Raglan’s talent-laden Point Boardriders Club conquered all comers at the inaugural Hurley New Zealand Club Championships completed at Whangamata over the weekend, walking away with titles in the Tag Team, Open Men’s and Over 35s divisions.
The team from the West Coast comprised four national title holders, went in to the weekend as favourites on paper and lived up to their reputation.
The fresh event brought together top clubs from around New Zealand with surfers competing as a team rather than individuals. Despite the clean but small 0.5m – 1.0m waves, the teams enjoyed the new event format, cheering on their team mates and surfing for their respective clubs as much as themselves.
Point Boardriders cemented the win in the last event of the day, the Tag Team final, when they went head-to-head with Bay Boardriders of Mount Maunganui. Point got the nod 59.4 points vs the Bay’s 54.35, the win enough to tip the overall result in their favour.
The Point Boardriders team included Billy Stairmand, Luke Hughes, Caleb Cutmore, Chris Malone and Brie Bennett.
The host Whangamata Boardriders Club finished third in the final, unable to match the fire power of the top two teams and also finished third overall spurred on by local support that scattered across the sand dunes.
Lion Rock Boardriders surfing out of Piha finished in fourth in the tag team despite a late comeback with three big rides from their captain Zen Wallis as their last surfer. Their finals berth was not enough to hold down fourth overall at the event, Lion Rock ending in fifth with overall fourth place honours going to Bay Boardriders second team.
Earlier in the day it was Point vs Bay going head-to-head again in the Open Men’s Division via National Champion Billy Stairmand (Rag) and Matt Hewitt (Mnt). The exchange went down to the last ride of the final surfed by Hewitt who fell excruciatingly short leaving the win to Stairmand.
The host Whangamata Boardriders Club had Gauranga Ormond in the final as well but with the tide approaching low both he and Luke Hughes (Rag) could not buy a wave and had to settle for third and fourth respectively.
Whangamata also fell short of a title in the Open Women’s, that honour going to Elin Tawharu (Mnt) with Ella Williams finishing in second place ahead of Wini Paul (North Coast, Sandy Bay) and Gabrielle Paul (Lion Rock).
A second title went to the Tawharu family and the second Bay Boardriders team in the Under 20 Boys Division when he eclipsed the performances of Callum Chuter (Mnt), Shane Kraus (Maori Bay Boardriders) and Manu Scott – Arrieta (Sandy Bay) who finished second trough fourth.
Point Boardriders first title of the day came via Chris Malone in the Over 35 Men’s Division. The dual national champion made easy work of the final getting two great rides in the first five minutes. Owen Barnes (Mnt) finished second in the final ahead of Ben Kennings (WGM) in third and Sam Jackman (Muriwai) in fourth.
Teams for the Hurley New Zealand Club Championships comprised five surfers – two men, one female, one junior (under 20) and one senior (over 35).
The tag team event is a relay-styled format where team mates have a total of one hour to go out and catch three waves each in succession with the teams total points tallied to find an overall winner against the other clubs.
On top of the tag team event, each surfer competed in their age group in standard heats to find division winners with the points split evenly between the tag team format and the individual heats.
Please see below for full results from the inaugural Hurley New Zealand Club Championships completed at Whangamata on Saturday 18th March 2017.
Overall Team Points
Point Boardriders, 7835
Bay Boardriders (Reo), 6990
Whangamata Boardriders, 6295
Bay Boardriders (Mako), 6200
Lion Rock Boardriders, 5625
North Coast Boardriders, 5345
Maori Bay Boardriders, 5180
Waihi Beach Boardriders, 5050
Tag Team Final
Point Boardriders, 59.4, 1, Bay Boardriders (Reo), 54.35, 2, Whangamata Boardriders, 47.87, 3, Lion Rock Boardriders, 43.73, 4
Tag Team Semifinals
Heat 1
Whangamata Boardriders, 67.5, 1, Point Boardriders, 65.9, 2, Bay Boardriders (Mako), 56.9, 3, Maori Bay Boardriders, 49.6, 4
Heat 2
Bay Boardriders (Reo), 66, 1, Lion Rock Boardriders, 52.8, 2, North Coast Boardriders, 52.3, 3, Waihi Beach Boardriders, 49.1, 4
Open Men’s Division Quarterfinals
Heat 1
Levi Stewart (Waihi Bch), 11.5, 1, Tane allis (Piha), 11.1, 2, Patxi Scott – Arrieta (Sandy Bay), 9.07, 3, Kelly Peake (Mnt), 8.47, 4
Heat 2
Billy Stairmand (Rag), 15.5, 1, Alex Dive (Mnt), 12.3, 2, Ben Young (Waihi Bch), 6.93, 3, Travis McCoy (Mnt), 6.47, 4
Heat 3
Matt Hewitt (Mnt), 14.7, 1, Luke Hughes (Rag), 11.83, 2, Mike Phillips (Mur), 11.77, 3, Paul Moretti (Mur), 9.77, 4
Heat 4
Gauranga Ormond (WGM), 10.8, 1, Zen Wallis (Piha), 9.77, 2, Braedon Williams (WGM), 9.5, 3, Chad Dowsett (Sandy Bay), 7.37, 4
Open Men’s Division Semifinals
Heat 1
Luke Hughes (Rag), 13.7, 1, Billy Stairmand (Rag), 13.2, 2, Levi Stewart (Waihi Bch), 12.9, 3, Zen Wallis (Piha), 11.4, 4
Heat 2
Matt Hewitt (Mnt), 12.9, 1, Tane Wallis (Piha), 7.63, 4, Alex Dive (Mnt), 10.8, 3, Gauranga Ormond (WGM), 11.4, 2
Open Men’s Division Final
Billy Stairmand (Rag), 12.6, 1, Matt Hewitt (Mnt), 12.5, 2, Gauranga Ormond (WGM), 8.17, 3, Luke Hughes (Rag), 4.63, 4
Open Women’s Division Semifinals
Heat 1
Ella Williams (WGM), 12.9, 1, Gabrielle Paul (Piha), 8.37, 2, Tinana Breeze de Mooij (Mnt), 8.1, 3, Jasmine Comrie (Waihi Bch), 2.33, 4
Heat 2
Elin Tawharu (Mnt), 13.2, 1, Wini Paul (Sandy Bay), 10.2, 2, Claudia Fraser (Mur), 8.23, 3, Brie Bennett (Rag), 7.67, 4
Open Women’s Division Final
Elin Tawharu (Mnt), 11.5, 1, Ella Williams (WGM), 9.6, 2, Wini Paul (Sandy Bay), 8, 3, Gabrielle Paul (Piha), 6.6, 4
Under 20 Boys Semifinals
Heat 1
Callum Chuter (Mnt), 13.3, 1, Shane Kraus (Mur), 11.8, 2, Caleb Cutmore (Rag), 11.7, 3, Reuben Fleetwood (WGM), 9.1, 4
Heat 2
Manu Scott – Arrieta (Sandy Bay), 14.4, 1, Jonas Tawharu (Mnt), 13.9, 2, Thomas Carter (Waihi Bch), 7, 3, Cassidy Mann (Piha), 4.67, 4
Under 20 Boys Division Final
Jonas Tawharu (Mnt), 13.4, 1, Callum Chuter (Mnt), 10.8, 2, Shane Kraus (Mur), 9.37, 3, Manu Scott – Arrieta (Sandy Bay), 8.2, 4
Over 35 Men’s Division Semifinals
Heat 1
Chris Malone (Rag), 16.2, 1, Sam Jackman (Mur), 9, 2, Morgan Cronin (Piha), 8.43, 3, Peter Rogers (Waihi Bch), 6.4, 4
Heat 2
Ben Kennings (WGM), 15.2, 1, Owen Barnes (Mnt), 13.6, 2, Martin Stenzel (Mnt), 9.13, 3, Simon Egginton (Sandy Bay), 6.5, 4
Over 35 Men’s Division Final
Chris Malone (Rag), 14.8, 1, Owen Barnes (Mnt), 11.1, 2, Ben Kennings (WGM), 10.9, 3, Sam Jackman (Mur), 7.8, 4
Further Information
For further information on the 2017 Hurley New Zealand Club Championships please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.
