Surfing: Northlander proves class act in final

Northland's Manu Scott-Arrieta was the success story of this year's National Scholastic Surfing Championships with a hard-fought win in the under-14 boys' division.

Scott-Arrieta went head-to-head with Taranaki's best - and pre-final favourites - Isaac Kettle and Daniel Farr to claim the title on Friday at Fitzroy Beach.

The Matapouri surfer had a brilliant final, scoring 14.37 points, but was never certain of the victory with the two Taranaki surfers capable of producing big turns and excellent scores.

Scott-Arrieta's wave scores proved too good for the local surfers, however, and with time winding down in the final, neither could find the right wave and both had falls trying to catch up. Kettle finished as runner-up and Farr third, while Bay of Plenty surfer Jonas Tawharu took fourth.

Onshore winds made the conditions challenging with the surf building to 1.5m with the best waves of the day on the full tide.

Three Northland surfers progressed through to finals in the week-long competition, to help Northland finish fifth overall in the teams' competition.

As well as Scott-Arrieta's success, Paul Moretti finished third in the final of the under-18 boys' while Robyn Turnball was third in the under-18 girls'.

Moretti finished behind Gisborne's Jules Craft, who surfed to his first national level victory, 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 lefthanders that wound up at the beach, to effectively end the final in the first 15 minutes.

Bay of Plenty's Joshua Taylor finished second in the final after arguably being the form surfer of the division leading into the final. Taylor looked sharp in the final, landing one big air reverse but could not find the quality waves that Craft rode and finished in second place. Moretti placed third in the final, with defending champion Ben Poulter in fourth after incurring an interference call midway through the final.

The under-18 girls' final was a low-scoring affair with few waves coming through. Gisborne's Jayda Martin-Fitzharris held a strong lead for much of the final after getting a good start. However, it was Coromandel's Ella Williams who nudged ahead with less than two minutes to go. After Williams rode a small inside wave, both surfers stood on the beach with their teams, waiting for the final scores. Williams was given the nod 8.97 to 8.57. Turnball finished ahead of the Mount's Demi Hewitt in fourth. Despite team honours convincingly going to Bay of Plenty, the eight individual titles up for grabs were spread amongst the eight regions competing. Gisborne and Coromandel took two titles each, with Northland, Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Canterbury claiming one each.

The Bay of Plenty junior surfing team claimed an emphatic victory in the team championships, regaining the team title they have now held for five of the past seven years. Auckland secured their best team performance to finish second, while defending champions Gisborne finished third.