Jay Ryan-Emerre
Gisborne has two new national surfing champions — Jay Ryan-Emerre and Sean Hovell.
Hovell won the stand-up paddleboard (SUP) title while Ryan-Emerre took out the junior women's longboard in small but highly contestable conditions.
Ryan-Emerre said was “stoked” to have come away with the title in a heat where it was hard to find scoring waves in the tricky conditions.
“You had to really choose where you sat. If you sat in one place for a while, you'd get swept down towards the rocks (with the current).”
She said it was “awesome” to see some girls in the national longboard scene.
Last year at the Scholastics Championships in Kaikoura she was the only female longboarder to enter the competition and competed in the under-18 boys' division.
Hovell won the stand-up paddleboard (SUP) national title with an 11.3 heat total, narrowly edging out the 10.8 recorded by Jamie Scott (Whangarei) in the last few minutes of the final.
Scott had been leading the heat from the moment he scored his first wave, a 5.5, but was only 0.05 points ahead of Hovell, who had surfed two good-scoring waves.
With less than five minutes on the clock, Hovell was able to find the best wave of the heat and score a 5.9 to catapult himself into first place and take the victory.
Hovell exited the water believing he “had it in the bag”, having surfed his best wave right at the death, only to find out he hadn't heard the horn and had caught the wave after the final had ended.
It was a rollercoaster of emotion for Hovell, as he did not realise at the time he had already done enough to finally win the title after over a decade of chasing it.
“I've been chasing this on and off for 12 years. I've always made the finals and had heaps of seconds and thirds where I had beaten the eventual winner in the semifinals.”
In the women's SUP division Stella Smith earned a third-place finish, falling short of Amelie Wink (Christchurch) and Billie Scott (Whangarei).
In the junior men's longboard, Geordie Sawyer has advanced to the semifinals. He comfortably won his heat with an 8.6 ride that put him firmly in the lead.
In the shortboard u14 divisions, Mahia Braithwaite was knocked out in her opening round while Gabb Lobb advanced to the semifinals on the boys' side.
Today's action brings more opportunity for Gisborne surfers with their eyes on a national title as the competition enters the business end.
John Gisby and Benny Hutchings will face off in the over-60s final, while Patrick “Magoo” Braithwaite has a long day with the over-30s final and the semifinals of the over-45 and over-40 divisions. Finn Vette will take to the water in the u18 boys' semifinals, and Lobb surfs again today in the semifinals of the boys' u14 division.