Southerners' brave showing

Young athletes tackled huge seas on the opening day of the national under-14 surf lifesaving champs at the Mount yesterday but the bravest competitors were from a clutch of clubs in Christchurch, as Jamie Troughton writes.

Glen Fergus should have been watching his kids brave Mount Maunganui's giant surf at the Oceans 11 under-14 surf lifesaving championships yesterday.
Instead, he was stuck in Christchurch, watching helplessly as the first load of household items was removed from his earthquake-destroyed house.
But the Sumner surf club member still sent his two children, 13-year-old Clara and 10-year-old Harry, up to stay with friends in Papamoa, desperate to give them some normality in a heart-breaking time.
"It was just great to get the kids away from the stresses of Christchurch at the moment," Fergus said. "They don't need to have the constant aftershocks and the reality of their family home being destroyed and I told them both to go away and have some fun."
Sumner has a six-strong contingent at the championships in Mount Maunganui, which began yesterday amid 3m cyclone-fed swells that washed out all water competition early in the afternoon.
Joining Sumner was a four-strong squad from South Brighton, as well as teams from Waimairi, North Beach and Taylor's Mistake.
South Brighton manager Juliet Dickson was working in Christchurch's city centre on Tuesday when the devastating 6.3 magnitude quake struck. She sheltered under a desk while the ceiling collapsed, before making her way to safety.
The next day, her family was heading north, with daughter Laura competing at the championships.
"We had tickets booked out the next day and we were a bit torn about whether to still come up but then we thought we'd be silly not to go - there's nothing we can do down there at the moment," Dickson said.
"When we left, our house was just a mess - there was stuff all over the floor and it had sunk in on one side. Luckily it's still liveable but we decided to come up anyway and sort it out when we got back. We still don't know what we're going back to - my company is operating out of the IT garage at the moment and apparently we'll be moving into new premises next week but the kids' school is badly damaged and we don't know where they'll be going."
Organisers opened the four-day event with a tribute to those who died in the quake, as well as recognition for the clubs that had managed to make it up. Dickson said the reception from fellow athletes and supporters had been fantastic.
"People have just been so awesome and it really does warm your heart. Papamoa and Mount have both helped us out with boards and gear and the organisers have gone out of their way to support us."
Sumner's small ranks will be boosted today by two more athletes, who are being driven up from Wellington. With Fergus remaining amid the ruins of his house, David Jones had travelled up with the six-strong team.
"The kids are actually being a lot more resilient than us and the competition is giving them something else to think about," Jones said. "We camped out on Tuesday night and our house has been evacuated since we've been up here so we don't know if we've got a home to go back to."
Fergus, meanwhile, believes Surf Life Saving New Zealand have made a good decision to shift the national championships from New Brighton to Mount Maunganui in two weeks.
"They had to make that call to shift them away from Christchurch - who knows how long it's going to take to repair the damage down here."
Dickson agreed: "We were really looking forward to having it down there because it doesn't get to the South Island all that often but who would want to go to Christchurch at the moment?"