SURFING - Northland teen falls just short

Northland's top surfer Paco Divers said goodbye to his schoolboy surfing days with a performance that came up slightly short - in the judges' eyes anyway.
Divers was pushed into second place in the final of the under-18 division at the national scholastic surfing championships in Taranaki on Saturday by Gisborne's Buck Woods but not everyone at the beach agreed with the outcome.
"The final was definitely a battle between them but we thought Paco had done enough in the last minute to get the title but the judges didn't go his way," Malcolm Pullman the Northland team manger said.
"The Gisborne surfers are often expected to win, there seems to be a subconscious thing among the judges that often crops up but you can't really complain about it," he said.
Conditions were difficult with a cross shore breeze and 1.5m waves.
Northland's Demi Poynter had the bad luck story of the day when she got pushed on to the rocks before the under-18 girls final and received a knee injury, meaning she had to missed the final.
The other Northland finalist on the day, Paxti Scott-Arrieta, didn't fire in the final and finished fourth after being one of the standouts in the division during the week.
The Northland team that had been fourth going into the finals day slipped back into seventh place overall.
"Although we finished seventh, I think that Northland surfing is relatively strong at the moment. I was stoked with the way the kids performed at the championships," Pullman said.