Vette to mix it with world’s best

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne surfer Saffi Vette is one of three women in a six-strong New Zealand team to the ISA World Surfing Games at Surf City, El Salvador.

The Games begin with the opening ceremony and the Pouring of the Sands on Tuesday next week.

Vette became the New Zealand women’s open champion at Piha in January 2021 at the age of 19, four months after her father Andy had died.

Last year she relocated to Australia to pursue her surfing dreams, and qualified for the World Surfing Games by way of the 2023 WSL Australia/Oceania Qualifying Series.

Vette won her first WSL Qualifying Series event at the 2023 Mad Mex Maroubra Pro 1000 in March.

The other women in the team are Paige Hareb (Taranaki) and Pia Rogers (Whangamata).

Hareb qualifies by way of the WSL Challenger Series and returns to the event looking to better her 11th placing in 2021. After a runner-up finish on the Australia/Oceania Qualifying Series this summer, Hareb is in good form for the event and hopes to qualify for the New Zealand Olympic Team in Paris 2024.

Rogers, the youngest in the team, qualified through her title at the 2023 national championships.

The men in the team are Kehu Butler (Bay of Plenty), Billy Stairmand (Raglan) and Dune Kennings (Piha).

Stairmand and Butler gained entry through the 2022 World Surf League (WSL) Challenger Series and Kennings through his win at the 2023 national championships.

The New Zealand surfing team will depart from both Australia and New Zealand due to international and domestic commitments.

Hareb, Vette, Butler and Stairmand head to El Salvador with weeks of back-to-back, high-level competition under their belts after competing in the first leg of the World Surf League Challenger Series in Australia.

Rogers and Kennings will leave from New Zealand and meet up with their teammates in Surf City.

Five new nations will be represented at the World Surfing Games for the first time, bringing the number of nations taking part to a record 64, with nearly 300 athletes competing.

The Czech Republic, India, Latvia, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago will be represented there for the first time.

Current team world champions Team USA return to the event to defend their title.

Team members include Olympic gold medallist Carissa Moore and two-time WSL champion John John Florence.

The 2023 WSG will take place across two world-class waves in El Salvador —La Bocana and El Sunzal.

La Bocana is a cobblestone bottom river mouth that features multiple peaks. The waves break left and right, providing powerful, steep sections for high-performance surfing.

El Sunzal is a long, right-hand point break west of La Bocana that runs for hundreds of metres along the coast.