Waikanae's Briana Irving
WAIKANAE will aim for five in a row when they defend their hold on the Ralph Morse Memorial Shield for Gisborne surf club supremacy at Midway Beach this weekend.
But their head coach believes the competition will be tighter than in recent years.
The Kaiaponi Farms-sponsored club racked up 355 points in the Gisborne championships last year, well ahead of Dawson Building Midway on 111 and Riversun Wainui on 65.
The Eastland Port Champion of the Bays this weekend doubles as both the Gisborne and Bay of Plenty club championships, and the Mount Maunganui club look set to continue their BoP dominance.
Mount Maunganui, defending national champions, also look hard to beat for the overall Champion of the Bays title.
Waikanae head coach Cory Hutchings says he feels the competition among the three Gisborne clubs will be a lot closer this year.
“Midway's definitely had a resurgence, Wainui will do well and we are without doubt lighter in the number of competitors and teams than we were last year.
“We have way fewer teams this year, due to clashes with other sports events.”
Hutchings said the big plus was that all the club's national representatives would race this weekend.
“Lachie Falloon, Christy Tate, Georgie Pitkethley, Briana Irving and Seven Mapu will be there.
“That's important to us and I hope they stand up and perform, and lead the club to try to retain the Gisborne top-club title.”
Hutchings said he felt the region was evening up in terms of inter-club competition.
“And that's a good thing for the competition level in all the local clubs. That's what leads to more success for the region.”
Midway head coach Matt Sutton said his team were feeling really good about the weekend.
“We've got some decent numbers and some good young kids coming through.
“But Midway are not ready to challenge Waikanae for the local title yet. We're still a couple of years away from that.
“To be honest, we're not concentrating on that. We're concentrating on building the culture in our team and getting a good core group of people together.”
Well-performed Matt Scott and Chris Dawson will race for Midway this weekend.
“They'll be hard to beat in the open men's swim events,” Sutton said.
“I'm looking forward to our young ones racing . . . the likes of Jessica Fearnley in the under-16 girls' swim and board events. Angus Blair will be strong in the under-16 boys' swim events and Danielle Scott will be strong in the open women's swim, board and ski events.
“It's going to be a good weekend weather-wise, too.”
Wainui head coach Dion Williams said he and his squad were excited to get amongst the local competition for the year.
“The likes of Jack Keepa and Jonty Evans in the under-16 events and Ava Smith in the under-19s have been training really hard, along with the rest of the squad.
“I'm really excited to see what eventuates in some of the team events, let alone the individual races.”
Ella Arthur will make her debut in the under-16 competition.
“Ella finished fourth in the diamond event at last year's Ocean Athletes. Hue Cowie (u16) and Noah Collier (u19) are good solid board paddlers in the true Wainui tradition.”
Stella Smith and Hannah King will bolster the club's showing in the under-19 women's events.
“They've always been good, solid performers,” Williams said.
“And it's great to get our young team from last year back out there in the under-19 women's surf canoe.”
Lucy Allan, Daizee Rawls, Olivia Whitfield and Sofia Zame raced exceptionally well in their debut at the national championships at Mount Maunganui last March.
A new Wainui under-19 women's team of Breanna Ferris, Imogen Amor-Bendall, Casey Willson and Maggie Preston make their debut tomorrow, and have been training well.
Williams said Wainui were looking forward to the weekend.