Southland's Premier Surf and Snow Event

September 23 - 26, Queenstown and Riverton

And that's how to have a surf and snow competition!

Coronet Peak, Queenstown really put it on for the boardercross on Friday 24 September with some great spring snow and a fast challenging boardercross course.

Yannick and the crew from nzski.com did a brilliant job on the Peak and this year added a new feature .... a table top jump with a "pool" of porridge to flounder around in. People flew over it, flopped in to it and sidled around it.

Stephen Scott in the Men's and Jana Gibson in the Women's rode hard and fast to take out first place for the Boardercross section. At the end of the day the competitors with a big grin and that warm glow on the cheeks from a days spring riding headed off to Riverton for the next part of the Primo Peak to Porridge - the surfing. Saturday 25 September was clean and Porridge provided a good 3 - 4 foot swell with some hot surfing from the local Pou boys .... and their dad Puke.

By the end of the first heat a strong onshore wind had picked up and the competition was postponed until the next day. Sunday dawned with a huge 6 - 7 foot swell breaking at Porridge so the location was switched to Trees at Colac Bay.

"The surf god's definitely blessed us this year" says Evan Bloomfield event organiser. " Trees was a perfect 4 -5 foot with a light offshore and the competitors produced some stunning surfing in the sparkling conditions."

The Men's final produced the best surfing of the competition with the smooth powerful surfers showing their style and a few floaters and 360's tossed in for good measure. Danny Carse powered his way to first place in the surfing with some great wave selection and Leilani Morgan took out the Women's section. 15 year old Haami Pou from Riverton showed he is a force to reckon with in the surfing scene with a strong 2nd place on his home break.

Two consistent 4th placings in the boardercross and the surfing saw Dwayne Fetch from Wanaka take first place in the Combined Men's result with Danny Carse from Dunedin 2nd and Brett Summerlee from Dunedin 3rd. In the Combined Women's result Leilani Morgan from Kaikoura, Regi Starinskas from Victoria, Australia and Jana Gibson from Queenstown placed first equal!

"Another vintage Primo Peak to Porridge" says Evan Bloomfield. " We have already put in a request up above for a repeat of the classic snow and surf conditions for next year."

Evan Bloomfield