Surfing: Kiwi Hicks gives top performance at Piha

Gisborne's Johnny Hicks was spurred on by the Piha crowd in the repechage rounds yesterday. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Gisborne's Johnny Hicks produced one of the stand-out performances at Piha yesterday as he attempts to dig himself out of the repechage rounds of the ISA world junior surf champs.

Hicks impressed in the under-18 boys repechage three, taking control from the outset with a score of 9.0 on his first wave. He then backed it up with a 6.75 to defeat South Africa's David Brand and Australia's Wade Carmichael.

With the wild weather at the weekend giving way to blue skies and clean conditions yesterday, a sizeable crowd gathered to watch the surfing. Hicks said that hometown support helped him along in his heat.

"It's the best heat I've had all contest," he said. "It felt like everyone was cheering for me. It felt unreal."

The repechage round of the under-18 boys provided the most spectacular action on day five, with Hawaiian Keanu Asing netting the top score of the day - a combined two-wave total of 17.5.

Asing, who suffered a shock loss in round two of qualifying, put his fellow competitors on notice equalling the highest individual wave score of the event so far (9.25).

Joining the pair in repechage four today will be New Zealand's Alex Dive, 17, who finished last in his third-round heat.

Raglan's Ben Poulter is now the only New Zealander remaining in the main qualifying round after he squeezed through his third round under-16 boys heat.

But it was Piha local Tane Wallis who was the stand-out in the category, blitzing his way into the fourth round of repechage with a score of 13.00 - the highest score of the day in his age-group.

In the girls under-18 division, Kiwis Alexis Poulter, Jayda Martin-Fitzharris and Sarah Mason will all line up in repechage four today. Poulter and Martin-Fitzharris both failed to advance through their third-round heats yesterday, but have an extra life in the repechage rounds.

Despite producing another shaky performance in her repechage three heat, Mason managed to hold on to second place behind Australia's Ellie-Jean Coffey to keep her title hopes alive. She ended fellow Kiwi Grace Spiers' run at the competition, knocking her teammate out in the final heat of the day.

Day five also proved to be the end of the line for Mt Maunganui's JC Susan, who finished last in his third-round repechage heat.