KEY POINTS:
Defending national women's champion Angie Koops survived an intense first round encounter yesterday to get through to the semfinals of the national surfing championships at Piha.
Koops (Kaikoura) was joined by fellow South Island surfer Daisy Thomas (Christchurch) as the two standouts in the division.
Day four of the event was played out in average conditions with only 1m waves on offer at best and the first day of southwesterly winds since the event began.
Koops had a heat filled with talent that included Corona Crown Series champion and local surfer Mischa Davis as well as 2005 national champion and New Zealand representative Jessica Santorik (Raglan) and up and coming surfer Ella Williams (WGM).
Despite the tough competition Koops dominated the heat to post a score of 13 in her heat to leave her counterparts requiring big scores to challenge her lead. The small righthanders on offer played into her hands with all three other surfers having to surf on their backhand.
Santorik moved into second on her last wave of the heat moments before the final hooter sounded and together with Koops they eliminated Davis and young Williams.
Koops was surprised at her first round match up. "Yeah, pretty tough to start off with I thought," she said. '
Koops is based in Australia studying at university where her course revolves around surfing and sport. Obviously that has continued to develop her surfing and her approach to competition. "I have been doing heaps of training in Aussie, heaps of comp training. I have learned a few new competitive strategies and am hoping to put them into practice and defend the title - that's the plan anyway. I wouldn't be here if I was aiming for anything less."
Thomas surfed to the highest heat score of the round posting 16.5 points out of a possible 20. Thomas is only recently back from an extended stay in Europe after representing New Zealand at the World Surfing Games in October.
Since returning Thomas competed at, and won, the first event of the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour held at Mt Maunganui in early January.
Other heat winners in the open women's division yesterday included Mt Maunganui's Laura Rishworth and Gisborne's Jayda Martin-Fitzharris.
Martin-Fitzharris also contested two age group divisions with mixed success. She progressed through the under-16 girls division but was eliminated from the under-18 girls.
