SURFING - Proctor shines in 1m swell

Gisborne's Daniel Proctor claimed back-to-back victories on the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour at the weekend, when he won the third of six events staged at Sandy Bay. Proctor recently claimed his first national championship at Piha and winning the event sees him jump to No1 in the ratings.
Swells of up to 1m rolled into the bay and conditions varied from excellent to messy throughout the day, with a lack of wind a blessing for organisers.
Proctor decided to get into action early in the final with his second wave tallying 8.25 points out of a possible 10, to anchor his 17.25-point heat total in the final. Wanting to increase the pressure on his opponents, Proctor followed that up with a 9-point ride to jump well clear of the other three finalists.
Late in the final another Gisborne surfer, Mike Burling, took two successive waves apart with an 8 and 8.75, elevating himself in to second place after trailing Auckland's Thomas Kibblewhite for much of the final. Kibblewhite held on to third with fellow Aucklander Phil Morris in fourth.
The women's final was always going to be a bit of a tussle with a few old scores to settle. Aucklanders Anna Jolly and Shelly Jones locked horns while Taranaki's Josephine Moore and Daisy Thomas looked for righthanders on the southern side of the contest zone.
It was a tight heat and the scores show that, with Jolly and Jones scoring 9.5 points each. Jolly won on a count-back after the two surfers were tied at the end of the final. Moore scored 7.9 points and Thomas scored 7.35 points to finish third and fourth respectively. The result has little bearing on the overall competition, with Thomas still well out in front.
The junior men's division final was also tightly contested with Mount Maunganui's Sam Guthrie scoring 13.6 points, Christchurch's Sam Hawke 13.3 points and Dunedin's Leroy Rust 12.5 points. A point separated first from third with Ohope's Hone Douglas only slightly behind scoring 11 in fourth.
The over-40 men's division was won by Whangamata's Lynden Kennings, with Auckland's Paul Hardy making the best of difficult conditions for the over-50 men's final to come out ahead of Hawke's Bay's Barry Watkins.
* Moretti misses national title by a sliver
Mimiwhangata surfer Paul Moretti missed out on his first under-14 national title by a mere 10th of a point at the second event of the Billabong Grom Series presented by Oceanbridge held at Whangamata over the weekend.
Moretti was pipped for the title in the final by Piha's Waretini Wano, who instead recorded his first win at national level in the division.
Inconsistent conditions for the final meant that the surfers had to fight for waves and after posting a 6.0 ride, Wano's second scoring ride only earned him 2.5 but that was enough to overtake Moretti by 0.10 of a point.
Moretti was more than capable of sealing the win but the opportunity never presented itself during the rest of the heat and - for the second Grom Series in a row - Moretti had to settle for second place.
Gisborne's Adam Grimson, the lone goofy foot surfer in the final, placed third and Taranaki surfer Sean Kettle repeated his result from last weekend, finishing fourth.
Almost as a consolation prize, Moretti does take over the overall ratings lead with just one event remaining and now has to hope to finish on top in the final event to make sure of a trip to Australia to compete in the Billabong Parko Grom Stomp later in the year. The winner of each of the age divisions, both male and female, will qualify for the trip.
Piha's Tane Wallis won the under-16 boys, while Whangamata local Grace Spiers backed up her win only one week ago in the under-16 girls to take a massive overall lead.
Another Whangamata surfer, Ella Williams, won the under-14 girls final, with Gisborne's Korbin Hutchings and Dayna Story winning the under-12 boys and girls finals respectively.
Sandy Bay's Manu Scott-Arrieta finished second in the under-12 boys final and now needs Hutchings to have a nightmare in the third and final Billabong Grom Series at Piha on February 28, if he is to win the trip across the Tasman.