Surfing: Mount team rides to threepeat

Elin Tawharu won the girls' under-18 division to help Mount Maunganui College take out the National Secondary Schools surf champs. Photo / File

Mount Maunganui College are national champions for the third consecutive year after taking home the title at the National Secondary Schools surf champs held in Raglan.

The victory was even more special as it was achieved without the school's surfing superstars in world-ranked Kehu Butler and Jonas Tawharu, who stayed behind to do exams.

Fifty schools entered up to 10 surfers in any of the boys' under-14, under-16 and under-18 divisions, or under-18 girls' divisions, with the top four scores counting for the national title.

Mount Maunganui surf coach Kahn Butler said they are already thinking ahead to next year and a chance to equal Whangamata Area School's record of four straight titles.

"There is some real depth in talent at the school now. I thought we may have been relinquishing the title this year but they played it really smart," Butler said. "There was a lot of strategic surfing ... Some of our surfers weren't the best surfers there, but they surfed their heats the best, and that is why we won actually.

"William van der Beek was placed first in the under-14 boys', his first major win. He is a top-four ranked surfer in the under-14s and beat the number one, two and three seeds so did really well in the final. He got the best waves and scored the highest points.

"Elin Tawharu won the girls' under-18 and had a good battle with her good friend Maaia Reid Bennett, who came second for Mount. It was basically a two-horse race between those two battling for the top spot. Kea Smith just missed out on the finals and came fifth.

"Our other placing that counted was Lachie O'Connor in the under-16s. He made the finals and came fourth but surfed so smart and took out a whole lot of good surfers on his way there. He was a first-time finalist and got the Best Breakthrough Performance award as well, so he collected two trophies."

Butler said the generally small waves at Mount Maunganui actually help create better surfers.

"Because the waves are not very consistent, we get a lot of really small days when I take them out to train. We are always working on their technique and we train in almost the worst of conditions, so if we can master technique in those really bad conditions it becomes easier for us to surf when the waves are really big.

"We get a good bunch of kids who come through the college as well, and they are easy to coach when they are like that."