Felix Dickson, of Dunedin, rides the waves to victory in
the senior men's category at the South Island surfing
championships at St Clair yesterday. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Following a turbulent and eventful start to the three-day
South Island championships at St Clair, conditions settled to
favour some top action on Saturday and yesterday.
Among those to feature in the open men's section were top
seeds Anthony Hema (Westport), Leon Santorik (Raglan), Tim
O'Connor (Mount Maunganui) and Sam Dunfoy (Kaikoura).
Hama and Santorik had a battle royal in the first semifinal,
both scoring highly to become the first two of four
qualifiers to contest the final.
Hama scored an impressive 12.83 and Santorik 12.07.
O'Connor overcame a horror start in his first heat to
eventually progress through and become the top scorer on
10.53 in the second semifinal, with Dunfoy the fourth
qualifier for the four-way final, scoring 9.7.
But O'Connor saved his best until last with a masterful
display of board riding, absolutely hammering his opponents
to record the highest score of any round throughout the three
days of competition. He ending the finals section by scoring
a massive 15.15.10 points.
O'Connor was matched on the first run in the final only by
Santorik. The pair both picked a really good right hander to
score in the high sevens and leave Hema and Dunfoy panicking
and catch-up mode.
Santorik and O'Connor matched each other wave for wave until
O'Connor sealed victory on his final run after picking a
really good left-hander and riding three massive backhand
turns.
It was a popular victory for the 21-year-old polytech student
from the Bay of Plenty, who travelled the furthest to pick up
the $1500 prize. His victory, giving his confidence a much
needed boost following a disastrous Super 16 result earlier
this month, can now only hasten his entry on to the world
circuit.
O'Connor's final run buried any hope Santorik had of lifting
the trophy and winner's cheque.
Santorik finished the final on 11.77 points with Dunfoy third
on 11 points.
Hema, the South Island circuit series leader, failed to fire
and fell off the pace in the four-way final scoring 9.9.57
points.
Hema and Dunfoy will meet to decide the top South Island
surfer late next month in the circuit decider at Kaikoura's
O'Neill Cold Water Classic.
Local hope Felix Dickson, although eliminated in the open
competition, bounced back to win the senior men's section.
He scored 10.90 points to hold out Hema, who also qualified
for the final of this grade. Hema finished runner-up on 8.83
points with Aaron Lock (Sumner) third on 7.77 pointsLock, who
also picked up third place in the men's masters competition,
was among those to impress throughout the three-day event.
As well as helping organisers with marshalling duties, he was
competing over three grades - open men, senior men and
masters men. He made it to the quarterfinal stage of the open
men's section and final rounds of both the senior men and
masters men.
He had three 12-hour days either competing or undertaking his
role as one of the event's officials.
Hayley Coakes was the toast of the locals, winning the open
women's title by scoring 8 points to hold out the highly
competitive Alethea Lock (Sumner), who scored 6.13 points to
finish second.
Tash Civil (Dunedin) was third on 6.6.10 points.
Dunedin surfers dominated the junior men's final with three
of the four in the final.
The first two were brothers John and Robert Courian who
shared the spoils on 8.53 points.
John gained the title on countback.
Tane Wallis (Piha) was third on 7.47 points.
The junior women's final was dominated by Canterbury surfers
Kristi Zarifeh (Sumner) and Alethea Lock.
Zarifeh won the title on 5.50 points from Lock who added to
her runner-up title in the open women's competition by coming
second on 3.53 points. Emily Nicholson (Waikuku) was third on
1.50 points.
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