Yadin Nicol warming up today : photo Quiksilver/Ewing

A glut of surfers leaving Margaret River in Australia simultaneously saw in excess of 30 competitors arrive in Durban for the Quiksilver Pro Durban without their surfboards. On top of this, a flight full of Brazilian surfers were delayed and haven’t arrived in Durban on time. These factors saw contest organisers decide to put the event on hold until tomorrow.

The waves at New Pier are looking good right now, but the long term forecast is for the waves to improve steadily over the next few days with excellent surf predicted for the final day.

“Not an easy decision to make with the waves looking good right now,” said contest director Matt Wilson. “We have decided to show the surfers some compassion and give them a day to sort out their equipment, and for late flights to arrive. We’re talking about people’s careers here, so it’s the right thing to do.”

Local surfboard shapers arrived at the beach with arrays of locally-made boards for the competitors to borrow or to ride in their heats, and with the whereabouts of the competitors boards still unknown, many of them may well take advantage of this generosity.

The eight surfers who made it through from the Virgin Mobile Trials event held yesterday, and will be competing in the Main Event, are Stan Badger (Cape St Francis), Halley Batista (Brazil), Frankie Oberholzer (Warner Beach), Shane Thorne (Durban), Klee Strachan (Amanzimtoti), Lyle Bottcher (Durban), Hilton Lawrence (Durban) and Quintin Jones from Cape Town.