Big upsets as the 2008 NMD/Mountain Dew Dion Wells Memorial goes off!!
3rd May 2008
Big upsets
as the 2008 NMD/Mountain Dew Dion Wells Memorial goes off!!
The 2008
NMD/Mountain Dew Dion Wells Memorial was held in consistent 2-4ft waves at St
Kilda beach in
With over 35
competitors across 5 divisions the annual memorial event attracted riders from
as far a field as
The Open Men’s
division got underway first up with a stacked opening round. The first major upset of the day was
Next up was the
Dropknee with a who’s who of top NZ riders. Duncan Smith blitzed through his
heat with strong powerful turns and snaps reminiscent of his recent form at the
NMD/Mountain Dew Arato Pro at Port Waikato.
Local boys Craig Latimer and Wayne Bennett surfed strongly to move
through their heats as did Sam Peters from
The U18 surfed
well amidst the now changing conditions.
A strong sweep down the beach made paddling difficult and this proved to
be the undoing of some of the countries best under 18 riders. Luckily Navare
Taylor and Luke Elliot from
The Amateur Men
showed that the up and coming talent of competitive bodyboarding is alive and
well with an excellent display of riding from many of the novice riders. Given that the waves were now quite different
from the beginning of the day the Amateur Men did well with the conditions on
hand. Aran Naismith was at his
consistent best, progressing easily through his heat. Navare Taylor who had already progressed
through to the U18 final backed up his earlier performance to make it through
to the Amateur final as did Liam Blanchfield of
With the
conditions deteriorating rapidly the call was made at the end of the first
round to take a break and wait until the tide started to come back in. By waiting a couple of hours there would
hopefully be better waves on offer and a swing in the now sea breeze wind
conditions. The call paid off and as
competitors returned around 3pm they were greeted with a much cleaner swell now
breaking on better banks as the tide started to fill in for the afternoon.
The Open Men’s
semis were the first to hit the water in the fun, clean yet powerful
conditions. The last of the Australian
Bodyboarder’s Nick Holmes failed to keep the torch burning for the Australian
crew and was knocked out by the dominant surfing of Duncan Smith and Sam
Peters. Local favourite Casey Keen was
also knocked out after not getting the 2 strong waves require too make it
through to the final. In the second semi
final Ben McKinnon backed up his National titles winning ways by getting two
excellent scoring waves. McKinnon had
the highest heat score of the day with 14.1 out of a possible 20 with a deep
tube ride and several high scoring inverts.
Local dark horse Hayden Parsons rounded out those to make the 4 man
final with smooth fast surfing throughout the day combining several big outside
boosts with fast critical spins on the inside section.
With the first
and second rounds out of the way it was time to kick in to the finals. First up was the U18 division. This was a stacked final with some of the top
ranked U18 riders in NZ taking the water.
2008 Nationals Champion Luke Elliot started off the heat strongly with a
solid set wave, but unfortunately didn’t lay down a big manoeuvre to secure a
high opening score. Navare Taylor and
Liam Blanchfield both got strong combo waves mid way through the heat before
Steve Abraham got the wave of the heat with a cracking invert off a nice right
hand bowl. Abraham pushed out in to the
lead but was unable to consolidate it as the other riders all got decent second
waves. Unfortunately Abraham became a
victim of the strong current and was not able to get a second scoring wave and
had to settle with fourth. Navare Taylor
who had surfed solidly throughout the whole day came in third and up and coming
rider Liam Blanchfield showed that he is a strong contender for the 2008 BBSNZ
U18 tour championship with a second place finish. However the 2008 NMD/Mountain
Dew Dion Wells Memorial U18 crown went to Luke Elliot from
The second final
of the day was the Dropknee. The final
was stacked with some of the most talented DK riders NZ has to offer. Duncan Smith was keen to follow up his
victory at Port Waikato with another victory in
Next to hit the
water was the Novice final. Designed as
a stepping stone in to competition the Novice division has been a great way to
get riders in to the contest environment without the pressure of going up
against the highly regarded Open Men’s competitors. Many Novice riders have gone on to represent
Last in the water
for the day was the Open Men’s final. Competition
was fierce between the current national champion, ex national champions, NZ
representatives and everything in between.
Current National Champ Ben McKinnon had blitzed through his two earlier
heats in the day and was looking in ominous form heading in to the final. Duncan Smith and Hayden Parsons had both
cruised through their earlier heats with their trademark smooth styles and
Parsons in particular was looking for a big result in the final. The heat started strongly with all riders
getting an early wave under their belts.
McKinnon pushed out to an early lead to stamp his mark on the heat with
a big outside roll followed up by a tight spin on the inside. Smith followed suit with a powerful combo
wave. Sam Peters got on the board a little later in the heat with a tight take
off spin before trimming through to the inside to bust a nice roll off the
closeout. Each of the riders got another
solid wave through the middle of the heat with the scores all very close before
the wave of the heat rolled. Sam Peters
paddled in to position and scooped in to a perfect left hand barrel, Peters
weaved through the pit all the way down the line before coasting out on to the
shoulder. A stoked Peters paddled back
out thinking he may have pulled off the seemingly impossible. With few high scoring waves on offer late in
the piece the heat came to a close, each rider having a couple of solid waves
against their name, but no one quite sure what that final places would be. In the end it was the local boy Hayden
Parsons having to settle for 4th after a long day of surfing. In 3rd place was one of the
Thank you to the
following sponsors:
Mountain
Dew
NMD
Bodyboards
Hirequip
Dunedin
R
and R Sport
Hydro
Surf
Vescovato
TheReformation.co.nz
Isolated.co.nz
Final results
Open:
1 Sam Peters,
2 Ben MacKinnon,
3 Duncan Smith,
4 Hayden Parsons,
DK:
1
2 Sam Peters,
3 Craig Latimer,
4 Wayne Bennett,
U18:
1 Luke Elliot, Mt Maunganui
2 Liam Blanchfield,
3 Navare Taylor, Mt Maunganui
4 Steve Abraham, Opotiki
1 Aran Naismith,
2 Liam Blanchfield,
3 Navare Taylor, Mt Maunganui
4 Grant Beddle,
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