NZ Waveski Association April Newsletter PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Nowak   
Wednesday, 28 April 2010 07:08
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Hi Everyone Hope you're all well & still getting out in the surf enjoying the good conditions we've been having. The only news I have this time is all from the NZ Open & AGM. A full report on the Open by Steve Gibbs & Brett Cronin is below. Along with heaps of photos taken by several people. There are still more photos that I will include in other newsletters. The main news from the AGM is that the committee is remaining the same. That is - John Nowak - President, Steve Gibbs - Vice President, Jo Zervos - Secretary, Ziggy Gorczynski - Treasurer & Brett Cronin - General Committee Member & International Delegate. The membership fees are also unchanged. The venue for the 2011 NZ Open will be decided in 3 months time. If you (or your province/club) are willing to host it please let us know. If no one else puts their "hand up" the boys at Gizzy are keen to do it again. The AGM minutes will be sent to all financial members separately.


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Nigel Bryant - NZ Open Champion 2010


New Zealand Open Waveski Championships
Hosted by the Turanganui Waveski Club - Gisborne - Easter 2010
By Steve Gibbs









Excellent surf, fantastic conditions, a clutch of international competitors and the emergence of an old sea dog made this year's event something special. Easter 2010 found Gisborne, living up to its title as 'Surf Capital of Aotearoa' as it hosted up to 400 surfers who were based in Gisborne for the Surfing New Zealand Titles as well as the NZ Open Waveski surfing titles. The short board Surfing titles were camped at dual venues of 'Red Bus' and 'Creeks' at Makorori. The Waveski contest occupied the 'Whales' break over the hill at Okitu, northern end of Wainui beach and the bodyboarders just down the road at the renowned "Pines" break. The pre match conditions were perfect with 2m North East swell predicted with warm off shore Nor Westerly winds .



There was a strong international flavour to
this years open event with, the father and son duo of Ettiene and LeRoy De Beer from South African, The newly crowned world Champion Graham Roberts, along with, Garry Ross, Russell Hudson (pictured right) and Jackie Dillon making up a strong Aussie contingent. and Trevor Kimber from Wales making up the field, the rest being seasoned Kiwi's amongst whom 62 year old Dave Marriott formerly of Gisborne, now living in Tauranga making his first appearance at a NZ open event along with his loyal whanau who we regarded as the 'Rent a crowd' adding something special to this years event. Dave Marriott (pictured below)has been an avid Waveski surfer for over 45years. He and Gisborne's Ziggy Gorczynski were set to battle out the Vets event . Registration was at the Wainui Store out at Wainui beach, where competitors were given contest information and a copy of the seeded draws for the event as well as a meal of Cold Beers and Fish'n'chips. The event started at Sunrise 7am report time with a scheduled in the water start time of 8am. The conditions were near perfect with solid 4ft clean waves, light off shore winds and regular sets every 5 minutes. Steve Ria, the contest organizer for Surfing NZ, provided our draws for each event and ensured that once we established the correct seedings that the flow would enable us to find the true champions in each of the contest divisions in a fair competitive manner. The extra bit of spice this year was that there was, in response to feedback from previous events, no second chance losers round which meant if you finished 3rd or 4th in your heat. That was it. But as most competitors were surfing in two events everybody was going to get plenty of surf over the scheduled two days of competition. Stand out surfers in the early rounds were Welshman Trevor Kimber, Ozzy Grand Master Gary Ross and Larry Powell (pictured right). In the second round there was hot surfing with Brett Cronin pulling clean airs, while Nigel Bryant and Brian Howard showed that some great contests were coming up as we moved into the business end of the contest.





The conditions remained consistent all day, with the left-hander giving everybody the chance to demonstrate their surf skills in excellent contest conditions. We were able to complete all of the semis on Day one leaving everybody fresh for the finals on the Sunday Morning The Finals were once again in near perfect conditions with the swell dropping to 3ft with the odd bigger waves coming through, and clean off shore conditions. As the event unfolded it became clear that the open title was going to be a contest between the 'technically skilled, high risk manoeuvres of Brett Cronin (right) and the more radical slash'n'burn style of Nigel Bryant, who are arguably two of the top waveskiiers in the world at present. The Australian Graham Roberts was keen to get amongst them with his more even approach as does the Kiwi 'Mr Consistent' Brian Howard (above). This is how it unfolded with these 4 making the open final. The open final as expected was a very close thing, with Nigel Bryant (right) taking out his first NZ Open title by the narrowest of margins on a count back from Brett Cronin. In the end Nigel nailed the best-set waves unleashing a series of 7 high scoring manoeuvres, while Brett pulled off the most radical manoeuvres on the shorter waves getting air on his first wave. It was a split decision, but was reflective of the quality surfing that everybody was able to produce. The Masters event was hotly contested with, Brett Cronin edging out Brian Howard, with Russell Hudson and Trevor Kimber taking out 3rdand 4th respectively. The Grand Masters like the Open went down to the wire with, the three Ozy Amigos, Graham Roberts, Garry Ross and Jackie Dillon putting the acid on the current (five times) NZ Open Grandmaster Steve Gibbs (left). The score changed with every wave caught with Steve's last wave in the 28th minute sealing the title as he picked one of the few bigger set waves in this final and shredded it all the way to the beach, just pipping Graham Roberts by 0.2 Garry Ross just edged out Jackie Dillon to take 3rd spot.





Nigel Bryant took out the senior final against a very rejuvenated and much welcomed John Nowak. (below - Jackie, John & Nigel) The migratory Ozy traveller Jackie Dillon (above) returning for her 5th consecutive NZ Open event took out the women's title. As usual through out the open and Grand Masters events, indeed every time Jackie hit the water she kept all of her counter parts honest and was always a threat. It's probably the best surfing that we have seen Jackie perform over the last few years. In the Veterans first time up competitor 62 year old Dave Marriott(below) held off a determined challenge from Gisborne's Ziggy Gorczynski (right). With the finals finishing around mid day, the prize giving was held on the beach at the conclusion of the finals. Everybody was able to enjoy the warm sunny conditions of a Gisborne Autumn and the afterglow of an excellent competition.
Results:
Vets:
1 Dave Marriott Tauranga
NZ
2 Ziggy Gorczynski
Gisborne
NZ

Womens:
1 Jackie Dillon Western Australia








Grand Masters:
1
Steve Gibbs Gisborne NZ
2
Graham Roberts Gold Coast Australia
3
Garry Ross Queensland Australia
4
Jackie Dillon Western Australia



(Above - Steve, Garry, Jackie & Graham)
Masters:
1
Brett Cronin
Gisborne
NZ
2
Brian Howard Auckland
NZ
3
Russell Hudson Currumbin
Australia
4
Trevor Kimber Wales
(Brett - pictured right)

(Below - The Top 4 - Nigel, Brian, Brett &
Graham) Open:
1
Nigel Bryant

Gisborne
NZ
2
Brett Cronin

Gisborne
NZ
3
Brian Howard Auckland
NZ
4
Graham Roberts
Gold Coast
Australia
5
Steve Gibbs

Gisborne
NZ
6
Russell Hudson
Currumbin
Australia
7 Gary Storms Auckland NZ
8 Jackie Dillon
Western Australia
Photo's supplied by Chris Swales & Nigel Bryant Images by Brett Cronin
Text by Steve Gibbs



Contestants 2010 N Z Open

John Nowak - Auckland
Open Senior

Brian Howard - Auckland
Open Masters

Gary Storms - Auckland
Open Masters

Ike Te Ahorangi - Gisborne
Open Masters

Denis McLean - Gisborne


Brett Cronin - Gisborne
Open Masters

Siegfried Gorczynski - Gisborne
Vets

Chris Vincent - Gisborne
Open Grandmasters

Trevor Kimber - Opotiki
Open Masters

Chris Swales - Auckland
Open Grandmasters

Nigel Bryant - Gisborne
Open Seniors

Russell Hudson - Australia
Open Masters

Graham Roberts - Australia
Open Grandmasters (pictured below - top)

Garry Ross - Australia
Open Grandmasters

Jackie Dillon - Australia
Open Grandmasters (pictured bottom)

Larry Powell - Rotorua
Open Grandmasters

Dave Marriott - Tauranga
Open Vets

LeRoy DeBeere Auckland
Open

Ettiene DeBeere Auckland
observer

Hamish Auther Gisborne
observer
Contest Directors, Steve Gibbs, Brett Cronin
Beach Marshall / Time keeper: Denis Mclean
Spotter : Chris Vincent
Surfing New Zealand Liason:
Steve Ria
Media person: Dave Conway - Gisborne
Herald

Thanks to this years Sponsors:
Wainui Dairy - Wainui beach
Pharmacy 53
Turanganui Waveski Club
Ngati Porou Fisheries























That'll do for now - I'd better save some pictures for future newsletters. If anyone
has anymore to contribute please send them to me. Or if there is anything else
you would like put in the newsletter. The next one will be out in June - Happy
surfing - Jo 
Last Updated on Friday, 14 May 2010 22:07
 

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