The Corona Super 16 – Corona Crown Surf Series Final Event took place on South Piha Beach, Auckland, New Zealand yesterday.
Bobby Hansen (Gis) surfed to the perfect send off winning the Corona Super 16 held at Piha, the final event of the Corona Crown Surfing Series. Hansen was so dominant in his performance that the other three surfers in the final required two-wave combinations to catch him.
Hansen heads to Australia on Monday where he begins his international campaign with a month of events before briefly returning home and then exiting to South Africa. Hansen took his time in the final but when he got into his stride he scored an 8.00 point ride with a searing combination of forehand carves. His power and speed through his turns in the 1.0m waves were a cut above the rest.
This allowed him to make seemingly impossible sections on the fast South Piha waves. Not long after his first good scoring wave he bettered it with a near perfect 9.00 point ride for a 17.00 heat total – the highest of the day.
Hansen was modest in his explanation of how the final went suggesting it came down to wave selection “It is really satisfying comboing guys like Maz, DK and Luke but I know if they got the waves I did, they would have done the same to me so yeah I will take it while I can,” said Hansen.
This is the second win in a row for Hansen after he won the Rip Curl Pro only one week ago at Raglan. His form would suggest that he is at his best after recovering from a knee injury that prevented him from competing earlier in the year.
“Hopefully I can get a role on from here and make it work in Aussie, yeah you can’t ask for more than winning these last two comps before heading away,” said Hansen who further expanded on the big year ahead: “I hope to do well this year and make it into the top 50 surfers of the World Qualifying Series so that I get a good seed for the following year and qualify for the WCT (World Championship Tour). Of course I would like to qualify this year if I can but it is a long hard road so we will see how we go.”
With his win, Hansen moved into second place on final ratings of the Corona Crown Surfing Series, behind runaway leader Daniel Kereopa (Rag) who placed second in the event. Kereopa was on hand to accept the huge trophy for his series win and took a certain amount of glory from the day even though he finished third with a heat total of 12.85 points.
Maz Quinn (Gis), who missed last weekends event placed second. Quinn struggled to find the scintillating form he is renowned for but still managed to win two of his three round robin heats and score 13.25 in the final. Luke Cederman who tore apart the early morning conditions on the Piha Bar was less devastating in the final when the main contest peak shifted to the right-hand waves in the middle of the beach.
Cederman finished in fourth place which elevated him further up the final ratings. Jessica Santorik (Rag) proved time and again just how talented she is. She won all three heats today to win the Corona Super 16 and also clinch another Corona Crown Surfing Series title. Santorik was too good for her opponents and in a similar fashion to Hansen, left her opponents requiring a combination of scores to take the title in the final heat of the day.
Her win secured her third series title in three years to clearly show her domination of the domestic scene here in New Zealand. Kara Stephenson also of Raglan pushed her way into second after the final heat of the day slightly ahead of Mount Maunganui’s Michelle Langdon with young Laura Rishworth (Mnt) placing fourth in her first appearance at the Corona Super 16.
The Corona Expression Session split the early round robin heats from the final. It allowed the next best eight surfers of the day to go for broke in the rippable waves along South Piha. Zennor Wernham (Rag) lucked onto a ‘bomb’ of a wave and belted it all the way to the beach with huge forehand turns unloading buckets of spray. The wave was a clear standout for wave of the day.
Nathan Welch on the other hand went off for the best single turn punching out a huge backhand ‘air reverse’ that almost defied the eyes of the crowds on the beach.
Corona Super 16 Open Men Finals
- Bobby Hansen (Gis)
- Maz Quinn (Gis)
- Daniel Kereopa (Rag)
- Luke Cederman (Rag)
Corona Super 16 Women’s Round Robin Points
- Jessica Santorik (Rag)
- Kara Stephenson (Rag
- Michelle Langdon (Mnt)
- Laura Rishworth (Mnt)
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