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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 35 Number 6. April 11, 1972

Surfing

Surfing

Photo of a surfer riding a wave at Lyall Bay

Saturday morning found everyone gazing at 2-3 foot waves at "the corner", Lyall Bay so the decision was immediately made to head to Tore -the venue a couple of weeks beck for the club's first competition-come-expression-session. Leaving our rental car driver to extract the keys from with inside the car (!) the rest of us headed off on the 80-odd miles to Tora. The tension over the last few miles was almost unbearable as the visiting surfers kept asking more and more questions about the swell, the wind, the break and so on, but on bursting out of the hills on to the coast the agony was over. A southerly swell was pushing 4-6' sets through at the Tora break with 6-8' sets outside at Indicator point. Conditions were hazy but glassy and the few locals didn't crowd the place too much.

The first heat got under way at noon and by this time it was a reel hassle in the water and in the 30 minute heat some competitors only got 5 or 6 waves. For the 15 or so people not competing in the particular heat, some surfed, and the rest set on the beach assisting the selected judges to determine place getters. Adrian Taylor (Vic) end Ross Liggins (Auck) went through to the final from heat one with Taylor pulling off some incredible moves from deep inside the shoulder. Meanwhile out the back David Banks on a knee machine was carving some crazy patterns at Indicator.

Heat two was very evenly contested and the final outcome was in dispute right up until the end of the heat with Dave Porter (Wei) and Jonathan Neal (Vic) just edging out Mike Smith (Wet) — taking all the waves end Pete Brady (Cant). During this heat one place getter was still in the water and collided with a submerged rock, badly pulping his shoulder and putting him out of the final.

Heat three, and Vic scored again with Murray Lines carving fluidly on his twin-fin, and Mark Thompson (Cant) also riding well. Gary Yates (Wai) was selected from this heat to replace Ross Liggins and the stage was set for the final with 3 Vic, 2 Wai and one Canterbury surfer.

With only about 8 people in the water, the finalists ripped and Adrian Taylor stood out gaining 7 points out of 10 for virtually every ride. Gary Yates (Wai) made the paddle out to Indicator and picked up valuable points despite the collapsing sections to take second place. Jonathan Neal, on home ground, came through third for Vic. Final positions.

  • Victoria 1
  • Waikato 2
  • Canterbury 3

A most successful contest with waves and weather really on, and visiting surfers quite stoked at surfing a relatively new spot.

Despite the inevitable dash with the NZ Surfing Champs to be held at New Plymouth over the Easter weekend, there was a good deal of enthusiasm generated at Vic for the tournament surfing. Once it was established that all the competitors had arrived we had a four-way competition developing between Vic, Waikato, Canterbury and Auckland, (here was one sport Otago wasn't going to dominate). Vic and Waikato entered 5 competitors each. The Waikato men had "lived" at Raglan and were inevitably goofy-footers; Canterbury sent up three guys, and Auckland sent two.

Students drinking at the Easter Tournament