Scholastics Score!

The very first scholastics surfing champs kicked off way back in 1989 with the purpose of pitting the best groms, as well as the best regional teams, in the country up against each other to ultimately select a team to attend the World Grommet Titles.

Back then, these were held at Kuta Beach in Bali, and years later on the East Coast of Australia. From these events, Kwi groms got to experience international surfing at its best and many used this to springboard into their own international careers. During that period Kiwi junior surfing dominated the world, with many of our surfers making finals, our teams ranked in the top few countries, and we even won a World Junior individual and team title. That event was superseded and swallowed up by the ISA World Junior Champs, and while the NZ Junior Team is no longer selected from the scholastics event, it is still seen as the premier grom event where teams from around the country assemble and battle it out for regional supremacy over the week-long event. Travelling as a team, this ensures great friendships are forged and high-level camaraderie and competition for titles is fierce.

For the fourth year running, both the primary and secondary school’s scholastic events have been held in Gisborne during the term three school holidays, and to further add fuel to claim that Gizzy is the unofficial capital of surfing in NZ, the place has pumped and delivered amazing surf and weather every day of the week over the last four years. You see, spring time is an epic time to be a Gizzy surfer and for almost everywhere else on our shores bar Dunedin, it’s usually a time to forget, with rain, heavy winds and no swell. Yet, while all this is going down, Gizzy is basking in the sun and pulling in consistent swells from all directions.