2009 surfer nationals -- Piha

I guess I was pretty sceptical about running the Nationals at Piha. With so much tidal movement, the variations in swell size and summer sea breeze conditions, it seemed that the organisers would face some significant challenges running an event over a week, and as is the case in most contests, competitors in all divisions had to surf in difficult conditions.

As one of the minor divisions, we've often found ourselves waiting around for our event and in the past had surfed in some pretty marginal conditions. This has put many people off as they just don't have the time to hang around at the beach for a week. Over recent years however, our relationship with Surfing New Zealand has become stronger. This is largely due to Murray Weir's close involvement with the national body and our support of SNZ during their recent legal wranglings.

This year we had a committment to a specific day and while we still had to fit around the bigger scheduling priorities, we had access to some of the better conditions for the heats and solid contestable conditions for the final - game on.

Enough of us turned up on the designated day to nearly fill two heats. Not having the weekend crowds was a bonus and the crew slotted into the VIP parking area in the middle of South Piha. We were on the board in mid-afternoon which put us on highish outgoing tide so there was a good opportunity for warmup surf over the hill at Kare-Kare.

There were good waves out from the South Piha surf club from half tide in, with lots of good surfing going down. When it came to our turn the wind had gone a little bit onshore but there were still good 3 - 4' waves coming through. Craig's Mcdonald and Hooper and me comprised the first heat, with Murray, Michael Anderson, Ian Walker and Kenton Osmond in the second.

I thought I was getting the best of it, scoring a really nice right-hander and nailing a big slash off the top, but as the results came through I found that I'd been beaten by Roydon, who in fact was still at home in Opunake.... After the sunstrike had been accounted for, Craig McD took it out with an 8.5 top score to my 8 with Hoops in 3rd.

In the second heat, the tide really seemed to have turned a corner and Ian reports a frustrating time getting any decent waves. Kenton took it out with Murray second, Mike in 3rd and Ian proving that being in just the right place in space and time is not always easy, even for a past National champ.

We an interval while the action shifted to the bar and some really small dudes made it look much bigger than it actually was. Seriously, it look quite good from the beach but when he got out there it was hardly knee-high on the inside. Fortunately the outside bank had started to work by now so we headed out to the bank that earlier in the day, Daniel Kereopa  had called similar to Raglan.

It would have been nice if it had been similar to Raglan but there were a few closeouts followed by back-offs, so as usual getting the good waves was the key to success. Craig and I managed to take off on the same wave early in the final, but fortunately I was far enough back so there was no interference call made against him. Murray disappeared down the end of the line in search of his own little Maungahume while I went the other way and chased the peak closer to the Camel without much success. Kenton managed a big slash off the top on one of his waves that was well rewarded with Craig close behind but clearly frustrated by the lack of opportunities to perform.

For the second time Kenton has taken the national title and I suppose the question now is which country will he be surfing for in the world titles at Easter. New Zealand or the Channel Islands? Craig was the runner-up with me third and Murray fourth.

One thing that's clear to me is that while we all like perfect conditions and styling it through glassy tubes, when you really push yourself hard, going for those big moves off the top and floaters at the end, there's a great sense of satisfaction and the desire to do well in competition can be an excellent motivator to go for those "risky" move that result in improving your overall surfing ability.

Which brings us nicely to the world titles at Easter. It's been a really big effort from the crew to pull this all together and the event is shaping up to be fantastic. It's 10 years since the last titles in New Zealand and by the time another 10 years rolls by the same crew may not have the motivation to do it again. What this means is that if you want to see the biggest assembly of top kneeboard talent you'll ever see, then you should sign up and get yourself down there.

It truly is inspirational to see what these guys are doing and because of the age diversity in the divisions, us Kiwis have real opportunities to make the finals. The worst-case scenario here is that you get to have surfing lessons with a top guys in the world. How bad can that be?

Looking forward to seeing lots of you at Opunake at Easter.
http://www.kneeboardsurfingworldtitles.com

Phil Miller