Mount Maunganui surfer Kehu Butler has claimed the top spot at an international surfing competition in Australia this week.

Kehu won the under 12 boys' division of the Skull Candy Oz Grom competition held at Lennox Heads in New South Wales on Tuesday.

Mount Maunganui surfer Kehu Butler (in red) won first place in the under 12 boys' division of the Skull Candy Oz Grom competition on Tuesday. Photo by Electric.

Despite some average surf on the final day of the competition, Kehu dominated the final scoring 8.0 points on his first wave and 7.75 on his second – exiting the water to a haka from the Kiwis present.
Ben Kennings from Surfing New Zealand says Kehu was the star surfer for New Zealand and the most outstanding surfer in his division for the entire five days of competition.

'I saw some footage of Kehu and he was really surfing good and all the emails I've had from Australia say he was surfing amazingly.”

Ben says Kehu is one of the most talented up-coming surfers in New Zealand.

'To beat those kids over there is something that's not really achieved that often; we've had several kids in the past eight years that have won that event – it certainly doesn't come every year.”

He says the Australians are a huge force in the surfing world.

'It's basically a national sport; the level of surfing is a lot harder than in New Zealand.”