The NMD/Mountain Dew Blaketown challenge was run over Queens Birthday weekend the 5-7th June 2010. The ‘barber’ (wind and cloud from the Southern Alps) was in full force first thing in the morning with howling offshore winds powering down from recently snow capped mountains. Large and tricky conditions greeted riders with heavy, straight closeouts lining the beach. Judges rugged up well in sleeping bags, puffer jackets, nana’s old blankets and anything that they could find in order to fight the frigid conditions.
Check out http://bbsnz.isolated.co.nz for more details…
Day 6: Waves – 2ft picking up to some possible 3ft sets in the afternoon, much better waves than the previous day
Day 6 was the last day of the competition for 2009. Today we had the Pro DK and Pro Womens finals and then all of the finals. The red hot Serena Ball was up in the early semi final heat and found it to be one step too far against the pro girls, bowing out in the semi final of the pro womens event. Serena would have her shot at redemption in the Open Womens final later in the day.
Next up was Sam Peters who had shook off his earlier disappointment in the Nationals DK by progressing through to the semi finals of the Pro Dk event. Sam surfed a really strong, powerful heat with some great waves but was unfortunately undone by eventual pro winner Dave Winchester and eventual Nationals DK winner Dane Pope.
Day 5: Waves – 1-2ft at best, weak swell and cross shore winds. Pumping….
Day 5 greeted us with by far the worst conditions of the whole event. A small, pussy swell which was pretty gutless. Still there were some sections to be had and some of Australasia’s finest talent were making the mediocre waves look great!! With the 2009 Rebel Sport Pro event taking over for the day, we had our riders up in the Pro Women’s and Pro DK.
First to hit the water today was the in form Serena Ball who was up against some of Australia’s finest in the Pro Women’s event. Serena continued her excellent surfing in the below average conditions with a really convincing heat, finishing easily in second place and progressing through to the next round. In the following heat was Eiko Yoshimura who unfortunately managed to pick up one of the most stacked heats of the day with ex Australian champions and some of Australia’s top talent in her heat. Eiko got off to a great start and pushed in to first place but was unable to hold on for the duration of the 25 minute heat and in the end was pushed out by the stronger finishing, more experienced competitors.
Day 4: Waves – 1-2ft, clean swell with light offshore winds, which swung onshore early afternoon and made conditions difficult at best!
Today was the most mellow of all the days so far with John Diamond the only surfer up for the day. After a good samaritan deed that went wrong, John was sporting the good part of a dozen stitches in his chin courtesy of a Brisbane meat head. John was up around 2pm and by this stage in the day the reasonable morning conditions had got a lot worse and things were a bit hit or miss on the wave front. John was up against a stacked heat in his Senior Mens semi and surfed as well as the conditions would allow, very narrowly missing out on 2nd place by less than a point! A top 6 finish for John in his chosen division was an excellent result for 2009.
Making things a little more exciting/dangers was one of Australias notorious Brown Snakes coming out of its burrow mid way through Johns heat and proceeding to slither through the area where the NZ team were set up before a Jarad Ferris lookalike tried to tame it, Steve Irwin style. It was safe to say none of the NZ Team were too keen to tango with one of the deadliest snakes in the world!
Day 3: Waves – 2-3ft, clean swell with light offshore winds, consistent, fun conditions.
Day Three started out looking a lot more promising, with the light offshore breeze now cleaning up the clean, fun little swell that was still offering up some great ramps and little pits for all of the competitors. First up for the day were the two Open Women semi finalists. After their placings on the previous day they had both progressed through to the same Semi Final and as it was only a three woman semi, NZ was now guaranteed its first finalist, if not two! Both girls surfed awesome up against one of Australias top riders and pushed her all the way. In the end it was a super close heat with Eiko Yoshimura finishing up in 3rd, meaning Serena Ball had advanced through to the Open Womens final – an awesome result for day 3.
Day 2: Waves – 2-3ft, cleaning up swell, changing conditions through the tide.
First up this morning was the Grommets division and Willy Nepia-Murray was in the water for his first heat of the event. Willy Surfed a great heat and managed to get one great wave under his belt. He didn’t manage to lock down a second good wave and just slipped in to third place, which was not enough to progress through to the latter rounds of his chosen division.
Surfed next after the Grommets were the early rounds of the Dropknee division. Three of our competitors were in this division looking for a shot at the Australasian title. Sam Peters was the first dropknee rider out in a relatively stacked heat. Sam surfed a great heat with a number of solid waves but just dipped out by .19 against the second placed rider which brought his 2009 Australasian Nationals campaign to an end. In the 3rd heat of the round was Bayden Barber, the Hawkes Bay local. Bayden used his trademark smooth style and powerful hacks to progress through to the next round of the Dropknee.
The team arrived in Australia on Saturday morning and spent the first couple of days surfing some fun waves around the Gold Coast area, shopping, sunbathing and getting ready for the week long competition starting on Monday morning.
Day 1: Waves – 3-5ft, messy, raw swell, changing conditions through the tide.
Day one started out with some pretty chunky, shifty conditions at D-Bah beach for the 1st Day of the 2009 Australasian Nationals. First time team member Alex Elder was up in the very first heat of the competition starting at 8am on Monday morning. Alex got a pretty raw deal with a terrible sweep on the paddle out and had to settle for a couple of waves late in the heat which was not enough to get him through to the second round.
| Next Page » |