Luke Kerr : photo courtesy New Zealand Surfing Magazine

Hyundai National Surfing Championships 2006

Surfing New Zealand
Ahipara, Northland
7 - 14 January 2006

‘PINES’ TURNS IT ON FOR DAY ONE OF THE HYUNDAI NATIONAL SURF CHAMPS

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 7 January, 2006 : - - Perfect conditions greeted in excess of 330 competitors on the first morning of the Hyundai National Surfing Championships today (Saturday).  As the convoy of vehicles rolled around the rocky road to Tauroa Point and the set up at Pines they found across clean 1.0m swells with no wind to speak of.  The conditions only but improved as the day progressed with over 10 hours of surfing being completed. 

The Hyundai Open Men’s Round one hit the water first up with a number of guys serving warning signs on the top seeds who will enter the water in the next two days. 

Taranaki’s Luke Kerr top scored in the first round attacking the waves on his backhand to score 14.50 out of a possible 20 to convincingly move through to the second round.  The powerful Kerr was followed closely by brilliant performances from fellow Taranaki surfer Blanton Smith and also Gauranga Ormond (WGM).  Two surfers to also impress with heat wins were overseas based Dane Simpson who now resides on the Gold Coast of Australia and Oli Adams who is back from his base in Europe where he contests the Wold Qualifying Series.  The two surfers obviously relished being at home both scoring in excess of 14 points for their efforts and move into the second round.

As the tide filled in during the afternoon, the Under 18 and Under 16 boys were let loose.  The swell maintained its size if not building slightly throughout the day and the ‘groms’ could not have asked for more.  Late in the day Ryan Hawker (Piha) won through to the quarter finals of the Under 16 boys scoring 13.79 in his first heat of the event.  Earlier, Jay Paddock (Gis) and Matthew Hewitt (Mnt) easily won their heats in both the Under 16 and Under 18 Divisions to claim spots in the second round of both divisions.

The swell is expected to decrease over the next two days before pulsing again in the middle of the week.  If the swell does decrease further it is likely the event will make a move approximately 30km up 90 Mile Beach to a break called the Bluff which picks up more swell.  A decision as to which divisions will be contested tomorrow will be made once conditions are assessed in the morning.

Full results & photos are available here

Previous reports:
# 1 : Hyundai Surfing Championships draws top NZ surfers 
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  
# 5 : Coming soon
# 6 : Coming soon
# 7 : Coming soon  

Complete lists of all National Champions are lavailable at;– www.surfingnz.co.nz/history.htm. 

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Ben Kennings
benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz

SNZ Contests - Surfersvillage