Teen wins Queen in epic showdown

Joe Palmer won the 21st Northern Queen Motel Surfing Championship Trophy in light to moderate sized left-handers at Ahipara on Sunday and received a brand new Weber surfboard for his efforts.

Palmer only needed to qualify for the final - eventually held in 2' lefts over an incoming tide - where, in coming up against three former winners in Luke Broughton (who eventually finished the day 4th overall), Daniel Bird (3rd), and Liam Morrogh (1st), he was guaranteed the prestigious cup. Despite being the youngest of the eight semi-finalists, Palmer was by far the most seasoned competitor, having just returned from Piha where he helped the Northland team achieve a best ever 4th placing at the national scholastic surfing champs earlier this month.

The 17-year-old Kerikeri High School student certainly offered a precise and well executed bag of tricks - fluid roundhouse cutbacks, floaters, top turns - combined with impeccable timing and solid wave selection. And while some were still heard muttering doubts over his local pedigree and right of entitlement (see below) in the caves behind the carpark, contest director Mark Tan answered any critics by simply pointing out the address on the entry form: "Cooper's Beach".

A total of 35 competitors made this the biggest Queen in the history of the contest, with the event's true grassroots nature defined by the $5 entry fee. That the competition was devised to sort out the best local surfer - the term 'local' defined as those living north of a line bisecting the province from Taupo Bay to Opononi - was evident with the presence of five former winners in the semi-finals. (It should be noted that Jim Berghan made it a stipulation of the contest that no one could ever win the Queen twice when he founded the event in the early 80s.)

Ahipara's Liam Morrogh was the overall winner, repeatedly picking off the set waves and sticking big turns to prove he had lost none of his local nous - having only recently returned from a European sojourn over the past couple of years in which he scored epic Supertubes in Portugal, currently the site of the penultimate event of the ASP World Tour, the Rip Curl Pro - to take out the Far North Roading Open division and the Mike Tepania Memorial ($100) in the process.

Also notable on the podium was veteran sea salt, Gary 'Mack' McMeekin, who pretty much stole the show as he grinned his way into the semi-finals, securing the Remember the Days trophy as the O45 division competitor to advance furthest in the open. A popular result, adding to the prestige of being the fledging winner of the Queen when the Far North-only surfing competition was first established more than three decades ago.

The day's best surfing went down in the semi-finals with highlights including Broughton pulling off two 360s on one wave, Ethan Kinnear - who flew in from Australia to contest the event - unleashing a huge backhand reo in front of the judges' stand which drew loud hoots from spectators, Bird as unpredictable as ever, and Ronnie Berghan simply surfing faster than everyone else put together, while Rory Mullins would have been disappointed the lack of true power prevented him from attacking the lip.

Event organiser Mark Tan eventually decided to push the event out to Sunday which proved to be good call, capitalising on a remarkable pattern of swell which has left west coast surfers spoiled for choice over the past month. The contest site was set up on the natural amphitheatre/ carpark on the rocks of Te Kohanga aka Shipwreck Bay in front of highly contestable 1-3 foot waves which ran through all day in light onshores. Not exactly perfect with the break far from its best, but the odd genuinely decent wave did rear up occasionally during the day.

The prizegiving was held aboout 2pm, where Benji Tepania spoke on behalf of the whanau of the late Mike Tepania and encouraged the local surfers to go further and represent the province, particularly at junior levels. On behalf of the organisers, Tan paid tribute to co-organiser Paul Hansen and acknowledged all the sponsors and the volunteers who pitched in, noting that the swift response to the sounder he put out for various bits and pieces needed to hold the contest was more than adequate proof of the close-knit nature of the west coast surfing village.

At the end of the day, Tan announced he would have to call it quits, having run the Queen for the past three years, but the event's future seems secure with the organisational reins being handed over to Pete Mitchell.