Surfing: Waves in the blood for teen sensation

Sarah Mason at the TSB Bank Women's Surfing Festival, Fitzroy Beach, Taranaki. Photo / ASP Kirstin Scholtz

After three days out on the waves off New Plymouth's Fitzroy Beach, women's surfing world championship tour giant-killer Sarah Mason still hadn't had enough.

The 15-year-old Taranaki-born, Australian-based rookie yesterday completed a dream debut on the Dream Tour after receiving a wild card invitation to contest the event.

Mason went about her business with poise and a surprising maturity, elminating Australian world champion Stephanie Gilmore in the heats before downing New Zealand No 1 Paige Hareb in the quarter-finals yesterday.

Beaten by Carissa Moore in the semifinals, the diminuitive New Zealander then cooled her heels on the beach while the Hawaiian rookie beat Australian Sally Fitzgibbons in the final early this afternoon.

But a few minutes after the final was over, Mason was back in the wetsuit and out on the waves, making the most of conditions that proved just too tempting to resist. Interviews were put on hold - Mason just wanted to surf.

Eventually, an hour or so later and reluctantly back on dry land, she was still slightly stunned at her success.

"Going into the contest, I was just so stoked to get the opportunity to surf against the world's best and I just really wanted to get through just one heat," she said.

"But then I managed to get to the semis, and I was so super-happy with that. I was definitely not expecting myself to get that far."

The second youngest of six siblings, Mason and 20-year-old sister Airini - who surfs on the world qualifying series - are the two competitive surfers in a family which has always centred its leisure activities around the sea.

A transtasman shift to the Gold Coast seven years ago with the aim of boosting the pair in competitive surfing has proved a real success, older sister Kelly said.

"The girls just got really into it, started to take it on and go competitive. The Gold Coast is great for them - there's great waves, and the Aussie girls are awesome competitors," she said.

"It's just that level is a bit higher than New Zealand, and there's more of it. They're enjoying competing over there, improving their surfing and getting that drive to be as good as those Aussie girls.

"For our handful in New Zealand, there's just copious amounts over Australia. It just keeps you on the ball."

Now that Sarah Mason has competed at the top level - and demonstrated an uncanny ability to find the right wave at the right time - she is keen to build on her success.

"I've got a lot more experience from this event, and definitely got a big confidence boost for my competitions in the future. I just really want to surf on the tour one day."

Mason leaves for Australia tomorrow but will return to New Zealand next month to surf at Raglan in a Australian pro junior event.

Until then?

"No competitions, just heaps of free surfing," she said. "When you go out surfing, you're always working on something. I really want to push it more, to get better and better."

TITLE RUN

Quarter-finals

* Carissa Moore (Hawaii) 14.17 Melanie Bartels (Hawaii) 8.33
* Sarah Mason (New Zealand) 16.23 Paige Hareb (New Zealand) 11.83
* Sally Fitzgibbons (Australia) 18.33 Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) 11.00
* Chelsea Hedges (Australia) 14.84 Silvana Lima (Brazil) 13.30

Semifinals

* Moore 14.56 Mason 11.33
* Fitzgibbons 15.93 Hedges 15.17

Final
* Moore 19.16 Fitzgibbons 16.17

- NZPA