Tuach to compete at elite South Africa Ballito Pro

Barbados’ top surfer Chelsea Tuach is set to face a major challenge when she competes at the highly rated Ballito Surf Pro in Durban, South Africa. The Barbadian ace qualified for this event after achieving a ranking of third in the North American region in the 2021/2022 season.

She will be one of 64 women, as well as 96 men, competing in this Challenger Series event which is the ultimate battleground for surfers fighting to qualify for a spot on the 2023 Championship Tour (CT).

Tuach, has continued to fly the Barbados flag high on the international surf scene in 2022 with two quarter-final finishes at the WSL 1000 Pismo Beach Pro held in California at the end of January and at the WSL 1000 Gold Coast Pro held in Brisbane Australia at the end of April and a win at the WSL 3000 Barbados Surf Pro in March.

This is Chelsea’s third victory at a WSL 3000 event, having won the Martinique surf Pro in 2018, the first Caribbean surfer to win this event, and the South Africa Open of Surfing held in Port Elizabeth in June 2019, making her the first Caribbean surfer to win an event on the African continent.

At age 19, Tuach became the first and only Caribbean surfer to qualify for this tour and has been training hard over the past few months in Australia in preparation for this event and the upcoming Challenger series events in the US, Europe, Brazil and Hawaii, with the goal of re-qualifying for the ‘dream tour’.

“I am looking forward to competing in South Africa again.  I came away with a win in my last visit here in 2019 which gives me confidence going into this event.  I have been training really hard, both in and out of the water, to be ready for a strong performance. My boards are feeling good and I’m looking forward to putting the jersey back on,” Tuach told South Africa’s Nation Sports on her arrival in Durban on Thursday.

The event window starts on July 3 and runs through to July 10 and can be viewed live at www.worldsurfleague.com. (PR)