Kitesurfing Colac Bay

Spotted! Mark Sedon sent us in this great pic of him in his MAX Steamer, ripping Southland's Colac Bay. From Mark:

"30 knot session, gusting 40. Cross off shore winds, 3 ft waves. Epic Colac Bay session......."

Cheers for the rad shot Mark.

O'Neill Canterbury Women's Championships

O'Neill Canterbury Womens Surf Championships 2010 is on this weekend at New Brighton beach.
Hosted by womens surf club Tubular Belles

Contest starts 7:30am and will field women from all over the South Island.
Divisions include Open, Junior, Longboard, and a new Senior Womens division this year. Points go towards the SISA circuit.

Entries available online at www.sisa.co.nz or drop into Sisco's Surfgirl, 14 New Brighton Mall, Christchurch. Phone 03 382 6969

Kristi Zarifeh takes the gold in Greymouth!

Westports' Anthony Hema and Sumners' Kristi Zarifeh have won the Mens and Womens' 1/2 ounce pure gold in Greymouth.

Hema won the Open Mens in trying conditions, 3-4 ft low tide sweep at The Channel near the Cobden breakwater. With two high sixes, Hema took the Gold and dedicating his win to his late father. 2nd was Christchurch's and defending champ Hayden Brain, with the highest wave score in the final could not back up the score during the 30min final, until 15 seconds after and caught a wave that could possibly been the score he needed. 3rd was Kaikoura's Sam Dunfoy, who took a early lead, and in 4th, Craig Grimshaw who seemed to have been sweeped 100metres north due the river like drift.

Seventhwave team rider Kristi Zarifeh started with a great opening wave which proved too much for her fellow competitors, taking home the win and the gold. Congrats to her, Alethea Lock and all the other competitors. More pics and video to follow.

Hyundai Longboard Tour: video from Dunedin

Daniel Procter was the winner of the third event of the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour completed at St Clair Beach in Dunedin over the weekend. He took out a high scoring final to jump from 17th to second on the Tour ratings for 2010. Procter scored 17.00 out of a possible 20 points in the final with some amazing surfing! Watch the video above or here.

Feedback: Outward Bound

For the last 10 years Outward Bound has exclusively used Seventhwave Wetsuits as part of our white water program. We choose to use Seventhwave Wetsuits because of the excellent quality of both the materials and workmanship. In terms of durability Seventhwave Wetsuits provide Outward Bound an excellent product and its great to be able to buy a New Zealand manufactured product."

Regards,
David Mangnall
Training Manager
Outward Bound

Kiwi Doug Young Wins Biggest Paddle-In Wave

"The best wave is the one you don't think you'll make."

That's 22-year-old Laurie Towner's surf philosophy in a nutshell - and it earned him $20,000.

Laurie, from Yamba in northern NSW, won Biggest Wave in the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards at a crazy presentation evening in Bondi, where the cream of Aussie and New Zealand megasurf chargers gathered to honour their finest rides of the past year.

Perennial favourite Doug Young from New Zealand took out his third Biggest Paddle-in Award, a prize reserved for rides performed without jetski assistance. "It's like climbing Mount Everest," frothed a stoked Young. "It's always going to be a challenge, no matter how many you ride."

Read about all the winners and see the waves here.

Big Wave Finalists 2010 Announced!

A crazy collection of colossal waves and courageous riders, from the wilds of south-west Australia to the chilly nooks of New Zealand's South Island. Damon Gunness, Doug Young and Shayne Baxter are among the entries to the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards.

That's what faces the judges as the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards enters its final selection phase.

We're now down to six Biggest Wave nominees, four Biggest Paddle-In contenders, and six possible Biggest Slabs from the 50-plus entries registered with organisers over the past eight months.

A full list of finalists, including 3 kiwis, here.

Video Footage from Sandy Bay!

Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour Sandy Bay, Taylor Jensen and Josh Constable battle it out in the final. Enjoy a mini documentary on family life at a Hyundai Comp from Greenroom NZ here.

Full results from the weekend here.

2010 Hyundai Longboarder's Competition!

Day Three of event one of the 2010 Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour kicked off in clean 0.5m-1.0m waves at Sandy Bay today (Sunday 7th February). With beautiful weather and a large crowd of spectators, this event showed that the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour is definitely at the cutting edge of surfing in New Zealand.

American Taylor Jensen took out the Open Men's, with Christchurch locals Daisy Thomas and Grant Cochrane winning the Open Women's and Over 50's respectively. Full report and results here.

Pumping Sumner Bar: video evidence!

Swamped with a solid East swell over the weekend of January 15th-16th, Sumner Bar (and Sumner locals) were frothing! Check out the footage from on top of Cave Rock. Yes, Christchurch New Zealand can get waves.