New Zealand Surf Team Underway In Ecuador

The Rip Curl New Zealand Junior Surfing Team has contested the first two days of the 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships notching up some impressive wins against the world class surfers from 28 countries around the world.

Nine of the twelve-strong team remain in the main event with three surfers having been relegated into the repercharge rounds. Being an ISA event, all surfers get two ‘lives’ at the event meaning a surfer can lose in Round 1 of the event and still move through to the final and win a world title.

The 2009 ISA Quiksilver World Junior Surfing Championships is being held at Salinas, Ecuador. The prestigious event takes place from the 28th of March through to the 5th April.

Bay of Plenty duo Alex Dive and Matt Hewitt have shown superior skills advancing through to the final 32 surfers in the Under 18 Men’s Division. Overnight Dive won his second round heat posting a brilliant 13.83 scoreline. Hewitt placed second in his heat scoring 12.84 out of a possible 20.

Dive defeated surfers from Hawaii, South Africa and Brazil to win his heat posting scores of 7.83 and 6.0. Equally as dominating was Matt Hewitt who posted scores of 8.17 and 4.67 to beat surfers from South Africa and Hawaii.

Overnight the Under 18 Girls got their campaigns underway with Alexis Poulter leading the way with an intelligently surfed heat. Poulter scored 9.83 to win her heat. India Wray-Murane (Raglan) and Rosa Thompson (Auckland) placed second in their heats to also move through the first round.

Surfers to be relegated into the repercharge rounds included Buck Woods, Johnny Hicks and Jayda Martin Fitzharris all of Gisborne. Woods and Hicks were contesting their second round match ups and both stumbled in heats that they should have advanced through. Martin-Fitzharris encountered a difficult heat first up and placed third but bounced back late in the day winning her repercharge round heat.

On the first day of the event the Under 16 Boys all progressed through their heats. Australian based Damo Norman was the pick of the boys performances winning his heat which included a 6.83 point ride – the ninth highest scoring wave of the round.

Ben Poulter (Raglan), Todd Doyle (Mount Maunganui) and Joe Moretti (Mimiwhangata) all made it through their first round heats placing second.

The Under 16 Boys are likely to hit the water for round 2 on day three of the event as well as the Under 18 Girls.

The swell is expected to increase further from the current 1.0m – 1.5m size at present.

Prior to the event kicking off the New Zealand team contested the SANZ Challenge with South Africa. The two time defending champ Kiwi team were defated by a strong South African outfit who won all three divisions as well as placing first and second in the tag team event. Shaun Joubert won the Under 18 Boys Division despite coming up against three Kiwis in the final. Joe Moretti (Mimiwhangata) was the most impressive in the Under 16 Boys making it through to the final as did Jayda Martin Fitzharris in the Under 18 Girls.