New Zealand has a long list of competitive women surfers that dates back to 1964, the year that the sport was founded in New Zealand. Today there are many women of all ages and backgrounds that have continued on from the early pioneers of the 60's and are participating in different disciplines of surfing such as bodyboard, kneeboard, longboard and shortboards. It is the inclusive nature of women's surfing and the way that women support each other that has seen such a huge growth in both women that free-surf and those who actively seek competition both here and internationally.
The highlight for competitive women surfers is the Womens Open Champs, a national event that is contested annually and caters for the elite women surfers along with divisions such as Under 12, Under 14, Under 16, juniors, seniors and longboard.
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Alexis Poulter
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Airini Mason
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Jess Santorik
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The figure head for women surfing today is Mount Maunganui stalwart Jonette Mead. Jonnie has been the back bone of the sport for women for more than 2 decades. Jonnie holds a Post Graduate Diploma (Waikato) in Not
for Profit Management and is currently completing a business diploma in property
law and ethics.
Her commitment and continual persistence to maintain and improve the stanadard of womens surfing is purely passion driven and her love of surfing. Jonnie's latest initiative is to promote surfing into the regions through advertised road trips and she see's this type of activity is just as important as the formal competition scene. For more information about how to receive an open invitation to participate on a road trip, training camps, judging or coaching seminars and the contest scene, click on the link to Jonnie's SURFER GIRL NETWORK.
BACK IN THE DAY…the first ever women’s only “Open”
Here’s a story that will surprise you!? I was on a planning committee for the Christmas/New Year 1986/7 Nationals which were going to be held in Mt Maunganui.
My role on this committee was definitely not to find sponsorship. My enthusiasm for the event, particularly the women’s division was so extreme that while shopping and yakking with the local business community, things began to happen! Offers of prizes began to roll in without asking for them. The committee was headed up by Stuart Hawken, the founder of the then COASTLINE CLOTHING label. He was not impressed when I turned up at the next full committee meeting with loads of product prizes and some cash. There was a bit of a err…”discussion” that resulted in me being thrown a challenge by “da boys” to “run my own blasted women’s competition”. The following June I did.
The nationals that year were plagued with huge surf at the Mount on day one, flat the next. The day after that the administration team formed a big convoy of judges, judging trailer, banners, beer, trophies and “beautiful people in Joseph Kuhtze t-shirts” and headed off to run the rest of the nationals in Gisborne. Karen Henderson of the ‘Naki was just one of the competitors, as well as Maxine Valentine (now Hayward) in the women’s division. I remember cool reggae music playing on the beach at Makarori while judges Paul Webster, Scotty Barnett and Phil Griffin (and some others) ran the panel.
My role was to hang around as the goffa’ Well, that meant that I had enough time to think about….a women’s only event. A big one!
By June of 1987 the first ever WOMEN’S SURF CHAMPS were held. The location was Main Beach at Mt Maunganui in a howling wintry freezing cold onshore “push”. The swell was surging and lumping around while the wind drove air temperatures right into ya bones! The rain polished off an altogether wet and miserable two days of bronchial mayhem. It was freezing, so…why were all the girls so happy??? We were in charge of our own event and having a ball!
High voltage surfboards took up my offer to sponsor a surfboard as a prize (later Paul Shanks, environmental award winner, likewise offered one). That first year we tricked TOWN AND COUNTRY into some sponsorship too with their cool clothing being made in Paeroa back then. Without High Voltage and T & C, we might not have got past “go” with this contest. The prizes turned into spot prizes, big ones such as the board, Expozay towels and more. From 22 the first year our entry numbers grew to more like 50, then 70 then 90 then one great year, 130! They still hold steady at around the 100 mark. The first poster we ever made was done on an A3 sheet of paper with pictures of surf and letters from magazines pasted on and photocopied! Now we load them on the web.
The fist year of the contest we ran an A and B Division so everyone got to surf heaps. As the entries grew the A & B divisions vanished due to lack of run-time. But as the entry numbers grew we were also able to introduce new age divisions modeled on international standards. The first year we ever ran an under 12, under 14 and under 16 division Mischa Davis entered the under 12’s – the first time we had ever seen this strong competitor. That’s about 8 years ago.
June was a dumb month to hold a contest, cold and not much in the way of media interest, but we had begun an important the very liberating women’s surf contest for New Zealand.
Over the years we picked up sponsors such as Aleeda, Bodyline, Rip Curl, Starlet, Havaianas and Arnette. In many ways High Voltage and Arnette have remained as enduring “emotional” sponsors with a great spirit for this event and great products, too. Helpers over the years include Pauline Pullman, Diana Korach, Susie Smith, Steve and Monique Davis and Steve Ria. In the early days we used to judge each other since the boys were not interested in jumping on a non-paying panel. I will never forget the first year we paid $2.00 a heat! Vince Kiwi and many of the boys turned up to help – straight up!
One of the biggest forces in the construction of this contest has been Kathy Steed. Without Kathy we would not have had a judging system, heat draws or tabulation techniques. Likewise Carol Cranch introduced an important twist to the way the event flowed since Carol, much like Pauline, had been exposed to international competitions as our female representative. Sue Conquest of Raglan held the event there twice, Gail Pattie once in Gisborne, and Jan shanks once in Whangamata. Pauline Pullman and her crew ran a huge event in Sandy Bay one year, too. All the while, all of us were trying to hold down jobs, families and our own surfing time.
We very much miss the people who were there back in the day such as Lisa from Taranaki who took off deep and powerful every time (she lived at Kumara Patch), Amber Dunn, Ainslee Gunness, Holly Quinn (now designing for Volcom), Shirlene who stood up on one knee first, Jessica Terrill, Heather Dent, Christine Friis, Gil Brebner, Karen Henderson and many others. And it was so great when the mother and daughter teams started to show up like Wini and Pauline Pullman. And we must not forget the flotilla of 6 year olds that also started to turn up about 6 years ago.
The first women’s only comp was held in June of 1987. That’s 19 years ago. It is interesting that due to lack of surf this year, our new sponsor Rip Curl in consultation with other administrators pulled the plug on the event due to a complete lack of surf in any of the weekend windows of summer or autumn.
But hey…there will be next year. So, could we please all get ready for the phatest anniversary in February 2007 when we do actually have, the 20th anniversary contest of the women’s only open championships.
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