Wendy Botha, South Africa’s world champion surfer is born

Wendy Botha was born in East London on 28 August 1965.[i] She began surfing at the age of 13, and won four consecutive South African National Championships between 1981 and 1984.[ii] Botha became a professional surfer and ended the 1985 World Championship Tour as being ranked seventh in the world.[iii] Botha is one of the world’s best and most successful surfers, the South African is a four times world champion.[iv] As an amateur surfer she claimed three South African titles before becoming professional in 1982.[v] She was crowned world champion in the years 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1992, though she represented Australia that year.[vi] In 1989, she won seven major tournaments and had 24 career victories.[vii] Botha was voted the women’s division winner in the annual Surfer Poll awards in 1990, 1991 and 1993.[viii] In 2009, Wendy Botha was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame at Huntington Beach, California.[ix] End Notes [i] Neu, J. & Servais, T. 2017. Botha, Wendy, http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/botha-wendy (26 May 2017). ↵ [ii] Neu, J. & Servais, T. 2017. Botha, Wendy, http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/botha-wendy (26 May 2017). ↵ [iii] Neu, J. & Servais, T. 2017. Botha, Wendy, http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/botha-wendy  (26 May 2017). ↵ [iv] David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 237. ↵ [v] David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 237. ↵ [vi] David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 237. ↵ [vii] David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 237. ↵ [viii] Neu, J. & Servais, T. 2017. Botha, Wendy, http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/botha-wendy  (26 May 2017). ↵ [ix] Neu, J. & Servais, T. 2017. Botha, Wendy, http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/botha-wendy (26 May 2017). ↵