O’Neill back for festival
Sumner surfer Luke O’Neill will have to overcome a lack of training to defend his open men’s premier titles at the Duke Festival of Surfing at New Brighton beach at the weekend.
O’Neill won the longboard and open logger events last year, but hasn’t had the same preparation this year due to injury.
He’ll be up against a raft of quality opposition in the longboard, including Tom and Fred Owens, Jason Lawn, William Wallace and Ambrose McNeill.
With 250 surfers entered in the event, they will be part of what’s being called the largest surfing competition ever held in New Zealand.
Last year, it reached that milestone with about 200 turning up, and an extra 43 entries have been received this year.
Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings estimated the large number of entries would make for about 21 hours of surfing over two competition arenas.
Competitors are travelling from as far away as Queensland, Australia, for the event, while large contingents of up and coming surfers are coming from the West Coast, Otago, Raglan, Mt Maunganui, Auckland and Northland.
‘‘Whilst we go out of our way to make everyone feel more than welcome, the competition in the water will be fierce, where competitors will be vying for valuable points on the New Zealand and South Island surfing circuits,’’ event spokesman Warren Hawke said.
In the women’s open category, Donna Henderson, a surf coach at Sumner, and Lucy Temoananui are expected to feature in the premier finals.
Organisers are expecting the competition to be most competitive in the men’s and women’s under-20 sections. Redcliffs’ Harrison Whiteside is ranked second in the country and will start as the one to beat.
In the women’s under-20 and under-17 section, North Wai Boardriders’ Tegan Bishop has the favourite tag. The three-day event started on Friday morning with school age and under-20 short board events. Long board events start on Saturday morning, while all finals will run on Sunday.