SOMETIMES surfers have to submit to the power of Mother Nature and Hawke's Bay's Bronson Primmer did at the weekend.
However the 32-year-old father of three still did the best of the Hawke's Bay starters in the third annual Backdoor BayBash which began at Waimarama on Saturday and finished at Te Awanga yesterday. After finishing second in his heat Primmer was eliminated with a fourth placing in his quaterfinal.
It was the second consecutive year Primmer, a Havelock North premier club rugby player, had done the best of the Bay surfers in the open men's division. Last year he reached the semifinals.
"Things started off alright on Saturday when my heat was staged in a one-metre swell at low tide. Then that cold weather came in and messed up the swell. It was hard to contend with ... mother nature won," Primmer said.
He was impressed with the calibre in the men's open division and he intends to compete again next year.