Ohope teen masters Mount millpond

It might be a stretch to say he revelled in it but 19-year-old Dylan Barnfield milked the marginal conditions to the max yesterday to take out the opening leg of the pro longboard tour at Mount Maunganui.
In surf that dribbled into the beach, it took a meeting of the surfers yesterday morning at Tay St to avoid the final day being cancelled.
But the small conditions played into 19-year-old Barnfield's hands. Hailing from Ohope, he's used to surfing on whatever waves the benign east coast throws his way.
``It was tough out there, pretty marginal, and I spent the entire time hoping for a wave and, then when a wave came, I had to try and do something decent to score points.
``It was hard to do anything eyecatching _ the best I could do was a quick nose ride followed by a floater or a rio _ but I guess the other guys were in the same boat.'
Barnfield posted 14.6 points out of a possible 20 in the final, with a 7.50 point ride followed by a 7.10 late in the final enough to secure his first victory in the open men's division.
Mount Maunganui's Owen Barnes, a first-time finalist, used his aggressive style of surfing to score big, pushing out Australia's Trent Dickey with Auckland's Thomas Kibblewhite fourth.
Barnfield, who eliminated defending tour champion Daryn Mcbride (Mount) in the semifinals, has finished his first year of an engineering degree at Canterbury University. He spends most of the year on a short board, although he's bagged two national junior longboarding series crowns.
``Longboarding's good for the contest stuff because I wouldn't have a show of being competitive on the shortboard _ the level's really high in New Zealand.
``Longboarding's something I can do well in because there's not as much depth.'
Defending women's champion Daisy Thomas (Christchurch) started her year where she left off in 2008 _ winning.
Thomas ran away with the final scoring 15.25 points out of a possible 20.
Thomas won three of the seven events in 2008, including the national title which she will defend next week at Piha.
In similar fashion, runner-up Alexis Poulter (Raglan), also predominantly a shortboard surfer, attacked the end sections to get up over Belinda Goodwin (Raglan) and Shereen Lobb (Port Waikato).
Young Australian whizz-kid Jackson Winter fended off his three Kiwi counterparts _ Rick Williamson (Ohope), Sam Guthrie (Mount) and Eli Barnfield (Ohope) to take out the junior men's final while Whangamata's Lynden Kennings was too strong for his 40+ men's rivals, pushing Mount's Phil Griffin and Mal Brady into the minor money.
Hawke's Bay's Barry Watkins too the 50+ men's final.