SA Surfing Awards went down in style, in Durban, last weekend. Celebrated comedian, Nic Rabinowitz, as the MC.
WildWeb is very proud to be a Durban based company. While most of our economies muscle, creative flair and social honors are dished out to Joburg and Cape Town, Durban has for many a moon been lavishing in our two bigger sisters shadow. But that trend is slowly changing and Durban has started to get its place in the sun.
Durban was recently voted, by CNN, as one of the top 10 most underrated cities in the world. Of course we 3 million Durbanites have known, for some time, that Durbs is best. It has the best winter climate. Best beaches and it is home to the Bunny Chow. Who can argue with that? That is why we coin our beautiful locale FunSunSea.
What has really put Durban on the tourist radar, over the last few years, have most notably been the joint hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the 2011 International Climate Change Conference, the Top Gear Festival, that took place last month, and the Durban July – which just happens to take place this weekend. But, dwelling on the underrated tag, Durbs is particularly well known for its niche pulling power. Like its claim to fame as being SA’s Surf City capital. South Africa has great beaches, great surf, bred world famous surfers and is home to the majority of South Africa’s surfing industry. This is perhaps why Durbs hosts the passionately niche, Annual SA Surfing Awards, out on by Zigzag Surfing Magazine.
Surfers from all around South Africa (as well as a few international attendees) , chuck off their slip-slops and baggies and don their best to attend a flashy evening of fine dining, legend surfers being honored, a bit of tom foolery and some serious awards being dished out.
We at WildWeb are suckers for passion mixed with casual cool and is a big reason why we decided to be supporting backers of this killer event. We not only attended the event but we were the culprits who supplied all the trophies for the award winners – A1 size mountable Canvas Prints, made by our sister company, PrintWild.
These canvas trophies are really special. Instead of being a random image printed onto the canvas, the trophies feature action portraits, of the award winners themselves, surfing an incredible wave, somewhere around the world. So, unlike regular silverware, handed out at most award functions, this trophy will undoubtedly go high up on the award winners home wall, a place of pride, supplying visual sentiments for years to come.
When the Surfing Awards was dusted, our trophies went to a few household names in the world of surfing, like surfing world title contender Jordy Smith and his world tour combatant, Travis Logie, who took out the most prestigious awards of the evening, respectively. And in so doing, book ended this Durban centric chest bump blog, as it just so happens that both Trav and Jords, as they are affectionately known in these here parts, are born and bred in DBN.
View some of the award winners from the Surfing Awards below…
Matt Bromley takes home his trophy.
Jordy Smith lifts his trophy
Dylan Lightfoot (left), Isiqalo Foundation representatives (center) and Steven Sawyer (right)
Beyrick De Vries (left) and Jordy Smith (right)
Greg Emslie (left) and SA Surfing legend Graham Hines (right)
