Close but no cigar: Finn Vette was knocked out in his first heat after winning the opening leg of the three round series last weekend. Picture by PhotoCPL
Close but no cigar: Finn Vette was knocked out in his first heat after winning the opening leg of the three round series last weekend. Picture by PhotoCPL
Asia Braithwaite finished fourth in the under-18 girls' division on the second leg of the Billabong Grom Series yesterday.
In blustery Whangamata conditions, Gisborne's Braithwaite was just 0.06 points short of a podium finish after Christchurch's Liv Haysom snatched third place with less than two minutes on the clock witha ride of 4.1.
Competitors were welcomed by an unruly 1.5-metre swell at the start of the day, but as the wind clocked to the west and increased to gale strength, the swell dropped before everyone's eyes.
The gale winds from Cyclone Dovi whipped the ocean into a frenzy during the day and made it impossible for some lightweight groms to surf before leaving a clean but small swell by the time the finals had concluded late in the afternoon. In the u18 boys' division, Finn Vette could not recreate the momentum that saw him win the first stop of the series last weekend. Vette was eliminated in the first round, having managed a 6.7 total, needing to score 3.44 to progress.
Despite having almost 10 minutes on the clock to find the scoring wave, he was left to watch as Te Kauwhata Kauwhata did enough to scrape through and take Vette's second-place spot with less than a minute on the clock. Runner-up in the u18 final, Raglan's Navryn Malone, has family links to Gisborne. His father Chris Malone grew up in Gisborne and was 1998 national surfing champion. Piha surfer Bill Byers snatched the u18 title with a minute remaining in the final yesterday when a Hail Mary wave popped up out of nowhere, allowing the natural-footer to reel off a series of backhand re-entries until the wave had nothing left to give.
The ride netted him 5.63 points for an 11.63-point heat total.
Malone had led for 19 minutes of the final. He finished with an 11.83-point heat total. Next was Kaikoura surfer Tyler Perry on 11.57. Whangarei surfer Kauwhata finished fourth in his first finals appearance in this age group.
