Tough and choppy two to three metre surf made the masters board races a challenge but most competitors handled it well. Photo / Jamie Troughton / Dscribe Media.
Tough and choppy two to three metre surf made the masters board races a challenge but most competitors handled it well. Photo / Jamie Troughton / Dscribe Media.
Big waves, strong winds and a shift of venue brought out the best in athletes on a challenging opening day of the Aon New Zealand Surf Lifesaving Championships in Gisborne.
Heavy southerly seas forced organisers to shift events from Midway Beach to Waikanae Beach on Thursday.
But those in the masters and club championship surf races still battled powerful and big waves.
As forecast, the swell was messy and testing, and the cooler temperature added to the challenge.
Ocean racing was shifted to Waikanae in the morning for several hours, and competition in the beach arena at Stanley Rd started later.
“We knew we would be facing a complex task, given the predicted conditions,” Surf Life Saving NZ national events manager Matt Cairns said on Thursday.
“However, even with up to three-metre swells and 30 km/h winds, our officials and water safety teams were able to provide challenging but safe racing that brought out the best in the competing lifeguards.
“We are extremely happy that we have been able to get the championships under way and look forward to the next three days of competition.”
The swell size was predicted to drop for Friday and into the weekend.
Gold Coast-based Cory Taylor, who returns home to Gisborne to race for Midway at the nationals, was third in the open men's surf race final. Photo / Jamie Troughton-Dscribe Media
Surf races were conducted at Waikanae in the club championships and there was some great competition.
A highlight was the open men’s surf race in which Dawson Building Midway’s Cory Taylor claimed a bronze medal.
New Zealand Black Fins captain Taylor is based on the Gold Coast but always returns home to wear the Midway cap at the nationals.
In his surf race final, Taylor was part of a ding-dong battle between Gus Shivnan (Omanu), who won the race, Zac Reid (Fitzroy), who was second, and Australia-based ironman Joe Collins (Fitzroy), who was fourth.
Midway teenager Tyron Evans produced a great swim to take silver in the Under-19 men’s surf race final, with clubmate Yahni Brown eighth.
Midway’s Sophie Petro was fifth in the U19 women’s surf race while clubmate Ella Sutton was ninth in the U17 women’s division.
The points table for the Allan Gardner Memorial Trophy for club supremacy started with the surf races.
At the end of the surf races, Bay of Plenty’s Omanu club were leading on 44 points, with East End (Taranaki) second on 32 and Midway third on 11.
Midway head coach Jack Gavin said his squad was looking forward to an interesting few days and was “prepared for anything to come”.
“It’s great to have Cory (Taylor) back with us for the nationals from the Gold Coast - back around our young athletes. They always love having him around.
“I’m not going to single anyone else out for Midway this weekend. We have strong medal hopes across nearly every event,” Gavin said.
Kaiaponi Farms Waikanae have their beach superstars Briana Irving, Oska Smith and Seven Mapu in action across the weekend and medal success for them is on the cards.
Christy Tate will be a contender in the women’s ski.
Riversun Wainui’s standouts will likely be the Fukushima-Hall brothers - Mako and Rori - in their respective age divisions, and the club has a strong open women’s canoe team.
Masters women head for the ocean in a surf race. Photo / Jamie Troughton-Dscribe Media
Thursday’s masters events generated some great racing and with plenty of events to come in the rejigged programme, Omanu marched out to 249 points, followed by Midway 122 and Wainui 111. Waikanae was sitting 21st on 12 points.
A who's who of former champions slipped their club caps back on for the masters events, including 1984 Olympic Games kayaking gold medallist and Waikanae great Grant Bramwell.Photo / Jamie Troughton / Dscribe Media
Highlights for Midway included Emily Willock’s win in the board, a surf teams' race victory to Alan Thorpe, Shaun Pahina and Rhys Farrell, and Kay Twigley winning her beach sprint age group.
Midway athletes picked up a stack of second and thirds, notably Thorpe’s second in the surf race in his age group.
Wainui’s effort included wins to Mike King in the beach sprint and beach flags. The club was runner-up in men’s and women’s surf teams' races; Leigh Sheldrake won her age group in the surf race and had seconds in beach events; and Robbie Hooper was another standout.
Waikanae’s success included a beach sprint third placing to Emily Gillies.
