Mount surfers put Bay top at National Scholastic champs

Elin Tawharu is in good form at scholastic nationals in Gisborne. PHOTO/FILE

Bay of Plenty have returned to the top of the table after a big second day at the 2017 National Scholastic Surfing Championships under way in Gisborne.

The star-studded team have only lost one of 12 surfers in the event and that was more to illness than performance. The excellent start to the event has the team 500 points ahead of their nearest rivals Auckland in second, with Canterbury third while defending champions Taranaki are back in fifth.

Mount Maunganui's Elin Tawharu and Raiha Ensor dominated their under-18 girls' division heats with polished opening-round performances. Tawharu posted a round-high 15.2-point heat total to advance through to the semifinals of the division.

Tawharu takes on a senior role with the Bay of Plenty team this year, using her national and international experience to help out her young teammates.

"It was good to get good waves out there today," she said. "I like these events with the team aspect to them, it is less individual which surfing usually is and I like that team environment."

After an uncharacteristic eighth-place finish in 2016, Tawharu believes the team has what it takes to stay top of the team rankings this year.

"We are going for the win here this week, everyone has been supportive and it has been fun, so we are looking forward to the last three days of the event."

Another surfer stepping up to a senior position this year is Taranaki's Zhana Hutchieson. She surfed to a 13.53-point heat total, coming from third place midway through the heat to take a comfortable victory.

Tawharu and Hutchieson were joined by Raiha Ensor (Mount Maunganui) as winners in the under-18 girls' division.

In the under-16 girls' section, Georgia Wederell (Mount Maunganui) and Saffi Vette (Gis) both won and were joined by Canterbury teammates Estella Hungerford and Tegen Bishop who advanced through their heats in second place.

The afternoon heats comprised some tight encounters in the second round of both the under-18 and under-16 boys' divisions.

Reef Matthews (Tara), Elliott Brown (Dun) and Jared Gebert (Ohope) all surfed to exceptional heat wins posting scores in excess of 15.0 points out of 20.

Gebert won the closest heat of the round advancing alongside Jack McLeod (Dun) who posted 13.27 points to narrowly edge Canterbury surfer Conor McLennan on 12.77 points.

Other heat winners included Sonny Rapira - Martin (Tara), Lee Ririnui (Mount Maunganui) and Tom Norton (Whangarei) who all advanced through to the quarter-finals.