Week keeps looking up

SHOWING HOW IT’S DONE: New national under-18 men’s longboard champion Geordie Sawyer rides the nose at Midway Beach during a Gisborne Boardriders Club longboard circuit event in October. Sawyer finished yesterday’s final at Piha three points ahead of the runner-up. Picture by Origins of Light Photography

SURFING

GISBORNE teenage longboarder Geordie Sawyer grabbed himself a national surfing title at Piha yesterday.

John Gisby grabbed his 39th, and Chris Malone grabbed another for a personal tally somewhere in between those of the young lion and the old master.

These three Gisborne surfers — Raglan-based Malone’s results still come with a “Gisborne” tag — continued an outstanding week for Tairawhiti-linked surfers at the national championships at Piha.

More success could be on the way when the champs wind up today.

On Thursday, Sean Hovell won the stand-up paddleboard title and Jay Ryan-Emerre won the junior women’s longboard.

Yesterday, Sawyer won the under-18 men’s longboard final with a heat total of 12.3 points, well ahead of Auckland’s Ben Counsell, whose total of 9.3 earned him runner-up spot.

Gisby added to his record-setting total of national titles through the age groups, but he had to call on his reserves of experience and surf ingenuity to pull off this victory.

Midway through the final, Gisby was well behind Tairua frontrunner Barry McCulloch.

Gisby changed his tactics and positioning, and found a nice 8.0-point ride for a lead he never relinquished. His heat score was 10.75. McCulloch was second with a total of 10.0.

Gisborne’s 1975 national open champion, Benny Hutchings, was fourth in the final.

Malone, eliminated in the over-35 semifinals on Wednesday after leading early in the heat, made a late charge in yesterday’s over-40 men’s final to take the title by 0.2 of a point from Taranaki surfer Jarred Hancox.

Malone swooped in the dying minutes of the final to build a winning total of 14.0 with his last two rides.

Hancox had a two-wave total of 13.8. He was runner-up in the over-30 men’s final yesterday, too. His heat total of 14.45 was 0.45 of a point behind that of Tairua surfer Sean Peggs.

In a good day for the Malone family, Chris’s son Navryn (surfing under the Raglan banner) won his u16 semifinal.

Gisborne surfer Patrick Braithwaite made both the over-30 and over-40 men’s finals, finishing fourth in both.

Finn Vette’s second-placed finish in his u18 men’s semifinal yesterday means he joins elder sister Saffi in finals-day action today, although Saffi had still to get through the open women’s semifinals.

Still in the open women’s draw at the start of competition today were 15-year-old defending champion Ava Henderson, of Christchurch, World Tour “veteran” Paige Hareb, of Taranaki, and two-time champion Ella Williams, of Whangamata.

Hareb is contesting her first national championships in 14 years and has yet to win the title.

In his final, Finn Vette will be up against Raglan’s Kora Cooper and Jayden Willoughby, who won both semifinals, and Tom Robinson of Whangarei.

The men’s and women’s open semifinals today were set to decide the line-ups for the the finals, expected to be contested early this afternoon.

Billy Stairmand, of Raglan, will be looking for his eighth title, while younger New Zealand teammate Kehu Butler, of Mt Maunganui, will seek his first.

Nine titles were decided yesterday, in surf that was the smallest of the six days of the event so far. A one-metre swell was accompanied by light onshore sea breezes.