For the past five weekends Raglan has been graced by some of the best swells ... well, ever really. Most locals are calling the May 18 and 19th swell as one of the very best ever ... top three at least. That made it easy for me and the kids to decide to take part in Backdoor's King and Queen of the Point surf competition. It attracts all the best surfers in New Zealand and even a few internationals like the great Tom Carroll, Jesse Starling, Joel Vaughan, Dimity Stoyle and Coco Cairns made the trip over for this one.
Unfortunately, the Tasman Sea had other ideas this past weekend. It was taking a break from the lined-up corduroy perfection we have come to know and love. Instead, a giant mass of swell pushed right below the South Island and sent its energy up our East Coast and toward Tahiti (the WSL event there is waiting for it to hit in the next few days). The glancing blow meant we had two days of 1-2 foot lazy swell at Manu Bay with increasingly pesky onshore winds, PK Bay-style squalls, and a finals day of junky 3-5 foot 10-second period sloping walls.
It was bad, but somehow the surf contest was actually a real thriller. One of the highlights for me was getting to see Tom Carroll still ripping at 62. And stoked on surfing in the pretty miserable conditions. Love that energy. Another highlight was seeing Billy Stairmand and Kehu Butler going wave for wave in the final. Billy ended up winning the event with some incredible in-the-pocket turns in some of the few waves that bowled right up for him.
A few hours after winning it Billy was on a plane and off to Indonesia for the Krui Pro. Then he's back for a day and off to Tahiti. He's on the countdown for the Olympics.
A couple of other standouts from the event were in the Under 20s with Taranaki's Spencer Rowson, Ohope's Tai Murphy, and Raglan's Navryn Malone and Van Camenzind all showing their intentions for future crowns.
We also saw the continuation of the changing of the guard in the women's with Raglan's Alani Morse, Pauanui's Lola Groube and Piha's Kyra Wallis making both the Under 20s finals and Open Women's finals. All three can throw it down in the bigger conditions and took the fight to eventual Open Women's winner Aimee Brown.
Even with horizontal rain squalls and junky waves, Raglan still manages to weave some of its charm into the weekend. A huge thanks to Backdoor for making the event such a cracker, Raglan's Point Boardriders for giving up your wave for the weekend, and to Quiksilver and Roxy for supporting surfing in New Zealand.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS I was double-dipping in Raglan. This is where my designer, Ian Ferguson, comes from, so we managed to work together on the final touches for our upcoming book: New Zealand's Best Gourmet Pies. You can pre-order your copy right here.
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