It's all on for serious surfers

Northland surfers will line up against New Zealand's best at the 2011 Hyundai National Surfing Championships, which get under way today at Dunedin's St Clair Beach.
Joe and Paul Moretti, of Mimiwhangata, are using the second event of the SOL Surf Series as an opportunity to shine in front of selectors as they vie for spots on the travelling team to the 2011 Quiksilver ISA World Surfing Championships in Peru that will be named in March. Both brothers will contest the Open and Junior divisions, while Paul will also surf in the Under-16 category.
Sandy Bay's Manu Scott-Arrieta is competing in the Under-14 and Under-16 boys divisions, while his elder brother, Patxi, is in the competitive Open Mens and Under-18 classes.
Mangawhai's Isaac Johnstone will take on the Longboard division, while Louis Smith will go head to head with the Juniors.
The four-day event features 23 divisions and doubles as the second of five events on the 2011 Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour.
For the first time, three Kiwi surfers are inside the top 100 on the Association of Surfing Professionals rankings, all of whom will be competing this weekend. Mahia's Richard Christie is the highest at 65th, with Raglan's Billy Stairmand in 67th and Gisborne's Jay Quinn in 98th.
All three surfers also have one national title each, Stairmand is the defending national champion after winning the event in April 2010. Quinn won his title in 2008 on home turf. Christie was the first of the three to win the title back in 2005 at Opunake.
The nationals is the most prestigious domestic surfing event in NZ and, despite Christie spending most of his time overseas in 2010, he is still keen to try for title number two in Dunedin.
Stairmand does not have the same affinity with Dunedin having visited only once.
The two surfers, along with Quinn, have clocked up some serious miles during the past 12 months. The hardened approach to surfing heats and the company they have surfed with throughout the year will give them a big advantage during the event. It will be one of a few domestic events on the SOL Series that they will use in the build towards their international campaigns.
In the Women's Division, Gisborne's Airini Mason makes a comeback to the nationals after spending the best part of the past six years competing overseas. Mason won the nationals in 2004 as a sprightly young 13-year-old, rewriting the history books as the youngest winner of an open division at the event. Mason's talented surfing family, including younger sister Sarah, recently moved back to New Zealand after residing in Australia.