The World Surf League’s Championship Tour is on a whole other level.
With surfing’s top tour making its way to New Zealand this year, it opened the door for three Kiwi wildcards to take a place in the line-up at Raglan’s Manu Bay.
Raglan local and longtime surfing competitor Billy Stairmand secured the first as the highest-ranked Kiwi on the men’s Challenger Series – a feeder series to Championship Tour (CT).
He was followed by fellow Raglan local Alani Morse and Taranaki’s Tom Butland, who won the Queen and King of the Point titles respectively, with the annual competition at Manu Bay doubling as the wildcard trials for the CT event.
But in their first heats of surfing’s top tour, the three Kiwis were unable to find their way through to the next round.
Morse was first in the water, competing against current world No 12 Bettylou Sakura Johnson, of Hawaii. Both surfers got a chance to show what they could do in the good conditions, but it was Johnson who impressed the judges more.
Morse, still just 15 years old, stayed busy in the heat. She caught five waves, with a 4.43 and 3.87 her best two scores. Johnson was more selective – she chose big set waves and made the most of them. Of the three waves she surfed, she counted a 7.33 and a 6.83 to comfortably progress.
With the competition running overlapping heats – one starting midway through the previous one – Morse also surfed alongside eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and Israeli athlete Anat Lelior.
“It was such an honour to share the lineup with those girls,” Morse said on the broadcast after her heat.
“Steph, Bettylou, Anat, I couldn’t think of anything more special, honestly. To represent this flag, the Kiwi flag with pride, it’s so special for me. I love this sport, so I’m just super excited to be here. What an opportunity.”
It was a similar situation for Butland, who stayed busy in his heat against South African Luke Thompson but wasn’t able to impress the judging panel in the same way that Thompson did.
Butland took off on 11 waves in the heat, though not all of them were completed rides. The two scores he counted were a 5.33 and 4.77, with Thompson counting a 6.50 and a 6.00, which he picked up early in the heat.
The last of the Kiwis into the water was Stairmand, who was topped in one of the best heats of the first round when he surfed against Australian Morgan Cibilic.
Stairmand showed the strength of his backhand surfing on his home break, but was always chasing the heat after Cibilic hooked into a great wave early in the heat.
The Australian scored a 7.50 on that opening ride, which remained the top single-score for the rest of the heat.
Stairmand was able to put up a couple of good scores, with a 6.50 and a 6.47, but when Cibilic added a 7.00 to his 7.50, Stairmand was left needing a ride scoring in the excellent range – 8.00 or higher – to move on.
“I had super fun out there. Obviously I really wanted to do well, and I believed I could, but unfortunately Mother Nature didn’t play ball at the end there,” Stairmand said on the broadcast.
The 36-year-old added he was looking forward to being able to immerse himself in the event from other perspectives now, including spending time amongst the fans and helping out with reigning world champion Molly Picklum and her team.
“We’ve got some good aura, good vibes going, and I can’t wait to focus on her now and help her go deep in the draw.”
Alani Morse (8.37) defeated by Bettylou Sakura Johnson (14.16)
Tom Butland (10.10) defeated by Luke Thompson (12.50)
Billy Stairmand (12.97) defeated by Morgan Cibilic (14.50)
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.