Hannah King second at Raglan surfing comp

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

SURFING

GISBORNE surfer Hannah King finished second in the under-16 girls’ division of the Backdoor Oceanbridge Manu Bay Pro at Raglan yesterday.

King finished with a heat score of 6.40 in the final. The winner, Raglan’s Brie Bennett, boosted her score on her final wave to finish with a score of 10.53.

Mt Maunganui’s Georgia Wederell (4.87) was third and Anna Brock (2.66), also from the Mount, was fourth.

Gisborne’s Chris Malone reached the semifinal of the open men’s contest. His heat score of 11.20 had him behind Raglan’s Billy Stairmand (13.67), Whangamata’s Dune Kennings (13.27) and Mt Maunganui’s Alex Dive (11.87).

The winner of the other semifinal, Raglan’s Luke Cederman, went on to win the open men’s final with a heat score of 10.67. Mt Maunganui’s Matt Hewitt was second with 9.8, Kennings was third with 7.93 and Stairmand was fourth with 6.77.

It was Cederman’s first victory in a national event, and he had to surf five heats yesterday to achieve it.

The day had started with hardly a wave on the point at Manu Bay, but by the time competition got under way the swell had begun to pulse, and in the afternoon it got to more than 1.5 metres.