SURFING: Paco's French connection

Top Northland surfer Paco Divers plans to use his French connection to get on the lucrative European Surfing tour next year if success continues to elude him on the Australian Pro-junior tour.
Divers has dual citizenship thanks to his mother Solange, which could see him based in southwest France next year while competing in the European Pro-Junior series in Portugal, Spain, France and Britain.
The idea is a fairly radical one for a Kiwi and comes after frustration with results in his first season of Australian competition last season.
"There's no point in me continuing to do the (Australian) pro-juniors if I'm not going to get better results. It's costing too much money," 18-year-old Divers said.
"Although I'm not 100 per cent sure, I'm pretty keen to go to Europe and do the surfing tour over there because there's a lot more money (up for grabs)."
Divers is currently sponsored by Ripcurl and, while the deal does help him ease the costs of travel and accommodation when competing, it's a long way short of making a living. What Divers needs is a steady supply of prize money, which in turn will lead to further endorsements.
The European tour doesn't start until April so Divers will keep his options open and he wants to give the Australian Pro-junior tour another shot before making a final decision on Europe.
"I've got to do a few more comps in Australia at the end of this year and if I do really well in that then I might end up staying here for another year and finishing the pro-juniors."
Staying in Australia to compete, while not financially lucrative except to a handful of top surfers, does bring other benefits.
"It's a lot of fun, they're a pretty good crew to hang out with and it's really good experience ... you learn heaps and when you come back you always think you're surfing better than you were when you left," he said.
"There's some pretty good surfers in Europe but not as many as Australia. But there's a lot more money to go around and quite a lot of support as well - especially for young people," he said.
As well as the financial incentive, a move to France would have other advantages.
"My mum's side of the family is over there so it'll be a good experience to stay around there for a bit and travel around Europe as well," he said.
The language barrier won't be a problem and it's a good chance to improve his French.
"I'm pretty fluent but there's still some words that I get a bit mixed up on."
At the moment Divers, a seventh former at Tikipunga High School, is just concentrating on completing school.
If he finds success at the pro-junior level next year then the next challenge will be the WQS competition, to try and qualify for the professional WCT tour, but he acknowledges that he still has a way to go before he can compete with the world's best.
"I'm still probably quite a long way short (of the WCT). I'd really have to have it all planned out and have a coach to train me, and I'd have to move somewhere where you get more waves because it's been really flat here lately.
"I really don't know what I want to do yet, so I'll chase this and, if that doesn't happen, I'll figure out something else along the way hopefully."