TSB Bank Women’s Surf Festival

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NZ National Surf Champs move

NZ National Surf Champs move from Raglan to Ruapuke

The National Scholastic Surfing Championships relocated 30 minutes south of Raglan to Ruapuke Beach today (Tuesday 21st April) for day two of the event. New Zealand’s top school girls entered the water for the first time looking to make the most of what was on offer.

While conditions were near flat at Manu Bay, Ruapuke offered up clean 1.0m waves all day with unexpected light winds which made conditions highly contestable.

Defending Under 18 Girls Champion India Wray – Murane (Wai) got her campaign off to a great start winning her first round match up against Hayley Baxter (Cant), Tessa Randrup (Wai) and Hannah Morely (HBay). Wray – Murane posted a 9.0 point total heat score to move through to the semifinals alongside Baxter in second place.

Wray – Murane helped the Waikato team to victory in 2008 where her team won three individual titles. Being on home soil the New Zealand representative will want to emulate the success of 2008 for both herself and her team which includes three serious title contenders including herself and the Poulter brother sister combination Ben and Alexis.

Alexis Poulter posted the day’s highest heat score 14.25 out of a possible 20. Poulter bucked the trend of low scoring match ups with a 7.25 and a 7.0 point ride in her heat to move through to the semifinals. Like Wray – Murane, Poulter has recently returned from competing at the 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships. Both surfers placed 25th at the event.

Other girls to impress and move through their heats included Nicola Colson – Koster (Auck) and Anna Hawes (W.C) in the Under 18 Girls Division and Grace Spiers (WGM) and Rosa Thompson (Auck) in the Under 16 Girls Division.

Thompson continued Auckland’s great run of results today with a number of their team progressing through heats. The team has only lost one surfer to the requalifying rounds. They surfed to success in the Under 18 Girls with Nicola Colson – Koster and also the Under 14 Girls with Hannah Kohn and the Under 18 Longboard Division with Dylan Pidgeon.

The Bay of Plenty team, a front runner after day one of the event, also suffered defeats with two of their girls moving into the requalifying rounds. However it was the strength of their longboard surfers that saw them through the latter part of the day with Sam Guthrie and Rick Williamson both moving through to the semifinals of the division. Guthrie was particularly impressive scoring the highest heat score of the round – 11.10 out of a possible 20 points.

Canterbury surfer Luke O’Neill won his heat in the Longboard Division as well. The talented young surfer was among a number of his team mates that pushed through their heats today. They included Alethea Lock, Sam Courtney and Billy Harmon.

The Gisborne team fought back on day two with some impressive performances by Jayda Martin – Fitzharris in the Under 14 Girls, Adam Cranston in the requalifying round of the Under 18 Boys and Abigail Daunton in the Under 16 Girls Division. However Cranston fell late in the day to Sean Parker (Tara) and Todd Hale (Nrth) and is now out of the event.

The small team from the West Coast had success on day two with Anna Hawes moving through to the semifinals of the Under 18 Girls Division. Jai Forsyth also impressed in the Under 16 Boys requalifying rounds posting the events highest single wave score to date – 9.0 out of a possible 10 points. Forsyth now moves through to the second round of the event which will be contested on Wednesday.

Only three teams remain with the full complement of surfers – Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. All other teams have had surfers eliminated from the event. Surf conditions are expected to improve for the third day of the event (Wednesday 22nd April) with an increase in size and light offshore winds. A call on the location for day three and order of events will be made at 7.00am each morning.

Rip Curl’s Tyler Wright wins ISA World Junior Under 16s

Team News

6 April, 2009 : – - Under 18 Girls Final, Australian and Rip Curl Team rider Tyler Wright was up against 2008 ISA World Junior gold medalist Australian teammate Laura Enever, USA surfer Courtney Conlogue and Hawaiian Alessa Quizon. After charging through the main rounds through all eight days, Wright came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, posting the first big score of the final and holding on to first for the entire 30 minutes.

USA surfer Courtney Conlogue kept right on Wright’s heels, also posting big scores, but in the end was left needing almost nine points to overtake Wright. Coming in from the water on the shoulders of Australian teammates and wrapped in the Aussie flag, Wright poured water over herself to cool down from an exhausting and intense final.

“This is so awesome” said Wright. “Every heat this year in Ecuador has been a hard. There are so many good competitors here from around the world. I knew I had to just focus on my own game out there in the water and not worry about the others. We hit rock bottom the other day and it didn’t look as though we would be in the medal rounds, but we pulled together as a team. The support we’ve given each other has been amazing”.

On the French side, Justine Dupont finished in 1/4 final, Cannelle Bulard and Marie Dejean in 1/8 heats. A good performance for our Rip Curl Team.

Quinn Blazes To Win – Snatches Corona Crown Series

Gisborne’s Maz Quinn left his best performance of the competitive season until the final event of the year to find himself back in familiar territory at the top of the country’s best surfers after winning the Corona Super 16 today (Saturday 4th April) at South Piha, Auckland.

Piha produced some of the best conditions of the year today with the finals being played out in perfect waves in excess of 1.0m fanned by light offshore winds. The surfers relished the chance to compete in the ideal conditions with Quinn in particular in devastating form scoring a perfect ten point ride in the final.

“When you start with a good wave like that it takes away all the pressure” said Quinn. “When that wave popped up, I grabbed it and it just walled up nicely. You couldn’t asked for anything more”.

Quinn’s wave comprised several huge backhand vertical reos and a closeout floater to finish the wave which had the beach crowd instantly muttering ten’s all round.

Quinn’s ten point ride was combined with an 8.25 for an 18.20 point heat total to absolutely dominate the final.

The win was the first of the season for Quinn who has been searching for the form that has seen him regarded by everyone as the best surfer New Zealand has ever produced. The win elevated Quinn from fourth to first on the Corona Crown Series to defend his title he took out for the first time in 2008.

“I was pretty happy to come from behind and win the series” said Quinn. “I came into the comp not knowing that I could win the Corona Crown Series so to win the comp today and take it out makes it that much better”.

“I just wanted to go out and surf the best I could. I only found out that I won the series when I came in from the final”.

Quinn’s performance in the final went largely uncontested despite the other three finalists scoring highly. Raglan’s Luke Hughes turned his exceptional summer form into a career best result placing second in the final.

Hughes has been one of the stand out surfers of the summer and today he only came up one place short of his maiden victory due to the rampaging Quinn after himself scoring 15.0 in the final after only riding two waves.

Hughes’ result elevated him to seventh on the Corona Crown Series ratings – his highest ever finish.

Placing third was Tairua surfer Sean Peggs – the sole goofy foot surfer in the final. Peggs had earlier snuck into the final after a late charge in his semifinal. Peggs completed some huge turns in the final to post scores of 7.60 and 7.25.

Placing fourth was the youngest of the Quinn’s, Jay, who travelled back from his base on the Gold Coast of Australia to compete at the event this weekend. Quinn found himself searching for waves in the final and what came to his older brother did not come to him as he finished with a 13.35 point total which included an 8.0 point ride

Local Piha surfer Mischa Davis defended her Corona Super 16 title in the final of the Women’s Division.
The head to head final with Jessica Santorik was a cracker with Santorik taking the lead before Davis hit back with a 9.0 point ride. Santorik again took the lead after scoring a 7.90 point ride late in the final.

The last five minutes of the 25 minute final entailed a massive paddle battle between the two girls with Santorik all but stitching up Davis. With 30 seconds to go Santorik let her guard down, caught a wave and left Davis out the back with one last chance. She obliged riding a wave to the beach to score 7.35 to beat Santorik by 0.45 points.

“It was a bit nerve wracking but Jess got that wave at the end and left the door open for me. I was so lucky I got that one and it was a good one and I rode it all the way in”

Davis’ win elevated her from fourth to second on the Corona Crown Series ratings behind Santorik who she beat today.

“I won the series last year but I haven’t done as good this year, this is the first event I have won so it is good to finish on a high”.

Santorik went into the event with an unassailable lead on the Corona Crown Series but would have liked to finish the competitive season on a high. It was not to be as she finished with a 15.90 point heat total behind Davis’ 16.35.

Placing third and fourth in the Open Women’s Division were Mount Maunganui’s Laura Rishworth and Ella Williams of Whangamata.

The North Island surfing team retained their trophy in the North Vs South Challenge outing the South Island 67.75 to 47.75. The team comprising Blair Stewart (Gis), Tim O’Connor (Mnt), Gauranga Ormond (WGM), Sean Peggs (Tairua) and Jessica Santorik (Rag) were too good for the South Island Team comprising Tony Schafer (Cant), Hayden Brain (Cant), Sam Dunfoy (Kaik), Ben Bennett (Ota) and Leilani Morgan (Cant).

Point Boardriders of Raglan also retained the Inter Club Championship scoring 68.65 beating Gisborne Boardriders (60.0), Whangamata Boardriders (58.75) and Keyhole Boardriders 35.10) who finished second through fourth. The Raglan team included Leon Santorik, Luke Hughes, Luke Cederman, Billy Stairmand and Jessica Santorik.

The Corona Super 16 is the sixth and final event of the season. The Corona Super 16 sees the top 16 male surfers and the top 4 female surfers battle it out for final season honours. The main event is combined with the North vs South Challenge and the Inter Club Championship.

Please see below for final results from the Corona Super 16 held at Piha Beach, Auckland today (Saturday 4th April).

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Blogboard Update: Rowan Aish

Eye of the Storm

Monday 30 March 2009

It 7:30am and I’m crammed into the Virgin Blue Boeing 737. Overlooking the $9 sandwich food cart, ‘pay to view’ sports channel, ‘mature’ engine rattle coupled with dry smiles from equally dated air hostesses, the dream is alive.

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