The rookie Wainui surf canoe team who featured in The Herald last week finished fifth in the final of their event at the national surf lifesaving championships in Mount Maunganui at the weekend.
In doing so, they achieved their aim — to be competitive.
Sofia Zame, Olivia Whitfield, Daizee Rawlsand Lucy Allan, all aged 14 or 15, competed in the under-19 women’s short-course surf canoe for Riversun Wainui.
They won two of their three qualifying heats and were second in the other.
The canoe competition was run in 1.5-metre surf and the athletes wore helmets because of the conditions.
The vagaries of surf competition were evident in the final. Hit by a wave on the start line, the Wainui team recovered to round the cans in second place.
They just missed the wave the winning Orewa team caught and then were hit by the whitewater of a wave that broke behind them. But three other teams had caught that wave as it broke and rode it to the beach. Among them were the Waikanae crew who finished runners-up.
