South Island Junior Champs Wrap

We had 8 juniors head down to New Brighton for the South Island Junior Champs over the long weekend.

It was a massive weekend for our juniors as most of them had never participated in such a big competition with big surf. Everyone handled the pressure of racing and the fear of heading out into the big surf with confidence and happy enthusiasm. There were definitely a few butterflies but being part of a strong team they all encouraged and supported each other which so great to see.

After the days racing the kids were all exhausted  and were resting up, but upon seeing me and Ariana heading out for a quick board they all decided to join us and ended up spending another hour out there playing in the waves.

They only had one race to do on Sunday morning so everyone headed out on the boards for a play in the surf before racing. They were all having so much fun they ended up not racing and just played on their boards refining their newly learnt surfing skills for a couple of hours before finally having to come in and get ready for prize giving.

We came home with 5 medals, our seasoned pro Kyan Munnerley got 4 medals in the under 12 category:

• 1st in surf race

• 1st in run-swim-run

• 1st in cameron

• 2nd in beach relay.

Florence Donald got a Bronze in the beach sprints.

I am so proud of all 8 of our juniors for giving it their all and showing great attitude and sportsmanship.

Lastly a great big thank you to Ariana Mcgee for helping us out over the weekend, and sharing her knowledge and experience with our juniors.