New Zealand Beat South Africa to Regain the SANZ Trophy

A one day delay in contesting the SANZ Trophy (due to small surf) has not hampered the Rip Curl New Zealand Junior Surfing Team after they sealed a narrow victory over South Africa to win the two nation event. The SANZ Trophy has been contested between the NZ and South African teams for the past three years, this being the second time NZ have won the event. The event acts as a build up to the prestigious ISA Quiksilver World Junior Championships which are being held at the same location from the 9th – 16th.

Contested in small 1ft-2ft conditions at Huntington Beach, the Kiwis walked away with wins in the Under 18 Girls, Under 16 Boys and runner up in the Under 18 Boys to seal the victory.

New Zealand surfers Paige Hareb (Tara) and Jess Santorik (Rag) dominated the Under 18 Girls final with superb tactics and strong surfing. Some great paddling duals by Hareb had her punching well above her weight, surfing with amazing speed to take out first with Santorik surfing her usual consistent and very competitive self to finish second. Santorik struggled in the later half of the heat with a hip injury after a heavy landing in shallow shore dump.

Earlier, both Airin Mason (ex Gis) and Mischa Davis (Piha) struggled to find the cleaner waves finishing their heat in third and fourth.

In a close Under 16 Boys final, Tim O’Connor (Mnt) pulled it together on his tenth and final wave of the final to surf an event high 7.0 ride to pip fellow Kiwi Billy Stairmand (Rag) for first place. The two surfers dominated the heat in a superb display of surfing to keep the South African surfers well and truly at arms length.

Earlier, Stairmand snuck into second place and progressed through his first heat ahead on Sandy Bays Paco Divers after a tight five wave count-back. Gisborne’s Bodhi Whitaker ended his heat in fourth place struggling to find the scarce clean waves that were on offer.

With surf conditions deteriorating due to tide and the sea breeze the Under 18 final proved to be a nail biter. Some consistent and tactically excellent surfing from Morehu Roberts (Rag) saw him just edged out of first by SA’s No.1 seed, Jordy Smith to finish 2nd. Richard Christie (Gis) was surfing strongly in the final with critical moves for a big boy in small surf but was not able to pick up waves that allowed him to string together several moves on a wave. He finished a very close fourth.

Keirin Van Der Helder (Rag) and Dean Amess (WGM) were eliminated in their first heats placing third and fourth.

The NZ coaches were extremely happy with the team’s competitive attitude to take the SANZ trophy back from South Africa. The team is in great spirits and working well together, supporting one another and looking forward to an increasing swell for the start of the main event (Monday NZ time)

Source: Surfing NZ

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