Surfing New Zealand News Roundup

ESPN X Games
Paige Hareb (Tara) has been all over the media recently with her trip to the X Games as part of the world team. What many didn’t realise was that New Zealand provided two surfers for the event with Jay Quinn (Gis) also competing for the world team. The event was held at Puerto Escondido in Mexico – commonly referred to as Mexican Pipe.

Unfortunately both world teams lost to the USA but the surf was epic and the word is that Jay Quinn surfed brilliantly for the world team. You can check out the full event broadcast on http://expn.go.com/expn/index where you will also find highlights including Jay Quinn’s insane stand up barrel that earned him a near perfect 9.5 point ride. You can also read Paige Hareb’s blog at http://www.stuff.co.nz/4117476a1823.html where she explains what it was like to be part of the talented world team and the rivalry between their team coaches among other interesting things about the event.

Grommets Also Excel in Aussie
While our stop surfers have been over in Mexico the young guns have been in Australia competing at Occy’s Grom Comp and the Rusty Gromfest. More than dozen of New Zealand’s top young surfers took to the water for the two events. New Zealand representatives Matt Hewitt (Mnt) and Alexis Poulter (Rag) were the two standout New Zealand surfers at the events making the finals of their respective divisions. Hewitt surfed to fourth in the under 16 boys division at Occy’s Grom Comp while Poulter surfed to fourth in the under 14 girls division at the Rusty Gromfest. Also surfing well at the events were Piha’s Ryan Hawker who placed 7th in the under 16 boys division at the Rusty Gromfest and Buck Woods (Gis) who placed 7th at Occy’s Grom Comp.

Rip Curl GromSearch - Taras
The second leg of the Rip Curl GromSearch takes place at Fitzroy Beach, New Plymouth this weekend, 14th and 15th of July. Another big turn out of surfers means that the groms will be firing up the shores of Taras throughout the weekend. The top three seeded surfers in the under 16s, Matt Hewitt, Ryan Hawker and Buck Woods are competing overseas which opens the door for a new face to secure a berth in the national final should they win the event. Local surfer Tyler Anderson won the first event of the series and will want to put in another good performance as will Braedon Williams (WGM) who is right on Andersons heals currently ranked fifth. As well as the premier under 16 boys division, a further five divisions will be contested over the weekend. Many of the groms that have been in Aussie will want to come back and show what they have learnt over the ditch as they vie for valuable rating points here in New Zealand.

Polar Bear Surf Event All Go
The Mega Surf Polar Bear Surfriding Classic is all go for 2007. The event will be held at Sandy Bay, Whangarei on the 4th and 5th of August. The event has a long tradition in New Zealand and this year will see five divisions contested from the open men and women through to the juniors, over 40s and a longboard division. Hosted by North Coast Boardriders this event is definitely worth attending.