Roxy Davis News Today

Athletes are required to cough up about R70,000 to compete in the World Para Surfing Championships in the US next month.

Unable to find funding to compete abroad, nearly half of the South Africa para surfing team has dropped out of the ISA World Para Surfing Championships.

It was the first time the event returned to Muizenberg since the inaugural SA Para Surf Championships in 2017 and was the first stop of the newly launched Global Para Surf League.

Surfing burst onto the Olympic calendar at the last Games in Tokyo in 2021 and will also feature when Paris hosts in 2024.

The contest not only saw the best of South Africa rise to the podium, but was also the first stop and the first-of-its-kind Para Surfing Continental Zone Championships.

The discipline has yet to make its Paralympic debut, but para surfers have high hopes this will happen at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.

Athletes kicked off the event in decent 2-3 foot waves that held for most of the day with a steady offshore wind.

Sitting on his wheelchair on a sandy Cape Town beach, Raemondo Lessing watches as fellow surfers ride the same waves he learnt his craft on.

Raemondo Lessing hopes to showcase his skills when sport makes Paralympic debut

Sitting on his wheelchair on a sandy Cape Town beach, Raemondo Lessing, 16, watches on as fellow surfers ride the same waves he learnt his craft on.