Raglan’s own Brie Bennett and Taranaki’s Daniel Farr have finished the New Zealand domestic surf season on highs claiming the Backdoor King and Queen of the Point presented by Quiksilver competed at Raglan on Sunday, June 18.
In a fast fading 1.0m swell and strong offshore winds at Manu Bay, the two surfers were crowned King and Queen of the Point early in the afternoon, coming out on top of their opponents.
Brie Bennett ran away with the final of the Open Women’s Division surfing to a 12.17 point total. Bennett was the benefactor of the best wave of the final being a 7.17 point ride that set her apart from her opponents.
“It made the win even more special going from such a bad run this season to a win at the last comp” said Bennett who had not made a heat until day one of the event this weekend.
“I lowered my expectations going into this comp so I guess the difference this weekend is that I didn’t put as much pressure on myself as I have at other comps,” she added.
Bennett knew the conditions were continually changing and set her approach to the final to match those conditions, “Get two all right scores in the first half of the heat just in case it decided to go flat, yeah it worked,” she added.
Fellow Raglan surfer, 12-year-old Alani Morse finished the final in second place. Keeping pace with Bennett early, Morse finished with a 9.20 point heat total to beat her older opponents Gabi Paul (Piha) and the in-form Liv Haysom (Piha). Despite the two latter surfers being from Piha, both have spent considerable amounts of time at Raglan through school and university.
After an appearance at the National Championships in January, the first event of the 2023 NZ Surf Series, Farr concentrated his efforts on the Australasian Qualifying Series this summer and missed all other New Zealand events until this weekend.
The tall natural foot surfer was engaged in today’s tight low-scoring final from the outset. However, it was a two-wave combo from Caleb Cutmore (Rag) that had Farr on the back foot toward the end of the heat before Farr’s final wave which nudged him back into the lead and take the win on a low 8.40 heat total.
Caleb Cutmore was one of two local hopes in the final and held the lead for a brief period but finished second in the final, less than half a point behind Farr.
