Saturday, January 19 Piha

     After our breakfast of OJ and jam, we headed down to the beach. The surfing competition had started at 7:30 am and would run until about 2 pm, and we didn't get to the beach until around 9, but we did arrive in time to see the last few minutes of the men's overall championship.

One of the competitors getting ready to head out into the surf

Spectators lined up on a rocky outcrop to watch the competition

Riding inside the wave

Cutting the top of the wave

The winner gets carried up the beach

     We watched the senior men's finals, the open finals, and then wondered what was coming up when saw the surf lifeguards towing three large cube-shaped floats out into the sea, anchoring them past the breaking surf. Over the PA we heard the MC announce the start of the paddle-board finals. About a dozen people lined up on the beach, and after the countdown they sprinted to the water, carrying their boards and paddles. I saw only one woman among the group and wondered how she would fare.

The surf guards pulling a float out to the course.  They had a wild ride fighting
the surf.

The start of the Stand Up Paddle finals

Heading out onto the course, the lone woman racer wearing the pink shorts

Fighting through the surf to get out to the first float

     The course took them left near the rocks where the surf broke, then parallel to the beach a couple hundred meters off shore. From there they had to round another float, paddle out to a third float a hundred meters further out, then dash back to the beach, hoping to surf a wave onto the shore. From there they sprinted to the starting flag on the beach, a helper holding their boards and preventing them from floating out to sea. They had to do two trips around the course, so they raced back out into the surf for a second trip around.

     At first there were three men who took fairly large leads over the rest of the field, but the woman had paddled strongly and kept them within range. As they made the tricky maneuver first to the closer float and then out to the further, the woman caught the third guy, then closed the gap on the second. The announcer told the crowd that the woman was Annabelle Anderson, the current Woman's World Champion Paddle-boarder, a New Zealand lass that has spent the past year competing around the world. That explained her proficiency and strength on the board. During her sprint to shore to finish the first lap she passed the second place guy. She held onto that spot for the remainder of the race.

Annabelle Anderson coming in second in the New Zealand SUP Championship.
She was the only woman in the race.  The men are probably used to getting beaten by her.

     It was a grueling race, taking the winner at least 20 minutes to finish, and thrilling to watch. Half of the field was still fighting their way around the course when we headed back to the van for lunch a half hour after the race had begun.

     After lunch and a nap, we walked back down to the beach. All of the festivities had ended, and Piha beach was back to being a fun place for experienced surfers to ride the waves and, between the guard flags, for families to play. We hiked up the trail to the headlands on the south side of the beach to look over the rugged coastline. Then we explored north along the shore and climbed up Lion Rock.

The water wasn't warm, but not too cold either.  If we get a nice
sunny day we'll probably go swimming.

Carved Maori monument on Lions Rock 

The view from the Lion's back looking north

     For dinner we went to the camp kitchen and fried up mushrooms and peppers and onions and had them with couscous and grated cheese. Simple but delicious. We went back to the van to go to bed, it was pretty quiet for such a large campground. At least until around midnight, when the siren for the volunteer fire department went off less than 50 meters from our van. That's another benefit of having metal and glass surrounding you instead of nylon. The howl of the siren probably was a lot more alarming to our tent-bound neighbors.