SURFING: Freestyle riders rule

Speed, power and explosive aerials on alternate boards were the order of the day when the Anything But 3 (AB3) surf contest rolled in to Ocean Beach, Whangarei Heads on Saturday.

The contest was the second in a series designed to encourage innovation and alternative design with the rule that you can ride any surfboard, as long as it is not a three-fin thruster.

Small waves were the forecast for Northland's east coast but Ocean Beach managed to provide an A-frame bank which maximised the swell throughout the day.

The event's supreme division, the open, was won by Aucklander Thomas Kibblewhite, who impressed throughout the day with snappy turns and clean lines drawn on his 5'6" Morris board he calls Black Beauty.

Kibblewhite, 28, is no stranger to winning surf contests and is currently New Zealand's two-times winning national longboard champion, Hyundai Longboard Tour champion and is placed fourth in the Australian ASP Longboard Qualifying Series.

"The contest was excellent and attracted a high calibre of surfing, with probably some of the top surfers in the country," he said. "I was a little bit surprised to win because my body was so broken by the end and I saw those young fellows just getting good waves and blowing their fins and I thought I was done."

Kibblewhite was pushed all the way by young Northland star Paco Divers, who impressed the crowds with explosive turns and aerials.

Paco had the title in his hands in the nail-biting final only to have it stripped off him by Kibblewhite by the narrowest of margins, just 0.64 points, after Kibblewhite locked in two aerials in a fast and impressive wave.

Another young Northland star Patxi Scott-Arrieta also impressed throwing his five-fin Tribal vertical throughout the day to finish fourth in the competition.

In the women's division, the local women worked hard to chase the title, with Ocean Beach's Lee Orton and Denise Piper finishing second and fourth respectively.

But Aucklander Shelley Jones took the win, the goofy-footer carving some impressive turns on a Morris 6'4" epoxy quad.

The juniors - a new division for AB3 - was hotly contested, with some of the best under-18 surfing talent in the country.

Fresh from competing in the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Panama, Northlander Paul Moretti took the title but was pushed by Scott-Arrieta brothers Manu and Patxi from Sandy Bay.

Manu, the younger brother and under-14 national champion, got the better of his older brother, finishing second in the division to Patxi's third. Ocean Beach local lad Flynn Hart finished fourth.

AB3 was conceived as a contest concept this year and is fast becoming a series.

The contest was also run with the help of Whangarei Heads Volunteer Surf Life Saving Club who provided the use of its clubrooms, and Classic Hits' Mike Plant as MC.