Counting the days

Rising to the occasion: Saffi Vette is carried shoulder-high up the beach after her first win in a pro junior surfing event, at Jan Juc Beach in Australia. She is one of two surfers from this district — the other is Ricardo Christie — to be named in the New Zealand training squad for the ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador. The surfing games have been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, with a possible rescheduling to the latter half of this year. The other members of the squad are: Paige Hareb, Billy Stairmand, Ella Williams, Kehu Butler, Aimee Brown, Elliot Paerata-Reid and Raiha Ensor. Pictures by WSL/Cahill Bell-Warren

SURFING

THE district’s surfers will be waxing their boards and whetting their appetites for waves ahead of Tuesday’s switch to Alert Level 3 and the chance to go surfing again.

Up-and-coming teenage surfer Saffi Vette, from Makorori, will be among them. She reckons boardriders will be “frothing” to get back out there.

Under Alert Level 4, surfing was banned because of the apparent risks it posed.

Eighteen-year-old Vette has aspirations to qualify for the women’s world professional surfing tour and has just started her first full year on the qualifying series now that she is out of the juniors.

Her best result so far was a fifth placing in a qualifying series Pro event in Western Australia last October, competing as a junior. The month before, she had her first victory in a pro junior surfing event, the Hydralyte Sports Pro Junior Victoria at Jan Juc Beach.

Last week she and Mahia-Gisborne surfer Ricardo Christie were named in the New Zealand training squad for the ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador. The event has been postponed because of Covid-19 and new dates have yet to be announced, but organisers hope to stage it in the latter half of this year.

A good performance there offers the chance of a place in the New Zealand team for the Tokyo Olympics, now set for July-August next year.

“It was pretty cool to be named in the squad . . . it’s a dream really,” Vette said.

“I’ve grown up watching the summer and winter Olympics, and to have a chance to actually go to the Olympics, representing New Zealand, is quite surreal.

“It would be very cool.”

She feels she has a good chance of doing so.

“I think I’m pretty up there.”

And she thinks her chances would be enhanced if she could prove herself “a bit more” against top New Zealand female surfers Paige Hareb, from Taranaki, and Ella Williams, from Whangamata.

She said she had really missed going for a surf these past four and a half weeks.

“It’s been kind of strange not being able to get up and go for a surf in the morning.

“I’ve missed just being in the ocean. It’s my sport. It’s what I want to do.”

She has run the steps at Makorori Headland every other day and has some workout equipment in her mum and dad’s garage at Makorori.

Vette says she goes to sleep at night easier after a good day out in the waves and that’s been missing.

“I haven’t been sleeping that well since lockdown started, so it’s going to feel pretty awesome to get back into the water on Tuesday if the surf’s good.

“It’ll be a relief.”

But for her, having to stay out of the sea during lockdown has had an upside.

“I think everyone has done so well in lockdown, sticking to the rules to keep people safe.

“For me personally, it’s made me realise even more how much I love surfing.

“The break away from it has made me hungrier, and it’s given me time to think about the future, and plan for it.”

She reckons every other surfer in the district will be just as excited as she is to get back in the water next week.

“They’ll all be stoked. They’ll be frothing to get back into it.”