The Christchurch earthquakes have not only taken their toll on buildings but also sports events. The 2011 South Island Junior Winter Surfing Festival held on May 7th was one of those events.

For the first time since it started five years ago the North Wai Boardriders were forced to move the event from it’s clubrooms in Christchurch to Gore Bay in North Canterbury.

The reason was that tens of thousands of litres of raw sewage being pumped into the local rivers and ocean every day. Despite not being able to surf locally many of the Christchurch grommets put on outstanding performances in near perfect one to one & a half metre surf.

The star of the day was 14 year old Rory Edmonds who picked up the highest wave & heat score of the day in the under 14 final. Edmonds scored a 7.6 out of 10 on a perfect left hand wave and then backed it up with a 5.5. The highly fancied Harrison Whiteside was unable to score anything of substance and finished fourth behind Max Marshall and Nick Tuhikarama.

The premier division, the Paul Kelly Motor Company under 20 Men’s this year had a 1st prize of $750.00.  This had many of the top South Island Juniors keen for a very nice pay day. The top ranked surfer, Kaiapoi’s Cody McCusker surfed well in the early rounds as did club mate Sam Courtney, they meet North Wai’s top performers Jack Hawke & Hugh Ritchie in the final. All four surfers scored a solid first wave but were unable to nail down a second to convincingly take control.

The heat finished with a two point spread between first and fourth with Hawke the winner followed by McCusker, Courtney & Ritchie respectively.

The under 17 final had three dual finalists, Harrison Whiteside took the $250.00 cash for first getting revenge over Rory Edmonds who finished third with Jack Hawke finishing a close second and Jared Crawford finishing fourth.

The under 20 women’s final was a one person show, Sumner’s Alethea Lock scored a convincing win over long time rival Kristi Zarifeh with Greta Hawke finishing third.

Full results

Paul Kelly Motor Company under 20 junior men’s
1st Jack Hawke
2nd Cody McCusker
3rd Sam Courtney
4th Hugh Ritchie

Roxy under 20 junior women’s
1st Alethea Lock
2nd Kristi Zarifeh
3rd Greta Hawke

Seventh Wave under 17 cadets
1st Harrison Whiteside
2nd Jack Hawke
3rd Rory Edmonds
4th Jared Crawford

S Sands Builders under 14 grommets
1st Rory Edmonds
2nd Nick Tuhikarama
3rd Max Marshall
4th Harrison Whiteside