Mount surfers carve up competition

TOP GROM: Raiha Ensor claimed two wins from the three-round Billabong Grom series to take the under-17 girls' division title. PHOTO/PHOTOCPL

Mount Maunganui's Jonas Tawharu completed a clean sweep of wins in the under-17 boys' division of the Billabong Grom Series presented by Oceanbridge that wrapped up at Piha at the weekend.

It was his third win in the division for the third straight time.

With the final being held at low tide, Tawharu opted to surf the bar alongside his opponents. The fast breaking lefts were clearly an advantage to Tawharu who finished with a 11.87-point heat total. Finishing runner-up was local surfer Shane Kraus, with Dunedin's Jack McLeod third and Waitara surfer Reef Matthews fourth.

Raiha Ensor (Mount) cemented her position at the top of the ratings with a win in the final event of the series, her performance highlighted by an outstanding 9.0-point ride. Ensor was in a battle with Elin Tawharu (Mount) for the win as well as the overall series and she proved too good with a 16.3-point heat total.

Elin Tawharu ended up second at the event and second overall in the series. Third on the day was Tiana-Breeze de Mooij (Mount) with Billie Scott (Whangarei) fourth.

Georgia Wederell (Mount) took out the final of the under-14 girls' division, despite breaking the nose off her board. Taranaki surfer Tomas Butland came to the rescue of Wederell, lending her his board midway through the final. Wederell was up against three first-time competitors from Auckland with Summer Carkeek getting the nod over Alice Westercamp in third and Liv Haysom in fourth.

Jack Lee (Whakatane) cracked his first finals win in the under-14 boys' division with a 6.33-point ride on his last wave to edge out Taylor O'Leary (Muriwai). Placing third was Myka Black (Christchurch) with Josef Jungwirth (Raglan) in fourth. Dune Kennings (Whangamata) claimed back-to-back wins in the under-20 boys' division while Bianca Sansom clawed a win back from her sister in the girls' division. Finishing third with a total of 11.7 points was enough for the Mount's Callum Chuter to take the under-20 series' runner-up spot.