Tricky conditions for first primary schools surf champs

 

Over 50 primary school aged surfers converged on Waipu Cove on Saturday April 16 for the inaugural Northland Primary Schools Surfing Championships hosted by the Northland Surfing Association (NSA).

This is the first time the NSA has run a primary schools event and the field included current primary school national champion, Whangarei’s Thomas Robinson.

Over 10 Northland primary schools were represented.

Small .5m-1m waves broke at the Cove all day with fresh onshore winds creating tricky conditions.

For this event all entrants surf twice and accumulated points based on placings in each heat.

Judges focused on speed, power and flow.

Stand-out performances during the day included Taj Robinson (Mangawhai Beach School), Rhyder Harrington (Waipu Primary), Tama Te Kauwhata (Homeschool), Ely and Elijah Backhouse (Bream Bay), Luke Vercoe (Mangawhai Beach School), Freddie Gibbons (Homeschool), Thomas Robinson (Kamo Intermediate), and Mason Woolley (Ngunguru School).

As the tide filled in, conditions became much more favourable and by the time the finals of each division hit the water, semi-clean 2-3ft waves broke at the southern end of Waipu Cove beach.
 

WAIPU COVE: Surfers congratulate each other as they come out of the water after a heat in testing conditions.