Raglan’s Point Boardriders staked their claim for the 2022 Hurley New Zealand Boardrider Club Championships on day one of the event, progressing their full complement of surfers through to the final day today (Saturday 7th May 2022).
The 2017 event champions advanced out of all of their individual heat before taking a comfortable win in the tag team event to finish the day ahead of New Plymouth Surfriders and hosts Whangamata Boardriders.
Conditions remained solid all day with a clean 1.5m swell and light winds. The low tide conditions in the afternoon made it challenging for the tag team event with the criteria changed to best one wave for each of the five surfers in the tag team format.
Caleb Cutmore led the way for the Raglan based club with a 15.36 point heat total to advance to the semifinals of the Open Men’s Division. Taylor Hutchison followed suit with a win in his match up defeating Bachelor Tipene (Oakura) and 2022 National Champion Daniel Farr (Tara).
The two surfers were backed up by exceptional performances by Brie Bennett, Kora Cooper and Larry Fisher who all won their respective divisions all advancing to the semifinals. The team went on to win their tag team heat against Maori Bay Boardriders, North Coast Boardriders and Lion Rock Boardriders, scoring the highest heat score of the round – 30.06 out of a possible 50 points.
New Plymouth Surfriders are placed in second position and looking to make up ground on Point Boardriders on the final day of the event. Their first chance will come in the tag team event where they face off against Point Boardriders in the semifinals. New Plymouth Surfriders were the top placed club at the National Championships this year.
New Plymouth have four surfers remaining in the individual divisions and will need a big result from all four surfers plus the tag team to leap-frog Point Boardriders on the final day.
Hosts Whangamata Boardriders sit in third place and will want to stick with the front runners and back up their runner-up finish in 2021.
Defending champions Keyhole Boardriders of Piha faltered in the afternoon, crucially not completing their waves in the tag team heat, costing them five points and progression through to the semifinals.
Day two will see further semifinals and finals of the event before the tag team will climax the event in the afternoon.
Follow all the action live on Sky Sport Next or on Sky Sport 58 from 10:30am Sunday. Live results can be viewed daily from 8:00am.
The Hurley New Zealand Boardrider Club Championships takes place at Whangamata on the 7-8 May. A full field of fourteen teams are attending the two-day event with clubs from Northland through to Canterbury participating.
Club teams comprise of five surfers. Two surfers in the Open Men’s Division, one in the Open Women’s Division, one in the Under 18s Division and one Over 40s Division. Participants can be changed out between the standard heats and the tag team event.
The tag team format is the essence of the Hurley New Zealand Boardrider Club Championships and involves all five surfers in the team going out and catching two waves in succession. A win in the tag team component of the event is worth 50% of the points up for grabs and ultimately decides the champion club.
The Usher Cup is a recently-developed club event held at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast of Australia. 2023 marks the first year that the event will be international with six countries attending as well as 23 clubs from Australia. The event takes place on the 19th – 22nd January and accommodates teams of four from each club in a standard surfing format for males and females with $7,000 going to the winners of each division. Other countries attending include France, Indonesia, Japan, Hawaii and USA.
Full results from day one of the 2022 Hurley New Zealand Boardrider Club Championships can be viewed at here. Overall team points after day one are below.
1, Point Boardriders, 8860
2, New Plymouth Surfriders, 8500
3, Whangamata Boardriders, 8400
4, Oakura Boardriders, 7950
4, Bay Boardriders, 7950
6, Keyhole Boardriders, 7360
7, Papamoa Boardriders, 7350
8, North Wai Boardriders, 7300
9, Maori Bay Boardriders, 6710
10, Waihi Beach Boardriders, 5500
11, North Coast Boardriders, 5400
12, Lion Rock Boardriders, 5060
13, Hawkes Bay Boardriders, 4710
14, Ocean Beach Boardriders, 4010
Further Information
For further information on the 2022 Hurley New Zealand Club Championships, please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.
Imagery
High resolution action images of the surfing at the event will be available to media free of charge thanks to New Zealand Surfing Magazine.
Event Hotline
The Surfing New Zealand event hotline is 0211134506. This will be updated daily at approximately 7am with venue, divisions contested and conditions for the day.
Partners
Generous support from Hurley, Volkswagen, Sky Sport Next and the New Zealand Sports Collective has made the event possible.
Surfing New Zealand is proudly partnered by:
Sport New Zealand
Water Safety NZ
Skinnies
Volkswagen
