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If you ask a surfer where the best waves in Dunedin are, don’t expect a friendly response. For a group of people that are laid back to the point of being horizontal they become notoriously cagey if they think their doggedly kept ‘secret spot’ may be revealed. Surfers generally can be divided into two vague groups. One group contains the lifetime slackers and weekend warriors who surf because they love to surf. They range in age and backgrounds from suited and booted lawyers to bare footed hippies with ankle bracelets. They surf as much as they can, which could be 2 times a month, or two times a day. Most surfers are in this group. The others are not quite so laid back. They compete fiercely and judges score their waves out of ten to find a winner. These are the big boys of competitive surfing.

Competition surfing is nowhere near as big in New Zealand as it is in Australia, or other parts of the world. However, there is a path for surfers who are good enough, or keen enough, to try to make a career out of surfing. Very few New Zealand surfers make a comfortable living and to do so you probably have to travel the world slogging away on the WQS (World Qualifying Circuit) in shitty waves and squalid conditions, often for years, trying to make it to the big dance, the ASP Dream tour. That’s where you get the money, the fame, the chicks, the free trips and the perfect waves. That’s where Kelly Slater is.

Dunedin and the southern coastline semi-secretly boast a massive variety of world-class waves. On the Otago peninsula it is possible to find a wave for almost any combination of conditions. You can get decent, un-crowded surf pretty much every day of the year. If you can convince someone to show you where to go, and are willing to brave the freezing conditions, Dunedin is a great place to be a surfer. We even manage to produce and attract some pretty good ones.

Critic headed down to St. Clair beach over the Easter weekend to see what Dunedin’s own version of competitive surfing looks like. The South Coast Boardriders South Island Champs. The Open Men’s competition was won by local scarfie JC Susan, who went on a giant killing run all the way to the novelty sized cheque and free beer. Critic caught up with him to see how it went, and what the surfing life had to offer.

JC studies architectural drafting in Dunedin, and is originally from South Africa, but honed his surfing skills at the Mount (Mt. Maunganui). When he’s not maintaining a classic Twitter profile (@jcsusan11) or “getting hammered and stumbling around in the strobe light” JC puts his studylink money to good use funding his budding surfing career. He is also helped out by his major sponsor O’Neill New Zealand, who hook him up with wetsuits and clothes, and SND surfboards who help him out with new boards.

JC has competed around the country since he was a grommet (young surfer) and says the South Island Champs are a little more relaxed than the more commercial North Island versions. “It’s a pretty sweet contest that the locals organise each year. The contests in the South Island are mostly laid back. The contests in the North Island are way more full on. There is more money involved and they try to run them like a business. It doesn’t really work”.

The contest was held in good conditions at St. Clair on Good Friday and the swell picked up on the Saturday with solid 4-5 foot sets with light winds. Wave selection was the order of the day as JC cruised through his heats in both the Mens Open and Mens Under 20 divisions. Highly accomplished New Zealand pro Luke Cederman was one of Susan’s many victims. JC put it down to luck “everything just went my way, I only caught three waves and one was good. I assume Luke just got the ‘St. Clair special’ where all the waves he caught just turned to shit”.

Nevertheless, JC avoided any ‘St. Clair specials’ and got all the way to the final which was held bright and early in smaller conditions on the Sunday morning (consequently Critic stayed in bed so didn’t see it in person). The other finalists were Zen Wallis (Piha), Jake Scott (Dunedin) and Sam Dunfoy (Kaikoura) but JC got the jump on them by posting a 7.6 with his first wave, and then a solid score of 5.3 later in the final to comfortably beat the competition. JC also came second in the Mens Under 20 section losing in the final to Cody McCusker of Canterbury.