KEY POINTS:
New Zealand surfer Jay Quinn says a "Kiwi attitude" is holding back the nation's best surfers from competing with the world's top professionals.
"Right now there's not a single New Zealand surfer with the focus to qualify for the ASP World Tour top 44," he has told Australia's Waves magazine.
"I would say there are at least four guys who have the ability to qualify but the Kiwi mentality is holding them back."
Quinn recently eliminated Bobby Hansen, New Zealand's highest-ranked surfer, from the recent Scottish ASP event: Quinn finished ninth, and Hansen made his best finish of the year at 13th.
Hansen finished the 2007 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) world qualifying series in 79th place, 12 places better than last year, after overtaking Jay Quinn's older brother Maz, who ranked 90th. Maz Quinn has been the top-ranked New Zealander for the past decade and Jay Quinn is ranked 142nd.
Jay Quinn, who will compete at Gisborne on December 20 and Mt Maunganui on December 22, told the magazine New Zealand surfers need a major attitude overhaul.
"The only guy out there taking it seriously is my brother (Maz) and he's coming to a point in his career where he's looking for new challenges from surfing. Once he's gone there's nobody," said Quinn, who admitted his own performance this year was "an absolute shocker".
His comments will be published in the February issue of the magazine.
Quinn quit NZ for Australia in 2000 after winning the 1999 under-16 and under-18 National Titles, and fourth in the Open final.
In 2001 he became the nation's first world surfing champion, taking out the Under-18 Quiksilver World Grommet Titles at Mona Vale Beach in Sydney.
He was expected to follow in the footsteps of brother Maz, and become only the second Kiwi in history to qualify for the elite Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour, but four years later has so far failed to manage it.
His ninth place at the Six Star Prime contest in Scotland was the best individual international finish by an NZ surfer.
- NZPA
