Bertie Stuurman. In the King Of the Groms U16 round of 32 it was young Dylan Lightfoot from Jeffrey’s Bay who was blowing up, scoring a heat score of 15,75 out of a possible 20 points and the highest heat score thus far. “I had a good wave early in the heat. It was a small one, but had a nice section and I did a little air move at the end and got a good score,” said Lightfoot. “Towards the end of the heat I picked up another good wave, just off the pier. I did a few little turns on the outside and raced towards the end section and went for a big double-grab air and made it. I was pretty stoked, and the judges gave me an 8.5 and that saw me win the heat.” The waves were still good in the afternoon, and the wind had yet to arrive when the Pro Junior Boys round of 48 hit the water. The sandbanks on the Durban beachfront have been really good of late, and the great waves coming through at North Beach during this round were conducive to some high performance surfing. Kane Bennewith from Durban, Bertie Stuurman from Jbay, Rigard Smit from The Strand and Steven Sawyer from Jbay all surfed excellently to win their heats in this round, and advance to the Pro Junior Boys round of 32. This round will hit the water first thing tomorrow morning. These events are brought to you by Durban and Resolution. Other sponsors include Supersport, Nestle Pure Life Water, Joe Cools and Red Bull. ASP Africa sanctions the Pro Junior division and SSA sanctions the Quiksilver King Of The Groms and the Quiksilver Future Stars Surfing South Africa is recognized by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Body (SASCOC) and Sport and Recreation South Africa as the national governing body for surfing. Eight provincial organizations and three national associations are affiliated to Surfing South Africa, which is a member of the International Surfing Association. About ASP: The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the governing body of professional surfing. Crowning surfing’s undisputed world champions since 1976, the ASP sanctions the following tours: the ASP World Tour, the ASP Women’s World Tour, the World Qualifying Series (WQS) and the World Longboarding, Junior and Masters Championships. The ASP is dedicated to showcasing the world's best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and has revolutionized the way the world watches surfing via their webcasts. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Japan, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.