21^st April 2016

From:  Surfing New Zealand
Sport: Surfing
Event: Go Pro Men’s Canterbury Championships
Dates: 23^rd – 25^th April 2016
Divisions: Open Men, Under 20, 17 and 14 Boys, Over 28, 35, 45 Men’s Divisions and Longboard
Location: Christchurch Beaches
Websites: Surfing New Zealand

Can Quinn Go Back-to-Back at Go Pro Men’s Canterbury Champs

Maz Quinn (Gis) heads south this weekend with numerous tags to his name as he steps into the competitive arena at the Go Pro Men’s Canterbury Champs.

The three-day event takes place from Saturday through until Monday (23^rd – 25^th April) along the Christchurch coastline and is sanctioned by both Surfing New Zealand and the South Island Surfing Association making for a high calibre field of surfers from around New Zealand.

Quinn, only last weekend, won the Rip Curl Pro to extend his lead on the New Zealand Pro Series.  He has placed in the final of the first three events of the year securing a first, second and third and to top it off, he is the defending champion of this weekend’s event.

This kind of territory is common for the Gisborne surfer having won the series seven of the last eight years.

Quinn is part of a competitive field that comprises six of the top ten surfers on the rankings.  Three of those surfers are young local surfers on the rise – Harrison Whiteside, Jack Wilson and Sam Sands who will all push for an appearance in the finals.  Whiteside is the top ranked of the tree surfers currently sitting in fifth place overall.

The Christchurch surfers will be joined by those who have travelled from the North Island including Matt Hewitt (Mnt), Zen Wallis (Piha), Taylor Hutchison (Rag) and Daniel Farr (Tara).

The surfers will be vying for $4,000 prize money in the Fussion Solutions Open Men’s Division.

The junior divisions make a return to the competitive arena this weekend with the Under 20, 17 and 14 Boys Divisions being contested.

Raglan’s Taylor Hutchison, carrying out dual duties in the Open and the Mike Pero Real Estate Under 20 Boys Divisions, will take on a swag of South Island talent.  Hutchison, the number one seed for the division, will face tough competition in Christchurch’s Harrison Whiteside and Jack Wilson plus those young surfers from the division below looking to step it up against the older surfers – the likes of Dunedin pairing Elliot Brown and Jack McLeod or Taranaki surfer Daniel Farr.

Elliot Brown goes in to this weekend’s event as the top seed of the Under 17 Boys Division and will be hoping to make a climb up the rankings from his current position of fourth.

Earlier in the year, Brown claimed the Under 18 Boys national title and backed that up with a win in the South Island Championships last month.  He will be joined by Sam Sands (Chch), Connor Mclennan (Chch), Jack McLeod (Dun) and Daniel Farr (Tara) as surfers to watch at the event.  Farr has returned from competing in Australia all summer and finished 2015 as the number one ranked surfer in the Under 17 Boys Division.

In the Under 14 Boys, it will be local surfer Myka Black that goes in to the event as the number one seed.  Black needs a runner up placing or better to leap frog Tom Robinson (Whangarei) and gain the number one ranking heading in to the final two events of the year.  Other surfers to watch include Ruben Peyroux (Dun), Maddy Barclay (Oamaru), Neko Tohiariki (Chch) and Jai Oakley (Chch).

The Go Pro Men’s Canterbury Championships also features senior divisions – Over 28 Men’s, Over 35 Men’s and Pier Lodge Over 45 Men’s plus the Longboard Division.

Pier Lodge is also offering up a $250 prize for the best Father/Son result of the event with a number of Christchurch families expected vie for the title.

The surf is forecasted to remain small throughout the weekend with neighbouring Taylors Mistake and Gore Bay possible location options over the three day event.

Action will take place from 8am each day and finals are scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Please see below for the current New Zealand Pro Series rankings after three of five events.

Open Men’s Division Top 10
1, Maz Quinn (Gis)
2, Billy Stairmand (Rag)
3, JC Susan (Dun)
4, Luke Hughes (Rag)
5, Harrison Whiteside (ChCh)
6, Matt-Lewis Hewitt (Mnt)
7, Buck Woods (Gis)
8, Jack Wilson (Chch)
9, Elliot Paerata – Reid (Piha)
10, Sam Sands (Chch)

Under 20 Boys Division Top 5
1, Callum Chuter (Tau)
2, Taylor Hutchison (Rag)
3, Harrison Whiteside (ChCh)
4, Jack Wilson (Chch)
5, Dune Kennings (Whmata)

Under 17 Boys Division Top 5
1, Jonas Tawharu (Mnt)
2, Jared Gebert (Ohope)
3, Dylan Preston (Whmata)
4, Elliot Brown (Dun)
5, Lee Ririnui (Mnt)

Under 14 Boys Division Top 5
1, Tom Robinson (Whngrei)
2, Myka Black (Chch)
3, Taylor O’Leary (Mur)
4, James Ririnui (Mnt)
5, Tom Butland (Tara)

Information
For more information on the Go Pro Canterbury Championships please contact Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.  Alternatively contact Russell Ritchie on 0274325972 – russell.ritchie@xtra.co.nz.

The Go Pro Canterbury Men’s Surfing Championships would not be possible without the support of Go Pro, Fussion Solutions, Mike Pero Real Estate, Pier Lodge, host club North Wai Boardriders and the South Island Surfing Association.

Imagery
High resolution images will be available to media upon request. Images will be distributed free of charge.

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Ends

Trying to decide on the right boards to take when you go away on your winter escape to the tropics can be quite a hard and complicated decision. With all the swell charts these days it can make that choice a lot easier specially if your going for a week or so but if your going for longer there can be lots of variables. With all the board changes in the last five to ten years to smaller equipment the days of packing half your board bag with 7’0″- 7’6″s and the sorts are long gone. I can remember my early days on the WQS I would have at least a 6’6″ or 6’8″ in my bag.

My last trip to the Mentawai’s was on boat in 2007 I think. That was the start of the shorter board era and my biggest board was a 6’4″. Which I rode on the last day because I snapped all my shorter boards (In one session at HT’s same day). What I learned on that trip was that for me I didn’t need that length of board in perfect waves. It was easier to ride shorter boards once you catch the waves and because the waves are so perfect in Indo you can catch bigger waves easier. They feel way better in the barrel and you can weave inside a heaving pit. Easier to turn and get out of awkward situations. They don’t catch rails in the tube or out on the face by having too much length. If they started feeling a bit slidey just put bigger fins in.

One of the problems I do see out here and at home because of the shorter board phenom, is guys going short which is fine but once you go shorter you have to think about all the foam your losing, so to compensate you have to add more thickness and width. I not always believed this, but now I say foam is your friend, embrace it. The more foam the easier it is to catch waves. The wider it is the more stability you’ll have. With the new volume measurement it makes life so much easier to work out how much foam you should have under your chest.

Now my boards I’ve taken away to the Indo have all been 6’2″ and under with most being 6’0″ with different tails. Mainly rounded pins and rounded squares. This trip my quiver of SuperBrands are the following,

5’11″ x 19 1/4″ – 28L –  Pigdog model – Rounded pin
6’0″ x 19″ – 28L –  Answer model – Rounded square
6’0″ x 19″ – 28L –  Burnside model – Rounded pin
6’0″ x 19″ – 28L – Answer model – Rounded pin
6’2″ x 18 3/4″ – 28L – Answer model – Rounded pin

The owner of Wavepark Mentawai Christie Carter had a unusual system one year out here on what board to ride. In a rack of nine boards he numbered them one to nine put the numbers in a hat along two bits of paper with a star and one blank. Every session he picked out of the hat a number, whatever it was he had to ride that board no matter how big or small it was. The two stars meant he could chose which board and the blank paper was a staff member could choose for him…..One session at eight foot Bank Vaults on a longboard was one to remember.

“A week before I even left for the Mentawai’s my car with five boards, clothes, passport, computer, GoPro, iPad, sunglasses got stolen from my car which was parked outside a mate’s house in Eden Terrance in Auckland while I was down in Dunedin for a week. Yeah I know I shouldn’t have left most of that gear in there but nothing was viewable maybe except half of my coffin board bag but who would even know what that was, specially though dark tints. Well someone did and when I received a call in Dunedin from Police saying someone had broken in to my car, well some may say I wasn’t too happy but I thought they must have taken a couple of the bags not boards or anything. But when I called my mate Lyndon to check out my car he confirmed the worst, my car had been cleaned out. What mutts.

Long painful story short, insurance paid to replace everything but the worst was my lappy with all the photos of my son Cooper growing up, I’m still shattered about that as didn’t back them up on anything. Big lessons learnt there, rookie mistakes. With the boards lucky I’ve a few boards in zee quiver so that was no problem except there were two magic SuperBrand’s out of the five which were in the car. On the bright side I’ll have five new boards waiting for me when I get home.

I went for a quick side trip to Bali first, I was arriving on a Friday and was excited to watch the All Blacks play Oz the next day but I got delayed out of Sydney so ended up missing my connecting flight to Bali and was flying as the AB’s tonked Ozzie which would have been good to watch.

Bali was fun surfed a few times mainly to be honest on the beach, went out to Ulu’s for the first time since 99 I think. Wow firstly to the motorbike ride out there, fark what a nightmare and wow to how different it was at Ulu’s all the hotels, buildings etc. Incredibly built up now. Waves where ok except for the white helmet guy who was baining me so hard. Paddling all over the place inside around in circles but seemed to get every wave somehow. When got back to Kuta was telling Indian Nick or Chongee about him who said “oh not white helmet guy, he’s in my top three bains” so it wasn’t just me.

Rewind a bit to the reason I was coming out to the Mentawai’s. Was at a BBQ in Gisborne last December and I had seen all the photo’s and clips from the year from the Mentawai’s. Was one of the best years ever out there, swell after swell and all the spots fired. Anyways Christie Carter who owns and runs Wavepark Mentawai Resort is from Gisborne and I grew up a few doors down from him at Wainui Beach, he also was at the BBQ and we gotten chatting about the year out there and the pumping surf etc. I was like oh you don’t need a bar tender out there next year do you? Pretty much as a joke but kinda not really haha. Well turned out he said he might have a guide opening though, as one of his might not be able to make a slot. I was like hmmm really? Hell yes, we kept in touch when he went back out and sure enough I was in. Guiding guests in mid August to second week October was the slot. What a gig!

I’ve been out here ten days now, had our first group of guests though which was only six people.( Resort takes twelve max) Three couples and four of those surfed. Four Australians and two from Austria. Poor guy Roland from Austria hadn’t surfed since his last surf trip eight months ago! A real nice group of people who were frothing to get out there. Hideaways is out the front which is a pretty nice wave, hollow left on the right tide and really smash able on the high with lost of push. The winds have been South East the whole time so Hideaways,  E-Bay, Beng Bengs and Pit-Stops are the pick in this area. We has one day that was six foot at times but quite long lulls. Hideaways is strange will be flat as then all of sudden six footers will come though for an hour then stop completely for a few hours then start up again. Starting to get my head around what times in the tide are good when it will turn on. Had a couple fun days at Pitstops, such a rippable wave. You always see it in the clips when the guys are punting up a storm,  the reefs pretty mellow and it finishes on sand.

There’s waves for all ability’s out here which is one of the magic things about this region. From hollow as waves to super playful where you don’t  have to worry about the bottom.

Looks like there’s a few swells lined up so I’ll keep you posted. Praying for Rifles!”

MAZ.

Check out a few pics in this featured gallery of the surfing that had the on hand crowd hollering.

The Results were:

Open Men’s Final
Maz Quinn (Gis), 16.93, 1, Bobby Hansen (Gis), 15.37, 2, Daniel Kereopa (Rag), 14.03, 3, Alex Dive (Mnt), 12.23, 4

Open Women’s Final
Ella Williams (Whmata), 15.7, 1, Sarah Mason (Aus), 14.2, 2, Jessica Santorik (Rag), 11.2, 3, Gabriella Sansom (Auck), 10.1, 4

Under 20 Boys Final
Elliot Paerata Reid (Piha), 15.9, 1, Paul Moretti (Mimiwhangata), 15.8, 2, Kehu Butler (Arataki), 14, 3, Dune Kennings (Whmata), 4

Surfing New Zealand
St Clair Beach, Dunedin
3 – 5 April 2015

Stellar conditions for day one of South Island Champs in Dunedin

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 3 April, 2015 St. Clair Beach, New Zealand - Dunedin laid on a stunning day for the opening of the South Island Surfing Championships being held at St Clair Beach yesterday.

New Zealand’s traditional Easter weekend surfing event has attracted over 140 entries spread across ten divisions and day one offered 1.0m – 1.5m waves, light winds and temperatures well into the mid-twenties.

The premier Open Men’s Division kicked off the day with number one seed Maz Quinn (Gis) dominating his heat to move through to the quarterfinals alongside young Christchurch surfer Max Cooke.

While proceedings went to plan for Quinn posting a 14.0 point heat total, the same could not be said for defending event champion Tane Wallis (Piha) who was bundled out of the event at the hands of Luca Burnotti (Dun) and Jonny Wardrop (Kaik).

Wallis claimed a come from behind win over Quinn in 2014 scoring a perfect 10 point ride as the final hooter sounded.  This year he will have to rely on his older brother Zen Wallis to keep the title in the family.  Zen progressed to the quarterfinals on day one posting an 11.67 point heat score to advance alongside Ben Rees (Chch).

Others to stand out in the Open Men’s Division included Josh Thickpenny (Dun), JC Susan (Dun) and Joe Palmer (Kerikeri) who all won their heats.

Local Dunedin surfer Hayley Coakes dominated the Open Women’s Division posting a convincing heat win with a 10.07 point heat total to advance to the semifinals.  Southland surfer Jess Terrill also looked impressive placing second to Coakes.  The two surfers will meet Shani Ayson (Dun), Tash Mattingly (Dun), Isabelle Wollaston (Chch) and Pae Pou (Southland) in the semifinals.

The preliminary rounds of the Under 20 and Under 17 Boys Divisions were contested with a number of young up and comers vying for a chance to surf against the top seeds in the quaterfinals.

Local star Elliot Brown was amongst the day one winners clinching two heat wins to set up a busy day two of the event.  Australian based Xavier Campbell returned home for the event and also progressed through two rounds of the junior divisions.

Campbell’s Dad, Scotty James contested the seniors divisions coming up trumps in his two heats as well to advance to the semifinals of the Over 28 and Over 35 Men’s Divisions.  Other heat winners included Felix Dickson (Dun), Neil Robb (Chch), Luke Murphy (Dun) and Richard Ayson (Dun).

Conditions are expected to be similar for day two of the event with variable winds and a 1.0m swell forecast today.

Christie Confirmed For World Surfing League After an Anxious 16 Days

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 21 December, 2014 – Richard Christie (Gisborne) has been confirmed as a starter for the 2015 World Surfing League – previously known as the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour. After a long day of waiting while the best surfers in the world competed at the Billabong Pipeline Masters, it was Australian Adrian Buchan that finally put an end to the last man standing in the way of Christie’s qualification – Alejo Muniz of Brazil.

Muniz had to win the event to requalify for the 2015 tour but ultimately placed fifth on a day that Brazilian Gabriel Medina claimed his and Brazil’s first ever world title. 26-year-old Christie had to wait an agonising 16 days between the time he last competed in Hawaii until today to get confirmation of his tour card.

“It has been the longest two weeks of my life” said an emotional Christie. “It is really hard to have the outcome out of your hands for that long, it has been overwhelming to be honest” added Christie who now says he has to look forward and start to visualise the wave at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast, the destination of the first event in 2015.

“It has been a long road, but I am stoked to be at that next level and now I have to start again and get ready for a big year in 2015.”

As the Kiwi surfing community rode out every Alejo Muniz heat on the edge of their seats today, Christie had to take a step back after Muniz defeated 11x world champion Kelly Slater in his first heat.

“Today was heavy, I watched Alejo beat Slater and at that point it got too much so I said, ‘alright I am leaving.’” Christie took off to the beach at Gisborne where his sponsor, The Boardroom, was running a fun kids surfing event and he helped them out. “I didn’t watch Alejo beat Fanning and people were at the beach congratulating me and I was like ‘not yet, not yet.”

Christie finally plucked up the courage to head back home to watch the event. He caught the final 15 minutes of the heat between Alejo Muniz and Adrian Buchan and got confirmation that he had qualified when Muniz lost the heat.

Christie is the first Kiwi male to qualify for the World Surfing League since Maz Quinn (Gis) spent a year on tour in 2002. Paige Hareb (Tara) recently came off the Women’s Tour after a fantastic six year tenure.

The ever humble Christie was quick to thank everyone for the support he has received all year and especially the last two weeks. “My family, friends, sponsors, the whole of New Zealand who have been behind me, the people that supported me through my crowd funding campaigns, I don’t know, just everyone. Sometimes when you are living out of bag on the other side of the world and particularly for the last two months that I was away, all of that support means the world.”

Surfing New Zealand CEO Greg Townsend said that qualification for the 2015 World Surfing League could not have happened to a better guy. “Ricardo is a very humble person who has stuck at it through the ups and downs and it has paid off for him in the end” he said. “This is fantastic for Ricardo, Surfing New Zealand and New Zealand surfing. It is a real credit to him, his family, supporters and fans” added Townsend.

Christie had an excellent end to the season on the World Qualifying Series placing third at the Azores Pro and a fifth at the Saquarema Pro in Brazil to elevate him into qualification contention before his ninth placing at the Vans World Cup of Surfing just over two weeks ago.

Flash Back Friday X Maz Quinn

During the mid 90′s Billabong brought the most prestigious surf comp we have ever had on our shores for several years in a row attracting huge names to Raglan which delivered pumping surf. Maz Quinn was the home town hero and a nation turned out to cheer him on from the rocks in 96 when he rampaged his way to the final against Occy, Tim Curran, and Danny Wills. Maz went on to finish second and this very event launched him onto the wqs with a bang.

Gisborne’s Tuamotu Island is one lucky piece of salvation for local Gisborne surfers, After scoring all morning at the local beach breaks this last week, when the stinking hot days became to much for the land and it turned sea breeze that offered up a few classic waves at “The Bowl’ One of the many surf breaks that exist on Tuamotu Island, the Saturday arvo session had many wondering where the hell everyone was with only a handful enjoying the offshore waves on offer. I guess they are all surfed out after Cyclone Mikes week of East swell only days prior.

Here we take a look at the four finalists and break down their competitive results at the Nationals over their careers.

MAZ QUINN:

Well lets start with Maz, we all know the name and know what he is capable of! The only kiwi male surfer to qualify for the world tour, Maz missed out on attending many National Championships in his prime due to clashes in scheduling and the rules of ASP meaning he could not compete in un-sanctioned events. Maz has four Nationals titles to his name and has been gunning to ad a fifth to that for a number of years now to join Ratso and Wayne Parkes on the record five titles. Things haven’t gone his way the last few years, but this is home soil we are on now, and Maz has the experience to boot. SO many times he appears to be cruising then come final time he shifts into another level. If the surf is small and aerial moves come into play Maz cannot match some of the other lads in those conditions, but tomorrow that will not happen, it will be big and raw and that’s how Maz likes it.

BILLY STAIRMAND:

The only current world tour competitor in this final, that day in day out competitive environment that Billy competes in will serve him well in matters of decision and holding his nerve. The two time Open Champion is more well served in small surf where he can perform moves where others simply cant even float especially in small rights. However he also has one of the best backhand attacks in the world and he is comfortable throwing his tail vertically in any size surf on the lefts. And although he is more well known for his small wave attack he did beat Kelly Slater in big stormy right handers at Margaret River.

JAY QUINN:

Sitting on three Open titles Jay wants a fourth badly and seems super focussed, he has always had a intense rivalry with his brother and although he wouldn’t admit it he would take great satisfaction from equalling Maz with four titles. Jay came super close to qualifying for the World Dream Tour two years back, before losing his long time sponsor and the pin had to be pulled on a world tour dream. In 2013 he competed with the help of his new sponsor Mambo in a couple of selected events where he performed exceptional picking up enough rating points to sit inside the top 50 for most of the year, however simply couldn’t afford to travel and enter any more comps. The National Title is huge for Jay and he has the complete package of progressive surfing plus power, so it wont matter what tomorrow brings, Jay will be ready!

BOBBY HANSEN:

The home town favourite! All week the comp has been held at Bobby’s home break of Makorori, where he learnt to surf and still surfs most days of his life. Bobby has been making National  finals pretty much just after he learnt to walk and has had nothing short of a horror run of luck with injuries that have cost him a shot at a National Title, he says he is simply surfing for the fun of it and that a title would be sweet, but he deep down really wants it, perhaps he has had so many let downs he doesn’t want to talk himself up. In 2002 at Raglan, Bobby was hands down the hottest property at the Nationals and was winning heats with his hands tied behind his back, if he had made the final nothing or no one would have stopped him, however in the quarter finals he fell dislocating his shoulder and surgery put him out of the water for close to a year, he had a another two full shoulder reconstruction’s over the coming years which have taken huge chunks out of what he could have achieved during his career. He also competed on the World Qualifying Tour coming very close in his last year.  Bobby also has the complete package of radical aerial moves and huge rail turns, but it is his speed along the wave that could prove the difference against his fellow competitors, and a win will see Gisborne rocking!