The sounds on loud and windows down on the iinami mobile as I cruzed along and as the sun streamed in the car I was looking forward to this weekend of work at the comp.
The last few weeks had been a bit hard going and I was really lookin forward to surfing alot, drinking alot less and hanging out with some mates. And surfing ALOT!
Swell reports had forecast a big low pressure of swell for the weekend and even offshores for the sunday so I was keen as to get my wave quota up this weekend.
I checked out the Whanga Bar as soon as I hit town and was a bit miffed as it looked to only be 1ft but looking down the beach I could see fun looking peaks unloading and peeling across the sand banks.
Not even bothering to check it once I pulled up down the beach, I threw my boardies on, grabbed my trusty 6'3" and hit the warm water and enjoyed the fun 2-3ft peaks for the next three hours until my hunger and thirst for fish n chips and a cold ale brought me back to shore. Stoked!
The crazy orange coloured Moon that rose that nite was an ominous sign and sure enough by first light sat morn we had plenty of swell hitting the beach. The only bummer being that we also had plenty of crossshore wind too. Still, we had swell, and solid surf so it was game on! Two podiums were running on the saturday due to the large number of surfers in the draw. This is not usually the case but as this was a two day event that had both the Hyundai Pro Longboard event and National Titles combined it was a huge draw of surfers that wanted to put their skills on show in the hope of taking home the title.
I was Head Judging Podium Two so we had a full day of events. The Juniors, Womens, SUP's, Over 40's and Over 50's divisions were contested in large,stormy surf.
The women were probably the standouts of the day considering the heavy conditions but it was awesome to watch everyone rise to the challenge and take on the heaving waves on their mals.
Lots of surfers got a bit lost at sea, chasing elusive set waves that never materialized and were then left to dodge the bombs as they chased the mid-sized peelers that offered up the better scoring potential on the inside banks.The SUP's definetly entertained the crowds of onlookers too, some huge set waves caught and some even bigger wipe-outs handed out.
After a long day in the sun and wind, and judging lots of the early rounds of all the divisions, my panel of judges and I were pretty happy to call it a day, and with a few Export Golds on offer at The Whanga Bar and Cafe courtesy of Export Gold and Surfing NZ I flagged a surf in the onshore conditions and headed into town to enjoy a cruzy nite of hospitality. A few of the surf crew who had been knocked out in the early rounds proceeded to make a nite of it and the place had a good vibe all nite long, mint sounds and the drinks flowing. A few of us settled in at the outdoor tables and it was a cruzy nite for us as we knew we still had a full day of work to go, and I really wanted a sunday morning dawnie so I was super keen not to get on the lash too much.
Sunday morn I was up early and scabed a ride down with Sarah, the Canadian kite-surfer. It was classic because I wanted offshores and she was hoping the onshore was still blowing a gale. When we hit the beach I couldn't believe it, it was bigger, offshore and no-one was out! Gutted she headed home to sleep. Stoked, I grabbed my board and headed out. I shared the line-up with only 1 other person,
Owen Barnes. This guy is a talented surfer, shortboard, longboard, he rips on both. It was really lully out the back, I watched Owen pick off a few while I spent way too long looking for that "magic" wave, but had just started to paddle in a bit when I saw a set approaching and managed to score a bomb all the way to the beach. Mint! The best way to start your day..
Above:
Ant McColl and Charlie Brown
We were back to judging from just the one podium for the second and final day of the event and it was a full day of quarters, semis and finals action!
A mate of mine, Damon Mark, had decided to head down from Port Waikato and enter the SUP division and after gettin thru a few heats got lost at sea in his quarter final and was knocked out.
Its cool to see guys like this get into the fray thou and even if he isn't a "competitive" surfer, the guy rips and its choice to see him get involved and mix it up with the "pros" and even trump a few of them along the way. Good effort bro!
The surf was lully but when the sets rolled in they were still solid and this definetly caught a fair few surfers out thru-out the day. DK caught a good scoring wave in his SUP heat and then fought against the tide and waves for the rest of the heat only to run out of time, gutted. happens to the best of us..
After a bit of a slow morning the surfers progressing started to fire up and standouts included:
Ant McColl was surfing strong again, his season this year prob his best to date, he nailed an 8.25 in his quarter final heat to get thru to semis.
Brian Young in the Over 40's stood out all weekend, he was ripping on his Mal. He locked in a 9 point ride in his semis heat and went onto win the Final!
Charlie Brown surfed well over the entire event and was a dual finalist, falling with fatigue in the Open mens final, but taking the Junior National Title with his strong powerful turns in the sizey surf.
Lynden Kennings was in just about every final I think, the guy must have surfed 20 heats or more over the weekend and he claimed victory in the SUP division.
Standout Womens surfer of the weekend and entire tour to date, Daisy Thomas, was once again in form and took the National crown honours in the finals with ease. She even comboed the 3rd and 4th place surfers, and Mischa Davis who was second, still needed a 9.51 to even get near her.
The Open Mens final was awe-inspiring, with the crowd being given a lesson in both formats of the criteria with new-school power surfing and some amazing traditional nose-riding being displayed.
It became a bit of a two horse race between Thomas Kibblewhite (TK) and Dylan Barnfield with both surfers scoring excellent scores in the final. TK's heat total of 17.0 normally would have shut the gate on any opponent in any other final but the weekend and National title belonged to Dylan with his stylish mix of traditional surfing and solid turns, and with a near perfect score of 18.40 out of a possible 20.0 points he walked away as the Open Mens Champ and solidified his lead on the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour. Nice work champ!
Above: Dylan the champ
Needless to say as I threw my bag and board into the iinami mobile, the boys were headed back to TK's pad to savour the ales and enjoy a nite of celebrations and carnage, but thats another story for another time ah lads..
Sea ya soon,
Gav "iinami" Bisman.
NB. Thanks to Odyssey 20/20 for the eye hiders and Quiksilver for the body covers, chur.
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