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TWO national surfing events descend on Gisborne from tomorrow with the Primary School Champs and the Scholastic Champs taking place over seven days.
The two-day Sticky Johnson Primary School Champs presented by Skullcandy kicks off the action tomorrow. The event follows on from the GromLab four day surf programme run by Gisborne Boardriders Club during the first week of the school holidays.
The Primary School Champs sees groms from the length of the country participating, many of whom are competing nationally for the first time.
The user-friendly event sees keen youngsters compete three times in a round robin format before the top ranked surfers face off in finals.
This is the third consecutive year the event has been held at Gisborne with Northern Makorori offering up excellent conditions in the past and forecasted to do so again this weekend.
Many of the top ranked surfers from 2016 have progressed on to the Scholastic Championships being held later in the week, but two 2016 finalists return in the girls’ divisions — Levin’s Natasha Gouldsbury and Christchurch surfer Ava Henderson.
Several of the boys taking part have also contested events around the country this year and they will go head-to-head as favourites for a title this weekend. They include Navryn Malone (Raglan), Dara O’Malley (Chistchurch), Jai Wallis (Piha) and Ollie Holland (Raglan) as well as a raft of new faces.
The 2016 champion in the Year 6 and below boys, Campbell Heasley (Chistchurch) and runner-up Jack McKenzie (Chistchurch) move up a division this year leaving the title open for 24 fresh surfers in the youngest division.
This year a Year 6 and below girls’ division is included for the first time.
Following the weekend competition is the National Scholastic Championships which start on Monday.
Eleven regional teams have confirmed their attendance at the event and are hoping to topple the mighty Taranaki team who stormed to victory for the first time in 2016.
Taranaki will go into the five-day event as one of the hot favourites alongside last year’s runner-up Auckland.
Bay of Plenty has been victorious five times this decade and the region continues to churn out top ranked junior surfers.
The host Gisborne team will be fronted by New Zealand representative Saffi Vette who this week returned from competing at the World Junior Championships in Japan. She placed an excellent eleventh overall.
In total, nine of the 12 New Zealand junior surfing team members will be competing at Gisborne representing their regional teams.
Gisborne’s Stella Smith will revert back to her shortboard at the Scholastics after recently placing seventh in the women’s division of the ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championships in Denmark.