Cape Town surfer, Paul ‘Chow’ Sampson has blown both judges and spectators away on Tuesday with his incredible performance on Day 2 of Tidy Towns SA Surfing Championship taking place at St Mike’s Beach in KwaZulu-Natal between 16 and 21 May.
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Good weather conditions gave way to a cracker of a day for Tidy Towns SA Surfing Championships 2023 Open and Masters, where an epic performance (and arguably the highlight of Day 2) by Paul Sampson led to an impressive score of 9.88 in his opening round.
Surfing South Africa (SSA) shared some incredible snaps of Sampson’s performance taken by Justin Klusener, the official photographer of the event.
Take a look:
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One of the biggest amateur surfing events, presented by UGU Surfriders, saw some 180 of South Africa’s best open and masters surfing divisions arrive from across the country to take advantage of idyllic surf conditions, going head-to-head for coveted titles.
Sampson has been part of the SSA Development programmes since the age of ten.
In a Facebook post, SSA explained that ‘his talent shined bright from his junior surfing days where he was originally supported by Surf Shack Surf and Outreach in Muizenberg’.
SurfShack (now known as Surfshack Outreach) was a longtime surf shop that doubles as an outreach facility and has been providing children with a way out from a life of gangsterism by giving them a sense of belonging and a connection to the ocean through surfing.
‘Thanks to support from local surfing district, Cape Town Surfriders, Paul has progressed over the years and honed his skills by being given the opportunity to compete in various SSA sanctioned events,’ added SSA.
‘We are excited to see this young man inspire a future generation of surfers in his local surfing community’.
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Picture: @paulchowsampson / Instagram