Happy Easter to you all and the winner is ..............Nigel Bryant wins the NZ Open  from Brett Cronin.

It  was classic off-shore conditions for the two day comp, plenty of sunshine, waves, international flavour with people from as far away as Wales, South Africa and of course Australia.  The Aussie guys rocked up in their own 'Princess Queen of the Desert Motor Home' complete with 3 double beds and on board shower etc. conversely Trevor Kimber from Wales had his own reconfigured hippy van complete with meth stove and home away from home bed...

...Nigel Bryant (Gisborne) during the Open Final

To make sure were all well nourished Catherine Storms wife of Gary cooked up a storm wtih chocoalte brownies, bacon and egg quiche etc.  of course easter eggs were on tap.  'Mathieu Babarit's' twin was in town and there is a close-up personal interview waiting to be released!!!

The father and son combo - DeBoor's from South Africa made a formidable team - the 'son of' could have been mistaken for one of the 'Proteas'.  Very much 'eye candy' with his muscle definition (oops sorry).

Larry Powell looked very much at home on his new Gee Board and it seems that he finally has it tuned to really carve up the waves - again the wave drought in Rotorua impacts on surf time.  Nonetheless Larry has improved greatly in the last year.  It was bad luck for Chris Vincent and Chris Swales not to advance further in their heats as they both surfed extremely well along with Ike and Gary Storms all just missing out to make the finals of their respective divisions.

The calibre of the competition was extremely high and each competitor was pushed to perform at his/her personal best for the flow was 'sudden death' meaning that losers were eliminated from the first round onwards.

The contest directors made a good call to run the event at Whales Beach - Wainui as the NZ surboard champs were being held around the corner at Makarori and all breaks were pretty much maxed out.

The Open final result could have gone either way with count backs to determine placings.  All 4 performed radical controlled manouvres and I guess 2nd, 3rd and 4th placegetters will be probably wondering what else did they need to do to overtake Nigel - as an observer 'not much my friends' as it was very close. 

Results for the Open are as follows 1 Nigel Bryant (NZ), 2 Brett Cronin (NZ), 3 Brian Howard (NZ) and 4 Graham Roberts (Aus).

Steve Gibbs won his 14th title in the Grandmasters and again another close affair between all 4.  Steve was able to pick off the premium waves in the sets and local knowledge was a definite bonus as the take off zone kept moving over a distance of about 50 metres - became a paddle race to get to the take off zone first.  Gary Ross had the right idea and chose to sit in the same take off zone and with it being a 30 minute final he was quite savvy in his choice of waves.  Yours truly couldn't have surfed any better as I was up against the best riders in the World but I didn't want to just come 4th it was a case of keep it close and do my best.

Reuslts for the Grandmasters are as follows 1 Steve Gibbs (NZ), 2 Graham Roberts (Aus), 3 Gary Ross (Aus) and 4 Jackie Dillon (Aus).

The Masters division was just as tough with seasoned campaigner Brett Cronin who was reovering from a damaged upper spine taking out the winners podium followed by evergreen Brian Howard, Russell Hudson and Trevor Kimber all the way from Wales.  This final was held in what turned out to be the premium conditions of the morning with a changing tide.  A couple of aerials was just what the doctor order for Brett and probably gave him that extra zeal to dust off the cobwebs.  Rocky Hudson has improved exponentially on his new Go Fast and his round house cut backs were very impressive.  Trevor Kimber was a bit of dark horse in the event as noboby had ever really seen him surf before and by the comp end he was having a few questions asked about his talent.

Results for the Masters division 1 Brett Cronin (NZ), 2 Brian Howard (NZ), 3 Russell Hudson (Aus) and 4 Trevor Kimber (Wales)

The Veterans division for the over 60's was a sentimental one for Dave Marriott and being surrounded by his family to win from local Ziggy Gorzynski will live with them forever. The shore break was not easy and one's timing had to be perfect to literally jump over the first hurdle, jump on the ski, paddle out before the next set dragged you into shore (just ask Chris Swales!!).

Results for the Veterans division 1 Dave Marriott 2 Ziggy Gorczynski.

The seniors divison was a two horse affair between Nigel Bryant and John Nowak.  John Nowak blew a few onlookers away with his style and one can only imagain what John would be like if he surfed a bit more regularly on his ski rather than the 'net'.  Jackie Dillon was able to surf with them for the women's division. It will take a lot of convincing back home that John's facial hair was not real (sorry John!!!).  I've had to nickname Nigel and John Noreen and Joanne.

Seriously though -
Results for the Seniors - 1 Nigel Bryant (NZ) and 2 John Nowak (NZ)

Results for the Womens - 1 Jackie Dillon (Aus). 2 Noreen Bryant (Nigel's alter ego) and 3 Joanne Nowak (John's alter ego) - bit of fun there guys!!!!

Finally without a doubt the small but dedicated crew who put together this comp should be congratulated for their very fine efforts - including Steve Gibbs, Brett Cronin, Ziggy Gorczynski, Ike, Nigel Bryant  and Denis Maclean (who was on-call for work and had to sit out the event) and anyone else who I may have forgotten. 

The prizes including vouchers from the local pharmacy and World famous Tolaga Bay Wines as well as the fish donated by Nigel Bryant for the pre-event debrief just made for a memborable competition.

Thanks everyone - see you all again next year

Jackied

... Brett Cronin (Gisborne) during the open final