Mount Maunganui welcomes the GWA athletes and crew at the first event of the 2023 season!
Due to the wind direction, the competition was temporarily moved to Pilot Bay today, where we managed to complete the 8 heats of the men’s seeding round.
DAY ONE OF COMPETITION
The first rider’s meeting of the 2023 season was held this morning at Mount Maunganui Beach. At the meeting, the athletes were briefed about the competition conditions and any slight changes to the rule book for the 2023 season.
Due to the wind direction, the decision was made to move the competition site for the day over to Pilot Bay to start the Surf-Freestyle division.
“We’ve come over here as the wind has switched directions and it’s coming from the southwest. I’m so excited to have this event here in New Zealand at my home spot. It’s so cool to have everyone here, and we’re having a great time,” explained local rider Jeremiah McDonald.
MEN’S SEEDING ROUND
The men’s seeding round consisted of 8 heats to determine the position of each rider in round 1. The conditions throughout the afternoon were certainly irregular as the AP flag went up several times, but with patience and determination, we managed to complete the full seeding round.
All of the top athletes from last year seemed to enter this 2023 season in top form. We saw solid starting performances from Titouan Galea, Francesco Cappuzzo, Alan Fedit, Christopher MacDonald, and Malo Guenole. Aside from the well-known names, we also have some new faces at this first tour stop of the season such as Zane Scheweitzer and Cash Berzolla.
We managed to complete the final heat of the seeding round just as the sun was setting over Pilot Bay, bringing this first day of competition to a close. There is still plenty of action ahead of us this week in New Zealand as we complete the Surf-Freestyle discipline and also move on to the FreeFly-Slalom discipline.
Stay tuned for tomorrow as we will be back with what looks to be a positive forecast.
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