The Dunedin City Council is putting more than half a million dollars into a new surfing event and hopes it will be self-sustaining within two years. It was announced on Monday, St Clair Beach from March 16-21 will be the location for the World Surf League (WSL) Dunedin Pro QS4000 and Junior Pro competitions. The event will be part of the WSL Qualifying Series, where New Zealand’s best will take on elite surfers from the Asia-Pacific to achieve up to 4000 qualifying points. It is expected about 200 surfers will head to Dunedin to compete on what is seen as one of the best city surf breaks in New Zealand. Surfers who succeed at the qualifying series will then move to the challenger series to compete against international surfers. If they do well there they will head to the top echelon of WSL. A council spokesman confirmed yesterday Dunedin city councillors approved a budget allocation of $200,000 to host the competition, along with $80,000 to support wider activation around the event in 2027, with the same amounts budgeted for the 2028 competition. It was hoped the event would be self-sustaining after two years, the spokesman said. It is estimated the event would contribute $4.16 million to the Dunedin economy on an annual basis, including $3.05m in visitor expenditure generated from more than 2500 projected visitors — 2000-plus domestic visitors and 550-plus international visitors. The event’s funding came from the Dunedin City Council’s events procurement funding, which was approved as part of the festivals and events plan. No government event funding was sourced for the international event.
