Surfing: Row brewing over NZ champs venue

A wave of opposition from surfers could wipe out plans for the national surfing championship to be held in Northland.

The successful bid to host the surfing nationals in Ahipara in January is polarising Far North surfers and may even threaten the viability of the event.

A public meeting has been organised on July 6 to discuss some of the issues that the bid has raised among surfers in the area -- with many not wanting the event in the Far North.

A spokesman for the successful bidders, the Northland Surfing Association's Mark Shanks, said he did not believe the meeting was likely to stop the nationals but, if there was enough opposition, he would have to consider canning the event.

"If there is enough reaction against it then we might have to back off. We know most of the guys who oppose it, of course, and we don't want any deep animosity to develop here," Shanks said.

One of the opposing group's spokesmen Dave Hudson said some surfers had "a different ideological outlook" than the association.

One of the main concerns was a lack of consultation over bringing the nationals to Ahipara.

"A small group of guys have gone ahead with this thing without consulting the broader surfing community, not to mention the wider community as a whole ... and as far as I know no iwi groups have been consulted," Hudson said.

Much of the antagonism against the event from the group's surfers followed the "fallout" after the last time the nationals were held in the area in 1998.

Hudson claimed the preferred venue, Shipwreck Bay, would not cope with the expected 500-600 people who would attend the event and the accompanying congestion.

At the last nationals Hudson said, rubbish was left behind on private land which incensed the landowners as well as the local surfers, who had to do a lot of work to do to "mend bridges".

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)