Sixty40 Bodyboarding Magazine #22 - World Champion Edition

I S S U E 22 W O R L D

// 2 0 1 5 // S I X T Y 4 0 . C O . Z A C H A M P I O N E D I T I O N

路路

Jared Houston ///

/// in his adopted home of Puerto Rico putting in the time that it takes to be a World Champion ..

JARED HOUSTON @ PUERTO RICO // ALEX DIAZ

santa’s

zionsa

choice

a.com

CONGRATULATES IAIN C 5

th

overall on the 2015 APB World Bod

IAIN CAMPBELL CAMPBELL - WIAMEA IAIN on the PLUS27

LION MODE WAIMEA on the #PLUS27

CAMPBELL

dyboarding Tour “ WIAMEA and the World Tour are the proving grounds to Stardom

Iain is the complete athlete excelling at both. Says Billy Thiel “

Th i

el

The newest addition to Thiel Board Co. is South African Super Grom Alex Nutt.

Both Iain and Alex’s board of choice is the #PLUS27 Order yours now, we ship world wide .

International Retailers and Distributors Enquire @ thielboardco@gmail.com

Bi

lly

Bil y Thiel

Follow our adventures on

www.thielboardco.com

photo: Marc Gardner

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SIXTY40 BODYBOARDING MAGAZINE // ISSUE 22

Jared Houston // by Alex Diaz

A World Title, arguably the single greatest achievement across any sports discipline. The pinnacle of hard work, determination and effort.

Jared Houston has done this, and it is monumental. This issue celebrates and takes pride in his achievement, and in all the achievements of South African bodyboarders over the last year throughout the globe.

Jared, from the team at sixty40 and the Saffa bodyboarding community, we congratulate you, and cannot wait to see what the future holds.

ED ~ Ian Kruger

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Mafoos Lombard realised a life long dream by taking out the Pro title at SA Champ's in Richards Bay this year and he's just getting started. Big invert at the Hoek.

MAFOOS LOMBARD // FRANS LOMBARD

Iain Campbell had a breakout year on the World Tour cracking the top 5 on the APB tour rankings.

Looking forward to seeing the momentum he takes through into 2016. This is some rest and relaxation in Hawaii.

IAIN CAMPBELL // BILLY THIEL

Sacha Specker tearing the shoulder off of the Rocklands end section.

SACHA SPECKER// SIMON HEALE

HANDPICKED

www.thehandpickedmovement.co

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Iain Campbell

2015 BREAKOUT

2015 has been a breakout year from a competing point of view but with every breakout year people don't know the amount of effort, hard work and heartbreak that happens behind the scenes. Talk us through the last few years of buildup, what 'clicked' and a few of the more memorable achievements:

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Iain Campbell and Ryan Janssens connect on one of the most difficult angles to work in water photography. The results speak for themselves.

It all started back in 2013 for me, having my sponsors Billy Thiel (Thiel Board Co. & Just Bodyboarding) and Red Bull South Africa getting behind me to send me to my first international contests in South America. This is where I got my best result (a fifth in the Itacoatiara Event in Brazil) and thought I could make it as a Pro Bodyboarder and make a name for myself world wide. This was after I had won my first title in the ISA World Bodyboard Champs in the Dropknee division in 2012

in Venezuela. I thought I was good enough but I definitely didn’t see a solid career.

I then achieved, which at the time was my best result, in the Brazil event, ever!

That’s when I thought to myself I need to pursue my dream of chasing a world title and started to focus on more of the competition side of my bodyboarding and a doing whatever I could to get better money from sponsors as well as getting to every possible event to get more experience and become a better rider.

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Going into 2014 I really looked to qualify in the top 16 and get good results throughout the year while getting to as many events as I possibly could once again. Unfortunately I couldn’t get to Pipe and missed that event, putting me at a disadvantage but I knew I could do it still and believed I could get into the top 16. I started in Brazil in 20th place and moved forward after an average result of 17th place and the year looked to be getting off to a good start. I backed that result up with two 9th place finishes in Arica and Antofagasta respectively. Then the heartbreak side of things started when I hit my leg on the reef, in Antofagasta, and received 20+ stitches to my thigh just above my knee and couldn’t head to Portugal for the final event of the year.

This put me out of action for some time and this is when my career changed for the better, I would say, and I found that I could work on my fitness and strength training in the gym and by working seriously on all the different aspects of my career to better me as an athlete. I firstly looked into the training side of things, working in the gym with a personal trainer twice a week while swimming with my mother and coach three times a week.

the correct diet too. I never focus and worried about what I was feeding myself until then. It changed me as a person and I would never have done it without Billy Thiel pushing me into it.

I thought to myself if I am going to make this work I have to work at it as much as I would if it was my day job, bodyboarding, training, eating healthy and working with my sponsors to ride the correct boards and get me to a position I needed to be.

This was the turning point for me to get

all my muscles again, another small set back. This made me more focused and determined to better my fitness and strength training. These are the moments in your career where you can benefit or forget about it and have recurring problems and never heal it 100%.

I was back up and able to bodyboard properly again late into the latter half of 2014 and I decided I would head to ISA Games once again where I got knocked out of the opens early but managed a third in the DK division. I was happy with the result but I looked at my equipment and I knew I could up my game if I wanted to get a better result in 2015. I put so much effort into my board shapes, riding and getting media in Hawaii in the 2014/2015 season. This is where it started to all ‘click’. I was developing in so many waves and had the help of Billy Thiel in all aspects, working closely on fitness, diet and board shapes, we were able to have a successful season and the riding was showing results. I came back home and went on a bit of a break to Cape Town to compete in the local circuit where I picked up a small injury not allowing me to continue with competing in Cape Town and I had to come back to Durban for treatment and start to strengthen

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Iain boosting a backflip at Cave Rock shot by Ryan Janssens

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Iain and the view from Keiki Beach in Hawaii.

Billy Thiel photo.

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Iain and an invert off a foamy section on South Africa's desolate West Coast. Image by Ryan Janssens.

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I focused my energy to getting my body in top shape to take on any challenge that came my way.

I started to read up on fitness, diet, training and ride some good waves, completely studying and learning throughout about what it would take to be the elite athlete I needed to be to compete against the worlds’ best. Putting all this effort in for these years finally paid off when I went into the 2015 season of the APB Tour, where I started strong in Brazil this year and just kept the momentum up into all the other events getting 3 of my best career results including a 2nd in the Portugal events, a 3rd in Antofagasta and a 5th in Arica. It’s a breath of fresh air that fills your body when you finally get a break, it all clicks and you find yourself achieve some of the dreams that you always wanted too. This also came with its perks where i picked up my new sponsor, Reflex Wetsuits, run and owned by Ryan Hardy who I have always looked up to and aspired to be like.

Just to boot all the results, I came into 2015 hoping for a top 10 finish, I now sit in the 4th position on the World Tour going into the last event of the year. This breakout year has come with so much work and it feels so good to be at the top of my game and still learning at every moment. I have to admit, it also comes with the support that people show you. I have an amazing group of people all so supportive around the

world pushing me including my friends and amazing outstanding family, to achieve so much on every trip as well as having some good mates on the Tour that push me to get to another level.

Nobody said it was going to be easy and I cannot express the amount of handwork, blood, sweat and tears, literally, it has taken for me to get to this level and achieve what I have this year. END SIXTY40.CO.ZA

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Tristan Roberts and a massive flip out the bowl at Tand.

TRISTAN ROBBERTS // ALLAN HORTON

Mafoos Lombard in a picture perfect postcard pit.

MAFOOS LOMBARD // MORBO PHOTO

Hawaiian Jacob Romero made the pilgrimage to our shores to win the Cave Rock Invitational with crazy boosts like this.

JACOB ROMERO // NIC ABERDEIN

Jared Houston THE WORLD CHAMPION

Jared's current island home of Puerto Rico relies on storm swells which means you have to be on top of the charts constantly. It also means the early bird catches the worm.

JARED HOUSTON // ALEX DIAS

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One of the hallmarks of Jared's riding is his ability to remain calm under pressure. Flat spin into the pit at Tand. Photo by Sacha Specker SIXTY40 BODYBOARDING MAGAZINE // ISSUE 22

Jared Houston THE WORLD CHAMPION

It has a really nice ring to it, and was so close to not happening I literally don’t have any fingernails left. In the final heat, of the final event for the 2015 APB World Tour, Jeff Hubbard managed to defeat an in form Pierre Louis Costes to hand Jared the world title. This was after the very same Jeff Hubbard knocked Jared out of the event in round 6 in the dying seconds of the heat, causing near heart failure for the South African bodyboarding community. But as history will note, it all worked out in the end and Jared Neil Houston will forever be known as the 2015 World Bodyboarding Champion.

And what a deserving champion he is.

When you see talented groms it is always difficult to imagine that possibly, one day, they will reach their goal of becoming World Champion. Hell, it’s almost impossible. But having been privileged enough to watch Jared grow up and learn what it takes to become a world champion, I can definitely see that one of the key characteristics is humble determination.

While Jared’s rise seems meteoric, I can still remember the trampoline in the back of the Houston’s yard where, if the waves were flat, Jared would spend his time practicing backflips. How, on his first trip to Oz, he ran out of money and was dumpster diving for food while looking for work. As we all carried on with our lives, Jared was continuing with the hard yards. So when we look back, what seems like an overnight success has come from hard work, picking yourself back up when you get knocked down and most importantly, enjoying the journey. As I said, humble determination.

At the age of 26, with a beautiful and strong young family behind him, that humble determination now has firmly placed the bodyboarding world at his feet. We can’t wait to see what happens next.

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Jared Houston THE WORLD CHAMPION Pure power. Pic by Alex Diaz

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Jared Houston THE WORLD CHAMPION

"In relation to my goals, this World Title is motivation. In relation to my family, this World Title is both a reward and a blessing. In relation to my future, this World Title is a building block and a monument to look back on. Winning the World Title has been a roller coaster ride, from the lows and ultimate highs of the final day of the Encanto Pro Cultura, to the amazing weeks spent surrounded by peers, friends and family until now, the last 10 days of fever dreams, nightmares and hallucinations brought on by illness. I always thought that if I won a World Title a hole would open up in the ground and I'd fall into endless bliss.

No, life keeps going, we keep living, we keep evolving. I am so excited for the years to come, for what life has to show me next, for what my family and I will achieve and for the waves that I'll ride. From here on in I am a World Champion, and for that I am truly grateful - and ready to enjoy the ride."

Jared Houston 2015 APB World Champion

Jared at Tand, one of the waves that helped hone his reef break skills that are put to the test on tour. Pic by Sacha Specker.

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ANDRE BOTHA

BY COBUS BOSMAN @DIAS BEACH

2015 GALLERY

SIXTY40 BODYBOARDING MAGAZINE // ISSUE 22

Andre Botha is a self confessed shorebreak lover. He charges some of the heaviest waves in the world and is more than happy to throw himself into a close out at Dias Beach.

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STORM PRESTWICH

BY GRAEME COX

2015 GALLERY

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Storm Prestwich with a big punt on the South Coast.

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JACO LOUBSER

BY SETH PHITIDES

2015 GALLERY

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Jaco Loubser is on a current sabbatical between Indo and the Phillipines, I would say he's dreaming of this but he's currently living the dream.

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BRODE GLEESON

BY SACHA SPECKER @WEST COAST

2015 GALLERY

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Brode Gleeson on a desolate stretch of beach up the west coast.

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SAMPI KAMMFER

BY SIMON HEALE @THE WEDGE

2015 GALLERY

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Sampi Kamffer putting in the hours at Wedge between designing this mag to maintain his local legend status.

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DUNE BARKER

BY SIMON HEALE @LUCIEN SHOREBREAK

2015 GALLERY

Dune Barker and a DK punt at Lucien Shorebreak on the South Coast.

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SACHA SPECKER

BY AYESHA SPECKER

2015 GALLERY

Sacha Specker and a massive air forward out the bowl.

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ALEX NUTT

BY SIMON HEALE @LUCIEN SHOREBREAK

2015 GALLERY

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Saffa supergrom Alex Nutt with a textbook invert at Lucien on the South Coast.

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MARTIN OTTO

BY MICHAEL ANSERMINO @LUCIEN SHOREBREAK

2015 GALLERY

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Martin Otto on a wedge in the corner of Lucien Shorebreak.

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JARRET JOHNSON

BY SIMON HEALE @TAND

2015 GALLERY

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Jarret Johnson man-wrestling a foam ball at Tand.

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IAIN CAMPBELL

BY RYAN JANSSENS

2015 GALLERY

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Iain Campbell being Mr. Versatile with this DK grind.

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JOHAN DE GOEDE

BY MORBO PHOTO

2015 GALLERY

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Johan De Goede coming in for landing.

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LUKE KITCHIN

BY JARRID MUHLENBERG @LLANDUDNO

2015 GALLERY

Luke Kitchin launching a sizey flip at his homebreak of Llandudno.

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STEPHEN DU PREEZ

BY NIC ABERDEIN @CAVE ROCK

2015 GALLERY

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Stephen Du Preez and the definition of tweaked in the Cave Rock Challenge.

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JASON FOWLER

BY SIMON HEALE @THE HOEK

2015 GALLERY

Jason Fowler >> invert at Hoek with Simon Heale capturing an incredible watershot.

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ANDRE 'VLOOI' BOTHA

BY MORBO PHOTO @CAVES

2015 GALLERY

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Andre 'Vlooi' Botha in the driver's seat at Caves.

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SIMON HEALE

BY SETH PHITIDES @LLANDUDNO

2015 GALLERY

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Often taking the pics, sometimes it's nice to be on the other side of the lens. Simon Heale steering while Seth Phitides get's the shot.

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SACHA SPECKER

BY MARCEL HABETS

2015 GALLERY Sacha Specker and a tow assisted punt that would easily clear that fishing boat in the background.

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LUKE KITCHIN

BY SETH PHITIDES @LLANDUDNO

2015 GALLERY

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Llandudno grom Luke Kitchin makes full use of the late evening golden hour.

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PAMELA BOWREN

BY SIMON HEALE @LLANDUDNO

2015 GALLERY

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Pamela Bowren sneaking one from the crowd on the scoop at Llandudno.

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STEPHEN DU PREEZ

BY KIERAN TUNBRIDGE @PIPE

2015 GALLERY

It's always tough to close out a new issue, but this sequence of Stephen Du Preez at Pipe should keep you coming back for more. Sequence by Kieran Tunbridge

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THANKS FOR READING. I F YO U E N J OY E D T H I S I S S U E , P L E A S E H E L P S P R E A D T H E W O R D BY S H A R I N G I T W I T H YO U R F R I E N D S BY CLICKING ONE OF THE ICONS BELOW.

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