{"id":303558,"date":"2026-02-26T18:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/303558\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:02:10","slug":"raglan-residents-worried-about-hosting-world-surf-league-championship-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/303558\/","title":{"rendered":"Raglan residents worried about hosting World Surf League Championship Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe World Surf League Championship Tour has added Raglan to the 2026 tour.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Libby Kirkby-McLeod\n<\/p>\n

When Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston announced the World Surf League Championship Tour was coming to Raglan<\/a> it caught many locals by surprise and the reaction has not been completely positive.<\/p>\n

On a hot sunny day when the tide was out, RNZ went to the beach and village in Raglan to get the local perspective.<\/p>\n

Surfer Edward Wheeler was leaving the water and heading up the beach to wash off his board.<\/p>\n

First thing’s first – how was the surf?<\/p>\n

“Out there was quite nice, the water temperature’s beautiful at the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Surfer<\/p>\n

\nSurfer Edward Wheeler thinks Raglan deserves to be on the tour but worries about the effect on the town.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Libby Kirkby-McLeod\n<\/p>\n

Wheeler could see why the World Surf League had added Raglan to its tour.<\/p>\n

“The break is definitely worth the World Surf League, definitely, but it’s more the hidden town we just don’t want to lose,” he said.<\/p>\n

RNZ heard this tension between the pros and cons of the 10-day event in May 2026 from most people it spoke to.<\/p>\n

It would bring the biggest elite surfing event ever staged in New Zealand to a keen surfing community<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it could also bring up to 20,000 people and expose the village to millions more watching on television.<\/p>\n

“It will be good for Raglan in some ways of course for businesses and this sort of thing, but Raglan, as everyone knows, is a protected little place and when the world is watching it … there will be people that will have money and will think ‘that’s a lovely little place’,” said Wheeler.<\/p>\n

Chris Perry was not so worried that the event might introduce the world to Raglan. He swam or blokarted at the beach nearly every day.<\/p>\n

“Raglan’s world renowned now, it has a reputation, and I think all this will do is enhance the town,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

\nChris Perry swam or blow-carted at the beach in Raglan nearly every day.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Libby Kirkby-McLeod\n<\/p>\n

Whether the announcement was a shock seemed to depend on how connected residents were to the surfing community.<\/p>\n

RNZ spoke to two locals, Linda and Barrie, up in the village.<\/p>\n

Linda had been surprised when she heard Raglan was joining the tour.<\/p>\n

She had concerns, especially about the management of wastewater<\/a> with so many visitors in town.<\/p>\n

“I [want] it shipped out of town – completely … it has to be shipped out, it cannot be kept here because it will be a nightmare,” she said.<\/p>\n

But Barrie Rogerson owned B.rex Photo Design in the village, specialising in surf photography, and was in the ‘surf loop’.<\/p>\n

“I kind of heard early on there was something happening in that regard,” he said.<\/p>\n

Around the corner, Sam McGlennon was ordering a coffee at a humming local cafe.<\/p>\n

He could understand why people were nervous about bringing such a big competition to a town which he said could already struggle to cope with its visitor numbers.<\/p>\n

“Even a major long weekend in summer here already has an impact on town, on being able to move around and get from place to place and finding a table in the sun to enjoy a coffee for example. I think it’s just going to be an extension of that.”<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

\nSam McGlennon could understand why people were nervous about such a big competition coming to town.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Libby Kirkby-McLeod\n<\/p>\n

McGlennon said some locals were already making plans to leave Raglan for the 10 days.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people I know are renting their houses out for Air BnB’s, so in a way there’s ways to benefit from it as well. But it’s a pretty small town, some of our infrastructure is already pretty stretched, and like a lot of places around the country this just places some extra pressure on that.”<\/p>\n

Concern over the strain the event would put on housing, roading, and wastewater infrastructure was raised several times.<\/p>\n

Eloise Doller was operations manager at Raglan Refuel and a community board member.<\/p>\n

She said there was plenty of time and resources to answer everyone’s questions.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had a meeting up at the hall last Thursday with the [World Surf League] team, everyone’s getting well prepared for it and they’re giving us great information and support as well,” she said.<\/p>\n

Waikato District Council had also set up a dedicated webpage with event information and answers to some of these pressing local concerns.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Surf League Championship Tour has added Raglan to the 2026 tour. Photo: RNZ \/ Libby Kirkby-McLeod…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-303558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}