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The South Africans are slowly but surely starting to show face all over the place these days. Ricky Basnett wins the 6-star Mr Price Pro in Durban, Jordy Smith makes the semis of the Billabong WCT J-Bay, Davey Weare wins the 5-star Rip Curl Boardmasters in Newquay, John Whittle wins the Red Bull Big Wave Africa and Royden Bryson slips out to Japan, wins the 6-star Yumeya Tahara Pro in Japan and finds himself second on the WQS before he has even begun the mother lode that is the European WQS. Great times for the South African surfers and a whole nation of proud surfers standing up and applauding our fellow countrymen on. Without wishing to detract from the stellar performances from people like Greg Emslie, Paul Canning and Heather Clarke over the last few years, it’s been a while since we’ve had a real champ. Right now the future is looking so bright we’ve got to wear shades…

We got hold of Royden Bryson in France, chilling out and free-surfing after his victory, to see where he’s at and what he’s thinking.

SurferMag.com: Well done on your win ma bru. Most excellent result. You must be so stoked. How you feeling right now?

Royden: So happy, just want to do it all over again.

Second place on the WQS right now. You’re looking good for the year. Any particular plan for Europe?

I’m not going to change a thing. The pressure’s kind of off now, so just going to relax and surf.

As a collective do you see anything in particular behind the South African success rate at the moment? What are the boys doing to succeed?

We’re pushing each other hard. You see your friend win and you want to win too. Your friend qualifies and you want to qualify.

What was your thinking behind going all the way to Japan instead of Fistral?

It was purely the points bru. There’s obviously more points in a 6-star than a 5-star, and both waves are fairly average, so why not go the 6-star?

Fair enough, and good thinking. Nothing to fault there. What were the waves really like? Did you feel comfortable in them?