By Cira Olivier

The breeze was cold, the sky was cloudy, and the waves were far from ideal at Mount Maunganui’s Tay St Beach.

Some spectators were dressed for the mountain tops, with eyes peeking between beanies and jacket tops, hands burrowed in their pockets.

But all of this wasn’t going to stop the 65 intermediate-aged surfers from bringing some warmth and high energy to the second year of surfing at the Zespri AIMS Games.

The two-day surfing event was crammed into one as it became apparent that the flat water on Monday morning was only expected to get worse on day two.

“We’re ruled by the weather gods,” the MC said in a fitting summary between heats and surf-rock music.

Waihi College’s Jack Kayes, 13, said he was initially “pretty bummed out” to see the lack of waves when he arrived, but it quickly didn’t matter.

He’s been surfing for seven years, and said surfing taught him many lessons – patience being one of them, which was put into practice in the 15-minute heats on Monday.

“Surfing is so amazing. It’s all on Mother Nature,” he said, adding that the unpredictability of the elements made it anyone's to win.

He was also excited to see how the sport developed, with it already feeling “more competitive” than its first year.

Jordan Batenburg from Katikati College said the powerless waves made “you feel like the Titanic… you just sink”.

Regardless, it was “really fun”, and he was already making new friends.

Fellow Katikati College student Estelle Devlin, 12, was happy to be here, taking the strategy of quantity rather than waiting for the best waves. She’s also stoked to learn how to deal with less-than-perfect conditions.

Mount Maunganui College students and seasoned surfers Haru Marsden, 14, and Remy Sale, 15, are part of the high school crew running the event.

Remy, who's been surfing since he was 6, jokes about his potential influence on the sport being included in AIMS.

“At intermediate, I did a speech on why surfing should be at AIMS.”

He’s loved the positivity of the competitors, saying they were all “energetic”, which could be seen in the water between sets, kicking a ball around in the sun or racing between the flags.

Haru, a talented grom with a Billabong partnership, competed in the first AIMS surfing event last year and said it was a sport everyone should try.

Article added: Tuesday 02 September 2025