Good vibes on the water
29 Oct 2020
Pretty much every day in summer, you鈥檒l find Jack Mckenzie riding the waves at Waikuku Beach, just a minute from home.
鈥淚 try to get home as soon as I can and go for a surf. I love the feeling of riding along a wave and if the surf is big, you get a real adrenaline rush. I love it. In the winter it鈥檚 a bit harder to get out because I have rugby.鈥�
Fourteen-year-old Jack has just returned from the Aotearoa Maori Surfing Titles in Ahipara, Northland, where he enjoyed great success 鈥� claiming 3rd place in the U16 final and 5th in the U18s.
鈥淚t was great to compete. The surf was good and the water wasn鈥檛 too cold. I wore my wetsuit for the first day but the second day I didn鈥檛 need to. We all have to wear a different colour top so that the judges can identify us 鈥� I was in bright pink which stands out really well on the waves.鈥�
Of Ng膩i Tahu descent, Jack has been surfing since he was three. He rates Kaikoura as one of his top surfing spots, together with a month spent in Indonesia when he was in Year 8.
Jack has many surfing ambitions; among them is making it into the New Zealand Secondary Schools鈥� surfing team.
