Bianca Buitendag was born November 9, 1993 in Victoria Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. She grew up near a beach of False Bay outside of Cape Town. With her father’s encouragement she learned to surf at the age of 8 with her two brothers. When she was 12 her family moved to the Southern Cape region of South Africa, which is renowned for its world class surf breaks. Bianca only spoke Afrikaan. She actually couldn’t speak a word of English when she first went to school. Her parents decided to put her in an English school, which she had hated, but was very grateful she did learn it.
The talented South African made her first international mark in 2011 by being crowned the Billabong ASP World Junior Champion. That following year she was competing full-time on the WQS tour.
In 2013 when women’s surfing saw a boom of talented surfers, like Carissa Moore, Coco Ho and Laura Enever, the then 19 year old Bianca, qualified for the ASP World Tour and won the highly acclaimed ‘Rookie of the Year’ Award at the ASP ceremony. She had an incredible year by finishing No. 8 overall. “A lot has changed since I won the event in Narrabeen,” Buitendag said. “At that point in my life I was in the process of deciding what I wanted to do after school. So after that event, a lot of doors have opened for me and the question was answered of what I wanted to do. Now I am here again just over two years later and I would never have imagined making it this far.”
Bianca Buitendag Photo Gallery
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When asked about the highs and lows she experienced in 2013, Bianca shares, “The thing I learned the most doesn’t really have much to do with surfing. I learned that you have to know who you are. You can’t see yourself from a performance point of view. Your results can’t define your identity. I think I got sucked into that quite a bit, and that’s where the lows started to follow. We are loved no matter what happens, no matter what we achieve or don’t.”
Being a pro surfer from South Africa comes with its challenges. The South African culture mainly focuses on developing sports such as rugby and soccer. Since surfing is such a small industry in Buitendag’s home country, she had to travel to Australia to gain her contest experience and become more involved in the surf culture there.
Bianca, one of the tallest on the women’s surf tour, is known for her aggressive backhand attack which helped her begin the 2014 season with winning a 2nd at the Roxy Pro Gold Coast event. Also being one of just two goofy riders in the Top 17 WSL (the other is Kiwi Paige Hareb), Buitendag grew up surfing backside at Victoria Bay point breaks, near Cape Town, which helps give her an advantage on right-hander waves.
Sadly, in 2015 Bianca’s well loved and respected father, Collin Buitendag, passed away. He was only 54 years old. With the loss of her father she was still able to finish at her career-best at World No. 4. Bianca shares with how she dealt with losing her father, “I don’t think you deal with what happens. I think it deals with you. I don’t think you necessarily ever overcome a tragedy. I think it changes a lot of your youth, a lot of how you see the world, a lot of what you depend on. You become less selfish. It changes you but you never overcome it.” Later that year at the Maui Pro event, Bianca fell short by a mere three-100ths of a point in the quarter-finals However, her 5th place boosted her two places in the World Surf League rankings to a career-high fourth in the world. It also made her the most successful South African professional surfer – male or female – of the past 18 months, and she did it all despite mourning the untimely death of her father, Colin, who had taught her to surf as a child and who was one of her staunchest supporters.
Anyone coping with a tragedy of the loss of a loved one, no one would have questioned her if she had taken a few months off and escaped the pressures of competing to be able to work through her grief. Instead, Bianca carried on and not only survived, but thrived. In a sense, surfing and competing was her way of coping.
Surfing Career
Highlights
2018 3rd Corona J Bay – Africa
2017 17th WSL Ranking
2016 12th WSL Ranking
2015 4th WSL Ranking
2015 2nd Swatch Women’s Pro – California
2015 3rd Van’s US Open of Surfing – California
2015 2nd Fiji Women’s Pro – Fiji
2015 2nd IO Rio Women’s Pro – Brazil
2014 7th WSL Ranking
2014 3rd Target Women’s Maui Pro – Hawaii
2014 2nd Roxy Pro Gold Coast – Australia
2013 8th WSL Ranking
2013 3rd Colgate Plax Girl’s Rio Pro – Brazil
Height: 6’1”
Surfboard Shaper: Channel Islands – Al Merrick
Bianca Buitendag’s Sponsors
Roxy | Channel Islands Surfboards | Moskova Underwear