Hover surfing at national surfing champs

Raglan's Daniel Kereopa shows his skills on a foilboard or hydrofoil board while free surfing at the national surfing championships, which shifted venues to Makorori Beach yesterday. Picture by Paul Rickard

RAGLAN'S Daniel Kereopa shows his skills on a foilboard or hydrofoil board while free surfing at the national surfing championships, which shifted venues to Makorori Beach yesterday.

A foilboard is a surfboard with a hydrofoil that extends below the board into the water. The board lifts out of the water when a surfers gets to a certain speed.

It travels faster than a conventional board and a surfer can go for long distances. There are also standup paddleboard foils.

Foil surfing was created by American Laird Hamilton and is also known as hover surfing as the surfers appears to hover above the wave.

Kereopa, who runs DK Surf School in Raglan, is the country’s most multi-talented surfer, excelling in virtually all disciplines.

He won his first national surfing title — the under-18 division — in 1995 and claimed the open men’s and longboard titles in 2007.

Kereopa won the men’s standup surfing division in 2011 and 2013 and in 2015 won the inaugural Ultimate Waterman, a multidiscipline competition featuring eight events ranging from shortboard surfing to outrigger canoe endurance paddling.

He is competing in the standup paddleboard category at the nationals.

Meanwhile, Gisborne will have a double-pronged challenge for the open men’s shortboard crown at the champs after the finalists were decided yesterday.

Gisborne’s Ricardo Christie and Johnny Hicks advanced to the semifinals while teenager Saffi Vette made the open women’s final.