Groms dominate Gizzy waves during holidays

THESE past few afternoons surfing out at Stockies has been quite the spectacle. Not only have there been some pumping waves coming through, courtesy of a cheeky little northeast system, but every single grom in the country has seemingly taken advantage of the school holidays and the primary and scholastics competitions over the past week and descended upon our wave-rich shores.

I’ll admit, at times I was being that old surfer dude. Several times I was sitting out the back, waiting patiently for a set wave. I would see a perfectly-formed A-frame rise up and come straight towards me, with (seemingly) nobody around. I would start paddling into position and just as I was about to leap to my feet, some little ripper would sneak right beneath me.

“Woah, where did they come from?”

It was happening up and down the beach — these hyped-up young surfers zip-zapping away, with snakes and drop-ins all over the show. On the one hand it is kind of annoying, but on the other hand, they are groms. They were mostly dropping-in on each other, and seeing perfect overhead (for them) barrelling A-frames — who could blame them for absolutely frothing out?

So I could not really be too annoyed. And to be honest, any annoyance I felt was likely because I was jealous, and a bit slow. Not only did they get to surf all day, but these little dudes and dudettes were absolutely shredding. Here’s to not being that grumpy old surfer we all laughed at when we were young.

It looks like they had some fun waves at north Makorori Beach for both the primary school event last weekend and the scholastics (secondary school) this week. That is likely what makes Gisborne so popular when these events run.

At Piha it might be cranking, but most likely it will be huge and akin to surfing in a terrifying washing machine. Dunedin pumps, but it is cold and really far away. Gisborne pumps too, is only a little bit far away, and is heaps warmer — a perfect mix.

Hopefully the nationals, taking place in January next year, can produce the goods as well. At the time of writing this column the Gisborne scholastics team were doing really well, placed in second overall just behind Bay of Plenty.

With a nice pulse of south swell and offshore winds today they should get the competition wrapped up and we’ll know if we have a Gizzy champ.

The best Gisborne hopes for a title look to be in the under-16 girls with Saffi Vette through to the final, her younger brother Finn in the u14 boys, through to the semi final, and Finn Johnson, who is through to the u16 boys semi-final.

On the other side of the planet, the men’s World Surf League Championship Tour (CT) stop No.9 got under way in pumping waves in Hossegor, in the south-west of France, last night (NZ time).

The solid pulse of swell is supposed to stick around tonight (NZ time) and hang around for a couple of days with another kick on Sunday. The heaving and sporadic beachbreak should make for some excellent viewing.

The women surfed some fun waves in their CT event at the same break earlier this week, and should crown a champion over the weekend.

On the local radar it looks like there should be some small, but clean waves from the south all weekend. Work the angles and you should be able to score something fun.

See you out the back.