The morning waves were pumping at Manu Bay this past Saturday, setting up what would turn out to be a perfect day from dawn until dusk for the 2018 Raglan Point Boardriders’ King of the Single Fin contest.
Going in its fourth year, the contest had its biggest competitor turnout yet with 100 entrants over the course of the day.
The rules are simple–the contest is all ages, with no gender divisions, so surfers young and old compete against one another. The only stipulation: you have to ride a retro (before the ’80s) single fin surfboard.
Manu Bay was packed by lunch with competitors along with families, friends and onlookers, who stayed for hours to watch the competition unfold. The BBQ sizzled, the music played, the waves pumped, and while the smiles and laughter grew, the idea of “Making Manu Bay Great Again” was achieved.
By the day’s end the finalists were called in and prize giving kicked off with a few notable mentions including: Best Grom and Best Barrel to Puarere Kelly, Best Wahine to Ariel Hughes, Best Bolter to Freddy Limbert, Best Wave by Crowd Nomination to Jake Gibbs, Best Senior to Chris Banks and finally Worst Performance of the day to Lou Vincent, who managed to score himself a gift certificate from Raglan Roofing without catching a wave.
And of course, no single fin contest is complete without the main event of the day, the infamous Pie Eating Contest. Sarah was crowned the Grom Pie Queen for the Grom Pie contest while Matti Thorley-Symes walked away as Pie King after a 2nd round ‘pie off’ against Dylan Brown.
This year’s overall King of the Single Fin finalists werel: 1st Mikey Banks, 2nd Luke Hughes, 3rd Luca Bordignon, 4th Jayden Willoughby, 5th Puarere Kelly and 6th Caleb Cutmore.
The Raglan Point Boardriders would like to thank the 2018 King of the Single Fin spot prize sponsors: B-Rex Photography, Byrning Spears Surfboards, Camenzind Surfboards, Hughes Surfboards, Pilot Brewery, Raglan Concrete Services, Raglan Roofing, Raglan Surf Emporium, Raglan Surf Co, and main event sponsor Kyle Leuthart and LJ Hooker.
To find out more about upcoming events, follow the Raglan Point Boardriders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pointboardridersraglan
