The 2010 O'Neill Auckland Champs

Comment Share Posted on Tuesday November 23rd 2010 at 12:00 p.m. Tweet

This Saturday saw the 2010 O'Neill Auckland Champs run to full capacity at Maori Bay. A stacked draw ran back-to-back-to-back in maxing conditions - twelve hours of attrition, drama and some of the best performance surfing seen at the A.C's for a long while.

Rumours had dogged the lead up. Nasty thirty feet at eighteen seconds out of the north-west kind of rumours, the kind that scare you. Many surfers were strongly considering a strategic Saturday morning sleep-in, missing their heats, saving money and lives (both their own).

Auckland surfers can be a contradictory lot at times. Often apologetic, verging on ashamed, of their local situation - too crowded, lack of set-ups, travel time between spots, too big, too small they'll say - yet fiercely parochial when a regional competition comes around to stir up the smog-laced pools of civic pride. Weirdo's.

Like all the best rag-tag gangs, you gotta protect your patch, bro. That's why it was darned good to see the turn out of local crew aiming the title rightfully theirs that so often gets pilfered to the provinces.

09'ers Bevan Wiig, Steve Hamlyn, Scott Bell (who secured the home title in 2008) Mischa Davis, Sonia Michaels, Andrew Robinson, Tom Kibblewhite, Sam Jackman, the Wallis brothers, token local Dan Scott, and a host of grommets from around town - quite the list of local contenders to line the ramparts against the invaders.

Maz Quinn was in town for business.

The 09 Champs every year attracts great surfers from over the border. Maz Quinn was in town for business, Nick White for game, Tim O'Conner to defend his title from last year. Mounties Laura Rishworth and JC Susan, Gisborne's Johnny Hicks, Taranaki's Jarrod Hancox all arrived in foggy morning light - yup, you got it, the AC's transfixes eyes of top dogs nationwide with its city lustre.

Kind of anyway. Cynics may say it's just another contest, or that is should be re-named the All-town champs because of the spread. Whatever the reasoning, those that skipped missed a struggle truly fitting of the country's largest surfing region.

Glassy six-foot Westside power, big moves on big waves and camaraderie to boot. It was stirring stuff. The ladies division hit out early, showing the boys that those sneaker sets were totally makeable. It's always humbling to watch women driving hard down the double-overhead face of a wave, then paddling back out through the next big set to take on another. Laura Rishworth is fast becoming a dominant force on the NZ scene. Her on-rail power surfing and bravado earned her the overall title over next generation local hero, Muriwai's Nichola Colsen-Coster.

The swell woke up late like a GE enhanced ninja with a black hangover. What had started out manageable fast grew up intimidating with a bad attitude - kind of like the grommets fronting in the Under 18's, ‘cept they're all nice kids. The earlier morning heats had long intervals between the sets, and the youngsters duly spun and weaved lip tricks. By the time it hit six feet for the groms' finals however, they began to be referred to as young men.

Tane Wallis has contests down, always finding the scores he needs. In the final he came up just short, but had already out performed almost every surfer on this day - getting tubed, busting airs and smacking hits on solid sections. JC Susan hadn't really surfed the Bay before, but his smart moves with flashy critical style got the glory nod from the judges across the board. Eliott Paerata and local boy Sam Haven earned their finals berths with hard-charging surfing throughout, both naturals rode some of the best rights of the day.

Maori Bay can be better with size. The island a mile or so offshore cuts marching swells in two, at times making the Bay look deceptively perfect: an A-frame middle peak, lefts at Shag Rock in the southern corner, random shallow dredgers up the north end before heading passed the Fisherman's Rock and around to Muriwai under the watchful eye of gannets and tourists alike.

But over about five feet of pure Tasman juice though, and for every perfect wedge you scratch into there'll be what seems like twenty double-up dumpers unloading on your head on the way back out. The surfers that had made it to the finals rounds had all proven themselves to be strong and savvy.

Dipping in the semi's but honourable in defeat were Pando Robinson on a Slater-esque shortboard, Conrad Knott representing best out of the Maori Bay Boardriders, Tom Kibblewhite enjoying himself for once on a under 8-foot board, and Timmy O' who gave it everything he had to back up his title, but the Bay had other ideas.

It was high sea drama all day. By the Open final though the conditions finally got too much - closeouts instead of wedges with a strong current dragging the surfers north, and the hazy afternoon light flattened the visuals of an otherwise very engaging days surfing.

Zen Wallis forged some big hacks on the cleaner waves throughout the day and had snuck into the final under the radar somewhat, as is totally his style. He finished a credible 4th - not a bad come back considering he nearly missed his first heat!

Nick White is somewhat of a seasoned campaigner nowadays, having done two years on the international scene chasing the WQS tour, and it shows in his act. Committed full-rail turns with huge fans, and an it-ain't-over-til-the-horn-sounds attitude. Bummer was though he got washed halfway around to Muriwai and couldn't find the wave he needed to bring him back further than a 3rd place result.

Mustachioed Dan Scott has done his time in Aux over the years and it was great to see him hitting back into the contest arena. Big hooks signatured his day, and it took a brutal lip dance and a broken legrope to end his run. He deserved his second placing, or at least a few cool brews, for his freestyle efforts chasing his board as it washed dangerously close to the rocks. Even at the end of a huge day, Dan was still powered up, good to see!

And in first, and correct me if I'm wrong, for his first ever Auckland Champ crown, came Maz Quinn. Always a favourite, but this was no easy win. Quinny dug deep, paddled hard through relentless closeouts, and charged some big-ass turns on very heavy sections to battle through to the final. He certainly didn't have it all his own way. It ended however with his usual matrix-like grace under fire: A massive tail-dropper float down an angry Mud plughole sealed the win. Sheesh!

Everybody was exhausted. Surfers were buckled from the paddle. Judges heads hung after a day spent defining colour and form within a hazy fray. Photographers felt stinky. Even the crowd felt the energy ebb on shore, whilst out the back eight-footers started peeling out near the island. The ocean wins again!

Results:

U18> 1)JC Susan 2) Tane Wallis 3) Elliot Paerata 4) Sam Haven.

Womens> 1) Laura Rishworth 2) Nichola Colsen-Coster 3) Mischa Davis 4) Sonia Michaels.

Open> 1) Maz Quinn 2) Dan Scott 3) Nick White 4) Zen Wallis.

Rowan Klevstul has been documenting and writing about surfing in New Zealand since 2000. If you're after a piece of eclectic surf photography, contact Rowan on 021 252 7970 or at rjklevstul@clear.net.nz.

The 2010 O'Neill Auckland Champs was hosted by Maori Bay Boardrider's over the weekend, November 20th at Maori Bay. Sponsors involved this year:  O'Neill, Huffer, Red Bull, Hoven, Sol, Sticky Johnson, Hardcore surf and 09 Magazine all coming on board with a solid amount of prizes given out.