Walker Bay Pro 2022 – Final Day – HIGHLIGHTS & RESULTS

It was finals day today at the Walker Bay Pro 2022 with all the divisions being greeted to 4-6 offshore Onrus with the bank and beach packed with spectators to also witness the first time ever the woman’s world title being crowned on African soil!

With only 6 heats left to surf with had the juniors semis up first with Hugo Naude advancing through the first semi final heat against and make it to the final and setup a great with the the winner of the second heat which was Brayden Hewitt who managed to get past Aaron Gimpel in the second semi.

Next was the men’s semis with 2 world champs up against each with Tristan and Jeff going blow for blow in a stacked heat which eventually saw Jeff advance over Tristan with one of the highest heat totals of the day to advance to the final and knock out the local town hero. We then had another world champ in Iain take on the Chilean Alan Munoz which also saw Iain advance through to the final with some really big moves to meet Jeff in the final of the men’s division.

The women’s semis was after the men’s division and that had title stories in each of the heats.

Alex Rinder had to make the finals to have a chance to win the world title but she was unfortunately beaten by isabela Sousa who herself had to advance through the semis to have hope of winning the title. She managed to get through a low scoring heat with Alex and advance through to the finals and keep her title hopes alive and knocking Alex out of the title race. Local hero Pam Bowren also had a stacked heat against Neymara Carvalho who also had to win her semi to keep her title hopes alive. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as Pam knocked Neymara out of the semis and the tire race to setup the final with isabela.

With the news of Neymara being knocked out of the contest the beach then erupted to the news that Isabela Sousa was crowned the women’s world champ for 2022.

We then had the finals and the juniors were up first with Hugo Naude and Brayden hewitt battling it in the final with both of them riding really well and showing why they are the future of our sport. At the end Hugo managed to get the win over Brayden and be crowned the junior champion of the walker Bay Pro.

Jeff and Iain has the men’s final after with both former world champs pushing each other to the limit with some big lofty flips and technical riding to showcase a really great final with Jeff winning at the end over his good friend Iain and taking out the first Walker Bay Pro title.

Last but not least was the woman’s final with isabela dominating the final over Pam to wrap up the win and take the women’s walker Bay Pro title for the first time. Big shoutout goes to Pam for also holding the South African flag up high and getting second.

Overall what an amazing event held in South Africa for the first time with everyone having an absolute ball here at the walker Bay Pro 2022. Big shout out to mumbles for setting it up!

See you next year at the Walker Bay Pro 2023.

Words by Angelo Ackerman