For immediate release
7th October 2024
From: Surfing New Zealand
Sport: Junior Surfing
Events: 2024 National Scholastic Surfing Championships
Dates: 7-11 October
Location: St Clair, Dunedin
Event Info: Surfing New Zealand
School Surfing kicks off in Dunedin
Just under 100 secondary school students have made their way to St Clair beach in Dunedin for the 2024 National Scholastic Secondary School Surfing Championships.
Day 1 took place on a beautiful Dunedin day with warm sunny weather and blue skies. The waves hovered in the 1 to 1.5m mark for the duration of the day allowing competitors to become accustomed to the Dunedin conditions.
A 9am start saw the Under 14 Boys take to the water for the opening of the event. Jesse Frazerhurst of Auckland put on a clinic in the mid-morning goodness with a combined heat total of 17.5 which turned out to be the highest heat total of the round. Kentaro Mitchell of Ahipara, local surfer Flint Sherbourne France, Levi Devine Collins of Taranaki and Sol Fritchley also opened their campaigns with first round wins in the Under 14 boys division.
The biggest division of the event took to the water at 11am with Alexis Owen going to town in his home waters finding 6 waves and a 15.84 total to take the win convincingly. Jack Higgins backed up his Otago teammate with a win in heat 3 whilst Zade Pitkeathly made a strong showing for the Bay of Plenty with wins alongside Sev Tolhurst of Auckland, Tommy Lodge of Northland and Harrison Biddle of the Coromandel.
The National Scholastic Surfing Championships has been held since 1989. The event, which has unearthed generations of top Kiwi talent, takes place along the Esplanade at St Clair between the 7th and 11th of October. The event comprises eight age group divisions for males and females across both shortboard and longboard disciplines.
The Under 14 Girls took to the water in the afternoon and despite a light Seabreeze disturbing the clean conditions they managed to put on a great performance for the crowd gathering in the afternoon sun. Lola Groube found her rhythm early getting a number of small scoring rides on the board before clever positioning in the lineup allowed her to find 2 good scoring waves towards the end of the heat for the win.
Heat 2 saw Bay of Plenty’s Jayda Bramley put up a dominant performance against her Northland opponents Zoe Caulton and Isla Mckay who couldn’t quite find the waves they needed to knock her from the top position.
After her second-place performance In round 1 local girl Pipiata Ritchie put on an excellent performance finding a 6.17 and a 5.17 in quick succession which would prove enough to hold the Coromandel’s Lola Groube in 2nd position and Jayda Bramley in 3rd, Zoe Caulton of Northland came in 4th.
As the day began to come to a close 3 heats of the under 16 girls took to the water as a cold southerly front looked to dampen the afternoons proceedings. It was Northlands Indi Lee Ruddell, who started her campaign with a convincing win over her Auckland and Otago opponents whilst in Heat 2 Coromandel surfer Chloe Groube took the win over Bay of Plenty surfer Sage Fritchley and Gisborne surfers Lucy Mcdiarmid and Bonnie Lynch.
The Under 18 girls saw some late afternoon drama with Te Waiotu Fairlie of Gisborne taking the win over Leia Millar and India Kennings after a priority error. Heat 2 saw Grace Gundry put on a solid performance over her South Island opponents taking the win with a 7.83 heat total.
Sophia Brock of Bay of Plenty rounded out an action-packed day of school surfing with a dominant performance over the Otago duo Tessa Gabbott and Misha Perouyx. With an excellent 8.0 ride which had “The Esplanade” cheering and a mid-range back up, Brock was unstoppable in her opening round matchup.
Day 2 of the event will see the opening round of the Under 18 boys take to the water at St Clair Beach at 8am followed by another action-packed day of requalifying rounds and Quarterfinals
Nine regional teams from throughout the country contest the event vying for both individual titles as well as the overall team title. Auckland is the defending champion at the event having won the event in Taranaki waters in 2022.
The final day of the event is being streamed on the Whakaata Maori YouTube channel.
The draw, live scores and all other information can be found by searching Surfing New Zealand on www.liveheats.com or Here.
Further Information
For further information on the 2024 National Scholastic Surfing Championships please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Dan Westerkamp on 021 02672292 or email dan.westerkamp@surfingnz.co.nz.
Imagery
High resolution action images of the surfing will be available to media free of charge upon request.
Social Media
Keep up with all the action by following @surfingnz on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Partners
The 2024 National Scholastic Surfing Championships is sanctioned by Surfing New Zealand, Secondary School Sport NZ. The event is made possible with the support of Pub Charity.
The National Scholastic Secondary School Champs are supported by the New Zealand Sports Collective, Whakaata Maori, Caltex, Bayleys, Apollo Projects and NZ Carbon Farming.
Surfing New Zealand is proudly partnered by:
Sport NZ
Sun Bum
OSM
Ends
Go to Surfing New Zealand
Author: Dan Westerkamp