A big day of surfing lies ahead for New Zealand’s top young surfers as the 2022 National Scholastic Surfing Championships heads into the final day of action in Taranaki tomorrow (Friday 14th October).
Aotearoa’s top young surfers were spoilt again today with solid surf in the 1.5m range at Stent Road. The offshore winds made for some challenging conditions at times with participants going for broke to make it into the final day of surfing.
The two horse race that eventuated on Day 3 has expanded to include the top six teams as results went the way of the teams chasing front runners Canterbury and Bay of Plenty.
Auckland, Coromandel, Taranaki and Northland have all joined the race for the title with 1,500 points separating first from sixth. Just which team will amass enough points to lift the shield will come down to who can win the most titles. If results go the way of the lower teams, they could push for the podium and the top spot.
Northland joined the race thanks to a late push by Cohen Graham in the Under 14 Boys Division with the young surfer advancing to his first national final. Coromandel did the same with two surfers in the same division, Harrison Biddle and Beau Fitzgibbons also advancing to their first ever final. Coromandel also had their Under 14 Girls Division surfers advance through close semifinals at the end of the day with Chloe Groube and India Kennings advancing to match up in the final with Poppy Entwisle (Chch) and Lani Frazerhurst (Rag).
Auckland kept their title hopes alive with Leia Millar and Jess Sinton advancing to the final in the Under 16 Girls Division while all three of their longboarders all saw success too.
Host’s Taranaki sit in fifth place, a touch off the pace. However, they have four surfers remaining in the event and big results will see them jump up the rankings. In a quirk of the team points, Taranaki also have less to lose with just four surfers remaining when the top four teams have six surfers.
Waikato is another team with four surfers remaining from their small team of eight. Lani Frazerhurst and Lydia Marsters advanced out of their respective rounds to join Tana Clapham and Luke Dymond in action on the final day.
Ten regional teams go into the final day of the event with surfers still alive.
Day five (Friday 14th October) will be held at Back Beach located just south of New Plymouth. The day will kick off with the Under 14 Division finals. The swell is expected to decrease overnight but remain a fun size with offshore winds.
The final day of the event is being streamed on the Whakaata Maori YouTube channel. Live scoring, results and daily schedules can be viewed via www.liveheats.com/55817.
Current team standings after four of five days at the 2022 National Scholastic Surfing Championships being held at Taranaki from the 10-15 October.
1, Canterbury, 9160
2, Bay of Plenty, 9065
3, Auckland, 8680
4, Coromandel, 8443
5, Taranaki, 7800
6, Northland, 7595
7, Otago, 6850
8, Hawkes Bay, 6645
9, Waikato, 5865
10, Gisborne, 5743
11, West Coast, 500
The National Scholastic Surfing Championships has been held since 1989. The event, which has unearthed two generations of top Kiwi talent, takes place along the Taranaki coastline from 10 – 14 October.
The event comprises eight age group divisions for males and females across both shortboard and longboard disciplines. Twelve regional teams from throughout the country contest the event with eleven teams in attendance in 2022 vying for both individual titles as well as the overall team title. Canterbury is the defending champion at the event having won the event in home waters in 2020.
Over 110 surfers are participating at the event in 2022 after having qualified to represent their twelve person teams via a series of regional events held during winter months.
The 2022 National Scholastic Surfing Championships is sanctioned by Surfing New Zealand, Secondary School Sport NZ. The event is made possible with the support of Pub Charity. The event is supported by the New Zealand Sports Collective, Whakaata Maori, Caltex, Bayleys, Apollo Projects, Pure Athletic and NZ Carbon Farming.
For more information on the National Scholastic Surfing Championships, please contact Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz. Follow @surfingnz across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for all the action from the event.
Imagery
High resolution images from the event will be available to media upon request.
Surfing New Zealand is proudly partnered by:
Sport NZ
Volkswagen
Skinnies
Surfline
Arepa
Ends
