Surf to Summit Day One

Sponsored by Speight’s Summit, Surf to Summit will pit Crowd Goes Wild presenters Hayley Holt and Mark Richardson against each other as they compete to complete the adventurous mission. Each will be heading up a team: Mark with skier and surfer Angus Kebbell and O’Neill athlete Jess Videbec, and Hayley with NZ ski personality Alex Herbert and O’Neill athlete Kyle Cooper. Here are the summaries from day one.

Day one summary. Marks Team
- A chilly start at cape farewell at 7.00
- Opposing (Hayley’s team) team took the easy route and surfed at farewell spit, we took a gamble and hit the slopes first (Rainbow Valley)
- A great day at Rainbow Valley Ski Area. Bluebird Day. Some nice mid winter runs under clear skies.
- Met Hayley’s team on the mountain. They arrived after we left.
- We headed to Westport, nervous that we were going to run out of light
- Reached ‘The Tip Head’ at Westport. High expectations as conditions were offshore and chilly! Best conditions on west coast today, but rip proved difficult.
- Finished the end of the day with a pint of Speight’s and some bar food at the Melbourne Hotel, Westport.
Lets hope tomorrow brings sunny skies, nice snow and good waves.

Day one summary. Hayley's team.
They took a risk from the outset, surfing in howling onshore at the tip of the south island, but after meeting a few locals they were put on the right path. And surfed a remote beautiful break full of seal pups. Then it was a long drive over the Takaka hill and up to rainbow were the other team were running very late. Hayley's team thought they had it in the bag already and were very calm. They went east coast and realized once they had traveled 3 1/2 hours and arrived at 9pm it may have been the wrong choice. Predicted swell has not arrived. They are praying something happens overnight or it couldbe another 16 hour day! We will find out tomorrow!