Duke Festival of Surfing
22-24 March 2024
From: South Island Surfing Association
Contestants, Parents, Supporters and crew were greeted with a solid 1.5 metre east swell for The 8th annual pilgrimage to New Brighton Pier for the running of the Duke festival of surfing.
With a large contingent of 100 Junior surfers arriving this morning to be challenged by the eye watering solid conditions, this wasn’t going to be any walk in the park and definitely not for the faint hearted.
In the Under 16 Boys Alexis Owen relished the conditions with solid performances in his first two rounds progressing to the Semi-finals along with good performances from Sam Frazerhurst, Jack Higgins, Travis Henderson and Keo Morrison
Next up were the U18 Girls with good surfing and handling the conditions well were Poppy Entwisle, Tessa Gabbot, Rewa Morrison and Kyra Wallis all comfortably progressing to the Semi’s.
The U18 Boys were next out with Will Hardie and Jack Tyro putting up some solid heat scores to comfortably progress with Rakiatea Tau, Keo Morrison, Sev Tolhurst and Alexis Owen into the semi’s.
Jesse Frazerhurst in the U14 boys put the others on notice with a 12.83 heat score to progress with Flint Sherborne-France, Levi Devine-Collins, Thomas Owen and Kobe Coleman into the Semi’s.
The Stand out single highest wave of the day was found in the U16 Girls when Kyra Wallis absolutely destroyed a solid set wave earning an 8.83 and backing it up with a 6.17 to comfortably progress with Poppy Entwisle, Keke Brain, Amelie Clark and Pipiata Ritchie to the Semi’s
With a large contingent of U12’s it was like hearding cats with parents, caregivers and crew all trying to keep the keen groms froth factor in check. It was an amazing performance by Jordy Elder that put him on top with a solid first round 12.50 heat score to put the others on notice. Progressing through the rounds with him to the semi’s were Thomas Owen, Benji Cole, Austin Elliott, Jet Townsand and Jaxon Cumming.
Sometimes we leave the best until last and this was the case in the U12 Girls and it was pocket rocket Zara Owen who paddled straight out the back to take on anything that came her way. She showed total commitment and control throughout the heat to earn a 13.66 heat score and leaving the rest of the field requiring a combination. Zara progressed to the Semi’s with Rylee Hazeldine, Isabel Pavey, Mereana Read, Isla Carter and Layla Duke.
Under 18 Boys
1 Alexis Owen
2 Will Hardie
3 Jack Tyro
4 Rakiatea Tau
Under 18 Girls
1 Poppy Entwisle
2 Rewa Morrison
3 Tessa Gabbott
4 Sari Ayson
Open Mens Longboard
1 Hugh Ritchie
2 Jack Tyro
3 Zen Wallis
4 Will Jamieson
Open Womens Longboard
1 Ava Henderson
2 Estella Hungerford
3 Donna Henderson
4 Remy Rose Bagares
All results from the event can be found here https://liveheats.com/events/213491
