Three New Zealanders remain in contention for the world junior surfing championship finals with three rounds of the tournament remaining.
With only two days to go in the tournament, competitors hit their straps, shredding apart the barrelling 1.5-2m waves that marched through for day six of competition at Piha Beach. Three New Zealanders made it through their heats.
Sarah Mason won her sudden-death repechage round five under-18 girls heat, Ben Poulter progressed through his main event round five under-16 boys heat, while Alex Dive took line honours in his repechage round five under-18 boys heat.
Gisborne's Johnny Hicks, who grabbed a 9.00 to win his round three heat yesterday, was eliminated from the competition today after finishing last in his under-18 boys repechage round four heat.
Meanwhile, American Kolohe Andino set the standard for the day with both the highest individual wave score, 9.25, and two-wave heat total, 18.00, in his main event round four under-16 boys heat.
Andino, 15, continued the skilful form he displayed in the opening rounds, to beat fellow United States surfers Parker Coffin and Trevor Thorton and Tahitian Tefaafana Ariihoe. Andino said the New Zealand waves provided a new sort of challenge.
"The waves had a lot of wall and it was howling offshore, and not like anything I surf back home," he said.
"But a bomb wave come through when I paddled out and it set up a good heat for me. It worked out pretty good for me."
However, Andino stressed he was not getting complacent heading into the business end of competition.
"The contest has really just started for me," he said. "There are so many rounds and it's really hard to get to the finals. I'm just going to take it heat by heat and make every heat count. I just want to make it through."
The semifinals of the Aloha Cup, in which five competitors from the top participating nations battle in a tag-team format, were held on the main event podium to round out the day.
South Africa came up trumps in the first semifinal, beating Australia, New Zealand and Portugal, and grabbing a 52.40 total to progress alongside Australia (50.35) into the final.
Hawaii, with a 46.30 total, won the second semifinal after beating France, Tahiti and Peru.
