Pressure off as Sandy Bay surfer heads for Piha

Sandy Bay surfer Patxi Scott-Arrieta will be the one to watch this weekend at the final event of the Rip Curl GromSearch at Piha.

 He is one of two under-16 surfers who will head to the wild west coast tomorrow with no pressure on his shoulders. Instead he has another target to watch, title favourite Tane Wallis, surfing in his natural environment.
Piha's Wallis, like Scott-Arrieta, has already qualified for the final of the competition and the Sandy Bay surfer now has the opportunity to try out some moves on the competition favourite ahead of the national final.
The Rip Curl GromSearch culminates in a national final, where winners of the U16 boys and girls divisions win a  trip to Bell's Beach, Australia,  for the international GromSearch Final.
 Forecasters have predicted a relatively fine weekend with favourable surf conditions.
A massive field of more than 100 competitors has registered for the event in a bid to secure the last two places in the Rip Curl GromSearch final and improve their year-end ratings.
The bigger conditions over the past few weeks would have suited Wallis with his exceptional knowledge of his home break. But now that the conditions are expected to be smaller and more manageable, the playing field will level out.
Scott-Arrieta will also head into the event with a boost of confidence after his best-ever result - a second place at the first event of the series earlier this year. He will be joined by a swag of contenders hoping to  make the national final, including national representatives Ben Poulter and Adam Grimson.
The national final of the Rip Curl GromSearch series will held in Raglan in  February. Surfers need to finish in the top two places of their respective U16 divisions to secure a spot among the country's four best junior surfers.
Mimiwhangata's Paul Moretti is currently in second place in the national U14 ratings, behind Piha's Elliot Paerata-Reid, and has aspirations to go one step further. Another Northland surfer at the top of the national ranking at the moment is Manu Scott-Arrieta, who also sits in second place in the U12 rankings, trailing Gisborne's Korbin Hutchings.
Auckland Rosa Thompson leads the U16 girls rankings ahead of Gisborne's Jayda Martin-Fitzharris, Raglan's Alexis Poulter and Whangamata's Grace Spiers.