PRESS RELEASE

September 20, 2001

SPRING IN TO SNOW AND SURF

The Primo Peak to Porridge is set to spring in to action on Coronet Peak tomorrow with the boardercross the first part of this classic southland surf and snow event.

"The spring snow is holding up remarkably well at the peak with a challenging boardercross complete with jumps, tables tops and the legendary porridge pit." says organiser Evan Bloomfield. "No matter how hard they try to avoid it, someone always seems to end up in it."

Last years woman's winner Regis Starinskas from Victoria is back to defend her title. Regis is looking hot with some recent practice in the surf, "I have just come back from the west coast and we had waves every day" says Regis.

She is likely to face stiff competition from a strong womans contingent including past New Zealand surf champion Heather Dent from Taranaki and Riverton local Marama Pou who has spent this winter polishing up her snowboarding skills in Queenstown.

The mens field is wide open with previous winners Dwayne Fetch and Felix Dickson both overseas. The dark horse and a regular place getter in previous years is Ste'en Webster of Wanaka. International snowboard judge and editor of the New Zealand Snow Boarder magazine Ste'en says it is great to be able to enjoy a few days snowboarding and surfing at the end of a busy season.

Paul Harrison from Dunedin leads a young group of surfers from Dunedin including Danny Carse and Shaydar Edelmann that are all capable of taking hte top spot.

Registration for the event is open until 10am on Firday at Coronet Peak with the boardercross starting at 11am.

Ends