The Cloudbreak Fiji Surfing Team was welcomed home this week after performing well at the Melanesian Cup held on the island of Savai’i in Samoa earlier this week.
Despite some tricky weather conditions the squad, consisting of surfers of all ages swooped the prestige titles. In the Open Male, Fijian Aca Ravulo from Cuvu Village snagged 1st place. The nations second ranked female surfer, Hannah Bennett also took first place in the Open Women’s event for the second year in a row.
Other Fijians who placed on the podium were Malia Johnson from Nadi 3rd in the women’s long- board event, John Fitzgerald from Vuda 1st in the Masters (over 35 category), and Stuart Johnson 4th place in the men’s Longboard event. Team Fiji placed 2nd overall in the point score towards the Melanesian Cup.
Team Fiji finished with a total score of 9,327 points behind winners Vanuatu.
Fiji Surfing Association president Isei Tokovou says, “The success of the team is a perfect example of how much talent we have in the country and why our new push to develop youth and womens surfing will make the difference in the future.”
“Vanuatu should be congratulated for focusing more on their junior development and bringing a full team of under 14 and under 18 year old surfers, making the difference in the overall point- score.”
“We had our team competing against some of the regions most talented surfers and we not only held our own, in many categories we dominated. This is extremely encouraging and I personally look forward to kick starting our junior surfing program again and encouraging our youth to become more involved”.
The overall team results of the Melanesian Cup are as follows.
1. Vanuatu. 2. Fiji. 3. New Caledonia. 4. Samoa.
The Fiji Surf Team is sponsored by Cloudbreak Clothing Company.
If you have any further questions or would like to contact a member of the team for interviews Please contact the following:
Hosanna Kabakoro – Media Manager: (m) 944-8983 (E) hkabakoro@gmail.com
Isei Tokovou – President: (M) 732-8044 (E) iseifj@icloud.com
