Surfing – National Scholastics Championships

Fletcher Melville went as part of the Southland Scholastics Surfing team to the 2023 National Scholastics Surfing Championships, held up in Gisborne during the September school holidays.

Fletcher’s first heat in the U14 boy’s was stacked with talent but he got off to a great start and moved around the line-up catching some good waves, but with 1st to 4th changing with every wave caught it was a tight heat. The flip of the coin just didn’t fall his way as he got 3rd and needed to be in the top 2 of the 4-man heat to get directly advanced to the seeded rounds, this placed him into the repachage rounds. 

During Fletcher’s next day of surfing he won the 1st repechage heat, and then got a second in round 2, so this moved him on to the Quarter Finals on Thursday. 

During the U14 boy’s quarterfinals Fletcher Melville showed some awesome grit going for it but just didn’t find that right wave he needed, walking away with a 10th overall in the Nation for his age group.