“We’re not just presenting the Port Alfred Easter Festival we are putting Port Alfred on the map as the place to be,” said Royal St Andrews Hotel director Justin Bekker at the festival launch at the hotel’s banquet hall on Thursday.
The festival which has Royal St Andrews Hotel as its main sponsor, incorporates the GromSearch and Rip Curl Cup surfing competitions and other sporting attractions such as boxing, tennis, handball, swimming, cycling, fishing, and a golf tournament over a four-day packed programme of sporting competition and fun events on the sidelines.
The PA Easter Festival which kicks off with the GromSearch at East Beach on Friday March 29 and ends with the Rip Curl Cup on Monday 30th, is the brainchild of the Port Alfred business sector in conjunction with Sunshine Coast Tourism and other role-players such as PA Residents and Ratepayers Association and Rip Curl.
“The whole point of the festival is to market Port Alfred as a destination for people to enjoy all we have to offer,” said Bekker in his launch address. “Let’s not forget the heart and soul of our town, the local businesses. “Whether it was event sponsorship or just spreading the word, every single one of you has played a part in making this festival happen.
“So here’s to each and every business in town … thank you for your contributions and helping us shine,” said Bekker in his audience address.
PA Business Forum chairperson Clinton Millard said they were hoping that patrons would invest in Port Alfred while visiting the region during the Easter Festival.
“We here to take some of your money … so spend it …enjoy our coffee shops and our restaurants … buy our branded T-shirts and please invest in Port Alfred in the three or four days you are here.
“People, please get a lot of photographs out so people can see where you are … showcase our town. “We are going to have the surfing at East beach over the next four days and Saturday and Sunday we are going to have the body boarding competiton, so please everybody have fun, again spend some money … and enjoy the bands on the beach.”
Ann Wright, who is Surfing SA vice-president and contest director, is upbeat about the competition at the popular surfing spots on East and West Beach.
“We thrilled to be here, Port Alfred is a great venue for everyone to showcase their surfing. We are looking at four days of really good surfing. We have the body boarders here, the festival as part of it and we are stoked to be here.
“Surfing South Africa is very proud to be involved with Rip Curl. Rip Curl supports our juniors and with the Rip Curl Cup for the older guys [Sunday and Monday] it’s going to be a great event and we are very happy to be here,” said Wright.
The Rip Curl GromSearch under the auspices of Surfing SA that kicks off on Friday March 29 sees the best of SA young talented surfers pit their surfing skills against each other.
The GromSearch forms part of a five event series at various locations on SA’s coastline and includes U12 boys and girls divisions, U14 boys and girls, the U16s Boys and Girls and the U18s. Now in its third year, the GromSearch competition sees young upstarts earn valuable points that could see them rise to the top of the junior surfing elite in the country.
Rory Dace, 15, of St Francis who surfed the World Junior Championships as a Springbok in Brazil last year is up and ready for the surfing contest.
“I feel pretty good , I always love coming to the Rip Curl GromSearch events – there’s a lot of prize money and it pushes me to do well … so I’m always excited to come around here to Port Alfred..
“I do a lot of training with my coach. I’m confident in my surfing and when I feel everything’s going well I just need to catch the waves and everything should go well on the day.”
The Body Boarding will continue right across the river on the West Beach side at Guido’s Beach alongside their surfing counterparts. Millard who is a former SA team coach and EP Body boarder said these were promising times for the surfing community.
“Last year [Amanzi Festival] we had the two competitions [body boarding and surfing] competing together side by side and everything went well … and it was the first time that the two were together as part of the same competition at the same venue, so we are looking forward to a great weekend of surfing.”
Other events featured on Friday are the “Species Spectacular Easter Fishing Competition”, a Street Carnival that will go on late into the evening next to the Kowie River. Other events on Saturday besides the surfing, is the parkrun event, bowls croquet, Sunshine coast tennis tournament, a 1km swim event on the Marina and a golf day at the Royal Port Alfred Golf Club. There is also a beach at the bands festival at Guido’s location to raise funds for the NSRI.
Sunday sees the start of the first rounds of the Rip Curl Cup surfing event, a boxing and tennis tournament while the other activities continue. Monday – the final day of the festival – is reserved for the finals of the Rip Curl Cup event at East Beach and a handball competition at the same venue.
An important component is the assistance of the local NSRI Port Alfred Station 11 run by station commander Nick Pike whose crews will provide back-up assistance on the waters. A new innovation on the water is a customised jet- ski where NSRI staff will be keeping a close watch from on the water.
“This customised jet-ski is a lot more versatile,” said Pike.
“Our crew that we are using are all rescue coxswains. The person who has been there the shortest time is over a five-year period. The longest-serving member in terms of years service, is 31 years,” said Pike.
“So put your minds at ease. The skippers know what they are doing … we’ve got a rescue swimmer with them on the ski as well at all stages, so if we need to be assisted in the surf we do have someone to swim out as well.
“We are going to have a [NSRI] person on the pier as a lookout … we are going to have a person at the judges side as well, so we’ll have a full system of communication to look after everybody,” added Pike.
