Ava’s road to her second national title was a convoluted one … she nearly didn’t get there … but the likeable, laidback surfer from Christchurch soon found her feet in Stent Road’s lefts and rights to take the top gong.
In 2020 Ava Henderson won her first Open Women’s title – she was 14 at the time – one of the youngest ever. Since then she’s dipped in and out of competition as she’s explored the world’s best waves and taken time away from the pressure of surf contests.
Maybe it was the appeal of Taranaki’s waves, but Ava thankfully decided to enter the 2025 National Champs. However, on arrival in Picton to catch her ferry to the North Island in the days before the event the 19-year-old realised she had booked the Wellington to Picton leg instead. She was able to negotiate a sailing in the correct direction only to then have that one cancelled as a large storm swell swamped the Cook Strait. Defeated, Ava headed back to Christchurch.
Fernando Jara, of Fernworkz Films, had other ideas. He wasn’t about to let the grom phenom sit his one out. Fern bundled Ava into his car next to his prized Black Magic 6K Pro camera, and drove to Taranaki.
Riding a questionably suited borrowed board complete with grubby wax, Ava slapped a Roxy sticker on the nose, which seemingly turned it into a heat winner. Ava was here to have fun. That was clear. She’d shimmy through the early rounds with a great big smile and carefree attitude.
For the final Ava decided to surf in boardshorts. She borrowed an ill-fitting pair from her friend Lincoln Penei, then borrowed a long sleeve rashie from Kalani Louis to help stave off the southeaster blowing up the face of the rights. It took her a long time to reach the shoreline for the final – mainly because she meandered through the crowd of well-wishers with her beaming smile. It seemed everyone wanted to see Ava do well.
Ava’s strategy was as simple as she was relaxed: “I wanted to get two good waves and do two good turns on each wave.”
She knew the judges were giving double points and fast recycle priority on the lefts so played into her strong backhand. The long boardshorts dragged at her knees as she put together the best heat of her campaign.
“The long shorts reminded me to bend my knees more”, she laughed afterward.
Ava surfed to a 16.43 point heat total to take a comfortable win over 14-year-old rising star Alani Morse who finished runner up. Local rippers Ariana Shewry and Natasha Gouldsbury had to settle for third and fourth respectively.
“I feel like now I am doing it for fun, while back then I had a lot of pressure on myself,” Ava admitted after her win. “I came here this week to have fun and that’s what I did and I came out on top.” She pauses to congratulate Alexis Owen on his first Open Men’s title before telling the North Island surfers, her good friends, to suck it and flipping them the bird with both hands. You can’t help but like her wildness. “You can’t go wrong having fun,” she continues. “When I am relaxed, I feel like I surf a lot better, you can put a lot of pressure on yourself but a lot of the time it doesn’t work, not for me anyway.”