Gisborne’s Asia Braithwaite underlined her potential in claiming silver in the under-18 girls’ division of the Sequence Surf Gisborne Junior Pro championship at the weekend.
The Gisborne Junior Pro is part of the wider New Zealand Grom Series — several of which have already been held — that concludes with the Taranaki Grom Comp in October.
Competitors travelled from far parts of the country including Taranaki, Wellington, Piha, Tauranga, Raglan and Mount Maunganui to compete at the Gisborne event held at Makorori’s Red Bus break.
Braithwaite’s four-girl final included national open women’s champion Pia Rogers of Whangamata.
Braithwaite recorded the highest heat score — 8.27 out of 20 for her two best waves.
But the national champion got the better of the local hopeful in the final. Rogers won with 8.17 (4.1, 4.07 for her two top waves), with Braithwaite second on 7.36, ahead of Sophia Brock (Mount Maunganui) on 7.0 and Skylar McFetridge (Taranaki) 4.56.
“It’s a good way to finish the season, I’m stoked,” Rogers said. “ I was really nervous in the final with this event being the last of the season, and also the waves out there were small.
“My plan was to keep busy out and get speed where I could. I almost maxed out my wave count so I guess I stuck to my plan.”
The surf built slightly from Day 1 of the event but was still well under the one-metre mark with the same northerly cross-shore winds impacting conditions.
Gisborne Boardriders events organiser Flo Bub said surf conditions were “average” but it was a sold-out event.
“It was fantastic to see all the groms coming together from all around the country showing their best surfing,” Bub said.
“We are proud of Asia Braithwaite coming runner-up in the U18 girls.”
Other surfers from Gisborne gave it their all but were unable to advance past the quarterfinals.
“Our younger surfers, Ollie Tong and Archie Alder, made the quarterfinals in the u-14 boys and so did Flynn McGregor in the u-18 boys,” Bub said.
“All our local groms showed good surfing but our work-ons are going to be the mindset and surfing in average and poor conditions.”
Taranaki’s Spencer Rowson delivered an explosive performance in the u18 boys’ final to win with 13.67 from Tyler Perry (Kaikoura) on 12.40, Will Hardie (Piha) 10.53 and George Laery (Mt Maung) 9.86.
“It was a fun final,” said Rowson. “All the boys rip and they are good dudes, so it was fun to get out there with them.”
Rowson also won the u18 boys’ biggest manoeuvre award to cap a great weekend for the rising star.
Not surprisingly, he and Rogers were among those name d in the New Zealand team for the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships at a yet-to-be-confirmed location.
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