By Seventhwave Team-Rider and Guest Blogger Ambrose McNeill
On Friday the 15th of February I set
out to travel from Christchurch to New Plymouth’s Fitzroy beach for the fourth
event of the Hyundai longboard surfing tour. This was my third event for the
year after travelling to the first event in Raglan and the third event in Sandy
bay. Both comps had been super fun and successful weekends. In Raglan I won the
first ever traditional ‘logging’ division and in Sandy bay I won the best noseride
in the same division. After two
good comps I was pumped to head back up north.
My adventure started at Christchurch airport. In order to maintain a slender budget for
the trip I had decided NOT to take my surfboard (instead borrow a friends) and also to
catch a standby flight. For anyone that hasn’t traveled standby before, the
idea is that you rock up to the airport half an hour before your planned flight
with no ticket and they will sell you an unsold seat for a piece of banana
bread and a live chicken or alternatively $69. If you don’t get on your
intended flight they put you on the next one. Well, when I arrived at the
airport there was a line longer than the tower of terror at Dreamland. Despite
being a student myself, I had forgotten to take into account that university
started on Monday and every man and his chicken were ditching Christchurch.
By the time I reached the front of the
line there were no flights to New Plymouth and all that was left was a lone
flight to Palmerston North…
On the plane ride to Palmerston North
I frantically tried to colour in the words New Plymouth on an old banana box as
this was hopefully going to be my ticket to making it the contest, I had 12
hours. I arrived in Palmerston North at 8.30pm and had a Taxi drop me on the
main road out of town. As the sun went down on me and about twenty cars speed
past things were looking grim. Just as I was about to call Mumud (the taxi driver who gave me his card)
and find a hostel, a wee Toyota sedan pulled over. A middle aged couple said
they were going to Wanganui and that I could stay the night with them there and start again in
the morning. Although I could hear my mother’s voice telling me never to get
into a car with strangers and stay at their house, I went with my sensible
conscious and jumped in.
Carmel and her husband Tom were on
their way to surprise their daughter and family for their grandsons first birthday. The family had no idea Carmel and Tom
were coming to stay, let alone bringing a hitch hiker. After the initial surprise,
“why the hell did you bring a hitch hiker to stay mum?” vibe, the Keppa family completely
took me under their wing. I had an awesome night talking about the upcoming
Super 15 season and being shown magic tricks by 12 year old Josh.
The next morning I set out at 6am.
Wanganui to New Plymouth is a two hour drive and I had potential to be in the
first heat at 8am. After only waiting fifteen minutes a huge milk tanker halted
up in front of me. The truck was bound for Inglewood, about 20 minutes from New
Plymouth. The driver, Paul, was a typical kiwi good sort and he filled me on
his life as a Dad, the great parts of NZ, rugby picks for the year, and how all
the truckies will radio in when they’ve seen a hot chick. We even stopped at a
farm to pick up a few thousand litres of milk.
I texted my mate Sam Bound, a local
surfer from Taranaki to see if he could pick me up in Inglewood and take me the
last leg, “No worries Bro!”. I also texted the contest director Ben Kennings to
see the start time of my heat and much to my joy he responded the contest wasn’t
starting till 9.30. Yew!
Sam and I arrived at the contest at
9.30am and I had 2 hours until my heat. Mission accomplished.
The surf wasn’t what one
would call pumping but there was a chest high clean wave rolling into the beach
and getting better with the incoming tide. Although the late start was perfect
for my arrival, it wasn’t for the waves and the onshore wind came up before
long and quickly deteriorated the clean lines into ruffled peaks. However, it remained
surfable and heats were banged out in all of the divisions; Stand Up Paddle,
over 40s, over 50s, Open men, Junior men and Women. In my first heat in the Open
mens I struggled to find the waves I wanted but did manage to pick off one good
wave that cemented me second place and a spot in the quarterfinal.
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| Ambrose McNeill in the first heat of the Open division Photo: Guy Rencher |
Hanging out in-between the heats is
often the best part of going to contests. Surfing is such a cool way to connect
with people and I’ve made a bunch of rad friends from going to these events.
It’s fun just hanging out with
everyone and lying about all the perfect barrels each of our home breaks has
had in the last few weeks.
Hyundai sets up a massive covered deck
with couches and umbrellas which is all really flash. I think it’s really for
the corporate sponsors but the surfers always invade it and claim it as their
fortress. There’s always a mean barby making burgers and sausages which is the
perfect pre-comp meal for any good athlete.
At the end of the day I surfed my
quarter final narrowly getting 3rd so was knocked out of the event.
Despite the bumpy little waves there was some awesome surfing going on in all
division in the early rounds.
On day 2 of the event the action
really started to heat up, as did the sausages. The surf had cleaned up again
and the sun was blazing and stayed like that all day. I got to surf in the
‘log’ division where surfers have to ride traditional heavily weighted single
fin boards. The division is pretty much a free for all, the contestants are all
sent out at once for half an hour and places are determined by who stood out
for that whole session.
The stand out of the
session was hands down Moti Proctor from Gisborne. It was one of Moti’s first surfs
after being out of the water for a long period with injury. Moti’s style was
unbeatable -surfing a 14 foot board in a pair of speedo’s. Moreover, on every
wave he caught Moti would perform a series of manoeuvres that I have never seen
in surfing. No one came close in style or originality but as is the subjective
nature of surfing Moti was overlooked by the judges and robbed of a place on
the podium. I had a bunch of fun waves in the heat and in the end was awarded
second place which I was stoked on.
The Open final was really impressive
and showed how high the standard of performance long boarding is in NZ. Thomas
Kibblewhite from Auckland showed why he has qualified for the world champs this
year by dominating the final.
Prize giving was wrapped up and then
that was it. I said good-bye to all my North Island buddies and then hopped in
a strangers car (nah, just jokes, thanks Brian and Branko) to Auckland were I got
the last standby flight home to Christchurch.
Thanks to the Keppa family, Mumud, Paul
the milk truck man, Ant McColl, Sam Bound, Brain Western and Branko, Mickey T
and everyone else for all helping me out on the trip! You’re all rad.
Also thank you to Sadhana Surfboards for making me such awesome
aquatic machines, CPL and Guy for letting me use the cool photos and to Seventhwave for the Retro Jacket that kept me toasty in
Taranaki’s surprisingly 'chilly water.'
A full list of results from the event can be seen at
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