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2015 New Zealand Surfing Team

  • Bronze Medal for Ella Williams at ISA World Surfing Games

      19 June 2015

    Hi everyone,

    The ISA World Surfing Games came to a close with our team finishing eighth overall. We had aimed at a top seven finish which would have given us qualification into the China Cup in January 2015 but we fell 38 points short which is a shame.

    Our girls held the team together with Ella Williams placing third and Paige eighth. The two were clear stand outs all week notching up heat win after heat win.

    On the final day of the event Paige fell a wave short in her first heat to be eliminated while Ella pushed on through to the final where she matched eventual winner Tia Blanco. Ella eventually came up a wave short in the bigger surf that rolled through from Hurricane Blanca.

    Our result was a big improvement on last year when we placed eleventh. We should qualify for the Aloha Cup Tag Team event at the World Surfing Games next year which will be the first time in several years that we have contested that event within the event.

    Nicaragua was amazing to us. It was a really nice location, lovely people and the waves were amazing all week long. With your help, we represented New Zealand proudly and worked together as a team to improve our world ranking.

    Once again, thanks for your support and donations.

    Overall Results

    Open Women

    Ella Williams – 3rd

    Paige Hareb – 8th

    Open Men

    JC Susan – 31st

    Matt Hewitt – 43rd

    Zen Wallis – 49th

    Dune Kennings – 73rd

    Regards,

    Dune, JC, Matt, Zen, Ella and Paige.

    PS Paige and Ella continued on to a World Surf League QS6000 event in Mexico where Paige placed fifth making it all the way through to the quarterfinals. This has strengthened her qualifying series ranking. Paige currently sits in sixth place overall with three major events remaining and a real shot at clawing her way back on to the World Tour – the pinnacle of surfing.

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  • Cheers For The Support - We are Almost Underway in Nicaragua

      1 June 2015

    Hi everyone,

    Thanks so much for supporting our campaign to represent New Zealand at the ISA World Surfing Games being held in Nicaragua this week.

    All of your support is sooo appreciated.

    We are looking forward to representing New Zealand with pride this week and climbing up the ranks of world surfing.

    Several of us had a great build up to the event with good results at the Rip Curl Pro held at Raglan last weekend.

    Ella won the Open Women’s Division in a great high-performance final, her first win on New Zealand soil since 2013.

    Dune also had a great run of heats up until the semifinals of the Under 20 Boys Division where he aggravated an old knee injury. He opted to sit out the final but he got medical clearance to travel to Nicaragua.

    Matt Hewitt also had a solid run progressing to the semifinals of the Open Men’s Division.

    We have finally arrived at the event location of Popoyo Beach. It was a long trip with its own challenges including a lengthy delay at Houston International Airport.

    Today we will participate in the parade of nations which will run through the streets of the local township. We will also mix our Kiwi sand (from both coasts) with that of the other participating nations. A total of 27 nations are present at the event with over 150 competitors in action.

    The event gets underway tomorrow (2am NZT) with the Men’s Division. Paige and Ella will have the day off.

    You can follow all the action live from approximately 2am – 10am daily via the following link.

    http://isawsg.com/live/

    Once again thank you for your generous support toward our campaign. We will be sure to keep you updated throughout the week right through until the finals on Monday morning next week.

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