The Rip Curl New Zealand Junior Surfing Team commenced their assault on the 2011 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in Peru with surfers moving through their qualifying round heats. The event is being held at Punta Hermosa, Peru from the 21st – 29th May with two arenas catering for a record 276 surfers from 27 countries competing at the event.
The Kiwi’s stand out performance on day one came from Ben Poulter (Raglan) in the Under 18 Boys Division late in the day scoring 12.0 out of a possible 20 points to win his match up – one of only two Kiwis to do so on day one.
Surfing the left-hand point break Poulter looked at home in the waves notching up a 5.07 point ride before finishing with a 6.93. In true Poulter style, Ben threw buckets of spray off several big backhand turns to impress everyone watching his heat. “I am big, it comes naturally” said Poulter in his post heat interview when questioned about where he gets all his power. “It is fun in Peru, I am from Raglan and we have similar surf and temperature so it is not much different to here.
Unfortunately Ben Poulter on day two was edged into third place in his heat losing to American Conner Coffin and Travis Southworth (Mex) – the margin a mere 0.70 points.
New Zealand surfing team announced
Surfing New Zealand has announced a team of eight surfers including Raglan surfer Ben Poulter to represent New Zealand at the 2011 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games which take place in Panama during June and July this year.
The New Zealand Surfing Team comprises a relatively inexperienced line-up of surfers in terms of the World Surfing Games event. However the team is spearheaded by Paige Hareb, New Zealand’s most successful female surfer who, in her first outing at the event, placed runner up in 2010.
The team comprises surfers from five regions throughout New Zealand – Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.
The New Zealand team placed seventh from 31 nations in 2010. The ranking was the highest achieved by the New Zealand Team in the past decade. The 2011 team will be out to surpass that excellent result whilst competing in the amazing Central American waves of Panama.
