Tamarau crew win East Coast Surfriders’ Battle of the Burbs teams’ surfing title

The Battle of the Burbs-winning Tamarau team. (Back, from left): Nick White, Sean Hovell, Tommy Dalton, Nigel Abercrombie, Jett Dalton and Benny Hutchings. (Front, from left): Flynn Dalton, Neko Dalton and Holly Quinn, with Lenny Quinn in the foreground. Absent: Johnny Hicks. Photo / Shaun Tunny

The team from Tamarau were victorious in the Battle of the Burbs surfing competition – the last of East Coast Surfriders’ “Kegged” events of the season.

The Battle of the Burbs attracted seven teams, competing for the annual “GOAT of Gizzy Trophy”.

“The event is part of an effort to expose the up-and-coming local kids to all the amazingly experienced surfers in the region to help grow and support the sport in Gisborne,” organiser Holly Quinn said.

“These events have been aimed at getting more fun and a sense of community back into competition surfing.”

The teams of 10 in the Battle of the Burbs needed to reside in their suburb and include a woman, a vintage surfer and a grom surfer.

There were teams representing Kaitī, Tamarau, Lloyd George Road, Murphy Road, Wairere Road, Okitū, and the Misfits (surfers from all over).

Former world tour surfer and Surfing New Zealand life member Maz Quinn carving as the competition heats up in the Battle of the Burbs' tag-team contest. Photo / Shaun Tunny

The Okitū team contained three former world tour surfers – Jay Quinn, Bobby Hansen and Blair Stewart.

The event was run at Makorori Beach in solid 1m-plus surf.

They competed in a tag-team format in which each surfer completed a beach sprint, caught two waves then tagged the next surfer in a race against time.

Ben Galbraith surfed well for his team in solid 1m-plus surf at Makorori Beach. He was later named winner of Kook of the Day. Photo / Shaun Tunny

In the end, the battle was between the teams representing Tamarau and Kaitī.

Tamarau got off to a strong start from 9-year-old Lenny Quinn, later named Best Grom, and power surfer Nick White, winner of the Best Men’s Performance.

Tamarau’s consistency saw them produce a series of good-scoring waves and ultimately take the win 10 points ahead of Kaitī and Okitū.

Bonnie Lynch won Best Female Performance, Owen Te Aho Best Micro Grom, Adam Lynch Best-Dressed, Malcolm McGregor Best Runner and Ben Galbraith Kook of the Day.