Three Gisborne teenagers returned home from the New Zealand Scholastic Surfing Championships last week in Dunedin with medals in their age divisions.
Charlotte McDiarmid (Under-14 girls), William Matthews (U18 boys) and Te Waiotu Fairlie (U18 girls) picked up fourth-placed medals after making their respective finals.
“Stunning weather for the championships helped produce some great results for our Tairāwhiti team,” said surfing spokeswoman and former New Zealand open women’s champion Holly Quinn.
In other results for the 12-strong Gisborne team, Oska Gunness made the top 20 in the U14 boys’ age group.
In the U16 girls’, Bonnie Lynch and Lucy McDiarmid were seventh-equal.
Jett Dalton and Ollie Tong were 19th-equal in the U16 boys while Max Gaddum was 22nd.
In the U18 boys’, Max Phillips placed ninth and Flynn McGregor and Austin Fergus 17th-equal.
Gisborne were seventh in the team standings topped by Auckland.
“Te Waiotu now heads off to the Aotearoa Maori surf titles as possibly a hot favourite to take out the Under-18 title,” Quinn said.
That event is being held at the end of the month at Ahipara in Northland.
“It is expected that a strong contingent of local surfers will compete,” Quinn said.
“The next local event in Gisborne, staged by Kegged, is the Froth Fest, an ongoing fundraiser for the scholastics kids’ fund.”
