Bay of Plenty's junior surfing team claimed an emphatic victory at the 2012 National Scholastic Surfing Championships held at Fitzroy Beach, New Plymouth, regaining the team title they have now held for five of the past seven years.
The Bay of Plenty team had eight of their 12 surfers competing in the finals showing an excellent all-round performance to beat Auckland, who secured their best-ever team performance, with defending champions Gisborne third.
The surf built throughout the day to 1.0m-1.5m with onshore winds making conditions challenging but highly surfable over the full tide.
Despite team honours convincingly going to Bay of Plenty, the eight individual titles up for grabs were spread among the eight regions competing.
Gisborne and Coromandel took two titles each with Northland, Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Canterbury claiming one title each.
Gisborne's Jules Craft surfed to his first national level victory in the Under-18 Boys division amassing an event high 18.0 out of a possible 20 points in the final.
Craft caught the two best waves of the final - long running lefthanders that wound up the beach. Craft had his opponents requiring two scores to catch him and the final was effectively over in the first 15 minutes.
But in second place was Bay of Plenty's Josh Taylor, who was arguably the form surfer of the division. The Mount Maunganui surfer looked sharp in the final, landing one big air reverse, but could not find the quality waves that Craft rode.
Northland's Paul Moretti placed third in the final with defending champion Ben Poulter (Waikato) in fourth after incurring an interference midway through the final.
The Longboard final was dominated by Bay of Plenty with Hone Douglas eventually taking the win ahead of teammate Joe Stewart. Defending champion Sam Poulter (Waikato) placed third in the final with Sunny Brown (Gisborne) in fourth.
The Under-18 Girls division was a low-scoring affair with very few waves coming through during the 25 minutes.
Gisborne's Jayda Martin-Fitzharris held a strong lead for much of the final after getting a good start and building her score line. However it was Coromandel's Ella Williamswho nudged ahead with less than two minutes remaining. Northland surfer Robyn Turnball finished in third place ahead of Demi Hewitt from Mount Maunganui in fourth.
Coromandel picked up their second gold medal through McKenzie Bowden in the Under-16 Boys division. Up against three surfers from the Bay of Plenty, Bowden kept to a game plan scoring a 13.70-point heat total.
Bowden steered clear of any trouble with his three counterparts who all needed excellent scoring rides to get close to challenging for the lead.
Kayden Mayes eventually fought his way ahead of his teammates to claim runner-up ahead of Luca Cressy after a see-saw battle, Cressy finishing in third and Jordan Griffin fourth.