Sasha Brownlie outstanding on the water

NATIONAL CHAMPION: Sasha Brownlie, a relative latecomer to surfing, makes the most of a wave in the women’s longboard final at the national surfing championships at Makorori on Thursday. She will be in China next week representing New Zealand at the ISA World Longboard Surfing Championship. Brownlie spent much of her formative years in the Gisborne-Wairoa district. Picture by Colin/Surf2Surf.com

NATIONAL women’s longboard champion Sasha Brownlie is a former resident of Gisborne and Wairoa whose heritage might have indicated land-based pursuits.

But next week she will be in China, in Wanning, on Hainan Island in the South China Sea, for the ISA World Longboard Surfing Championship.

Auckland-based Brownlie, 38, was a relative latecomer to surfing.

She is the daughter of Nick Brownlie, of Ruakituri, and Vicky Hewetson of Gisborne.

Both parents’ families have long associations with farming, and their sporting pursuits, too, were land-based.

All Black rugby is in Nick Brownlie’s heritage (Cyril, Maurice and Laurie Brownlie were uncles), and equestrian pursuits are in Vicky Hewetson’s.

“Sasha didn’t learn to surf from her mother or father, but we’re so proud of her,” Vicky Hewetson said yesterday.

Sasha was born in Napier, and went to school at Frasertown, Waerenga o Kuri, Northland and Gisborne (Te Wharau and Lytton High schools).

It was not until she went into a flat in the surfing hotspot of Piha, in her 20s, that she learned to surf, her mother said.

With the encouragement and support of friends, particularly the Culpan family, Sasha took to her new sport with enthusiasm.

Now she is New Zealand women’s longboard champion and has a chance to shine on the world stage.