St. Clair beach, Dunedin (Sunday, October 22, 2000)
Daniel Kereopa has blitzed the field to win the Open Men’s title at the Pulsate Auahi Kore Aotearoa Maori Surfing Titles. In clean 1.5-metre waves at St. Clair beach in Dunedin, the Raglan surfer dominated his semi-final and final heats on Sunday to take his first Maori Title after several years absence due to international commitments.

Kereopa was the top seeded competitor for this event, having placed 9th at the World Surfing Games in Brazil in June, as well as sitting third on the Surfing NZ Pro Series ratings. After a shaky start on Saturday, in which he placed second in his first heat behind Leon Santorik (Raglan), Daniel looked untouchable as he qualified for the final. In the final, he opened the scoring with an 8.25-point ride (out of ten) and never looked back. After taking his total to more than 23-points (out of 30) in the first ten minutes of the half hour final, Kereopa knew he had secured the win but was anxious for the heat to finish. “I thought about being cheeky and paddling in early! But I know those other guys can always get good waves and even though they needed combos [more than one wave] to get me I knew they had a chance and I had to stay out there and keep trying to improve [my score].” When the heat finished, Keropa had amassed 24-points and was nearly five points ahead of his nearest rival, Chris Malone (Gisborne).

Malone fought hard for second place with local junior Danny Carse, the pair exchanging second place repeatedly in a private battle behind Kereopa. Malone was the 1997 champion but was overseas competing during the event last year. 1998 champion and 1999 runner-up Motu Mataa (Taranaki) had a disappointing final, catching his best wave after the heat had ended and finishing fourth.

Lisa Hurunui (Gisborne) backed up her Nationals title with the Maori title in the Women’s division, beating Jess Terrill (Taranaki) into second. Raglan junior Jess Santorik had lead for much of the final, but was overtaken by both Terril and Hurunui in the final five minutes. “I’m so stoked! I came here to win and I did – such a relief really. Jess was beating me for a while and I was starting to panic. I needed another one to really seal it but was still in the lead at the end,” said Hurunui after the win.

Danny Carse was the star of last year’s event, winning both the Cadet (U16) and Junior (U18) divisions as well as placing third in the Open. After outgrowing Cadet eligibility in 2000, the National Junior Champion ended this event with a repeat of his results in the two remaining divisions. In the Junior division Carse led throughout the final to hold off a strong challenge from Raglan’s Michael Banks. Thomas Poulsen (Gisborne) and Scott Bell (Auckland) were third and fourth respectively.

Michael Banks was not able to surf for four months of this year with a knee injury but looked unaffected by the distraction on his way to a resounding victory in the Cadet division. In the final, Banks more than doubled the score of Thomas Poulsen, who placed second.

After coming south to Dunedin for the first time in its eight-year history, Event Co-ordinator Steve Ria declared the weekend a great success. “Dunedin’ s laid on excellent weather and excellent surf for the contest and we’re looking forward to coming back in 2003. On behalf of Surfing NZ and all the visiting Maori competitors, I want acknowledge and thank the Otakou Whanau for their guidance and hospitality in the running of the event. Kia Ora.”

Ends.