‘Pretty bold and playful’: Sea lion makes ‘surprise appearance’ at NZ surfing championship

NZ surfing championship: Participant Regan Story surfs as a female sea lion makes a surprise appearance during the 2024 National Surfing Championships at Dunedin’s St Clair Beach on Sunday afternoon.

She was curious to showcase her surfing skills at a national surfing championship, cruising in front of some of the country’s most successful surfers.

She was scoring well and winning at one stage, but Faith was soon disqualified for cheating and interfering with other surfers.

That’s Faith, the sea lion. Faith stole the show when she made a surprise appearance during the 2024 National Surfing Championships at Dunedin’s St Clair Beach on Sunday afternoon.

Surfer Malcolm Diack was competing in the finals of the knee boarding category when Faith decided to play in the waves in and around him.

Diack said the sea lion was quite “fun.”

”I was purposely looking away. The more you ignore them, usually they go away, but Faith was a bit more playful than normal sea lions.

“She just had a surf with us.

“She was pretty playful and harmless.

“She did sort of get in the way, and it was quite a distraction, but it was great fun.

Diack said spectators loved it.

“There was a really good commentary from the MC going on at the same time.”

“The local surfers are pretty happy to have them [sea lions] surfing around. It is better to have them rather than sharks. There are far worse things in the water than sea lions.”

Surfing New Zealand chief executive officer Ben Kennington said the sea lion [Faith] was quite inquisitive.

”This one wanted to come in and wanted to check out the action.”

Kennington said it was “a bit scary”, and they need a protocol in place if sea lions get too close to surfers.

”The ones competing yesterday [Sunday] were adults [so] they carried on and it [the sea lion] jumped in and around.

”We have young competitors too. If a young kid gets a little bit scared [with sea lions], we will suspend [the surfing]… This is the safest way to go for participants and [sea lion].”

Diack, who surfed for 30 years, said the best approach to deal with sea lions in the water was to stay calm and ignore them.

“Try to look the other way as much as they [sea lions] try to catch your attention.

“If they can’t see your eyes, they might get bored and go away.”

Faith moved back to the water after playing around with a couple of surfers during the championships.

There were reports of another sea lion making an appearance on Monday during the championships, but the marine creature didn’t come too close to surfers and got back into the water after making a brief appearance.

With Thanks Reference to: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/301036756/pretty-bold-and-playful-sea-lion-makes-surprise-appearance-at-nz-surfing-championship