As well as being the New Zealand hub for intermediate-aged sports this last week, the Zespri AIMS Games in Tauranga is also ground-zero for all the latest cool words and phrases.

Ace-reporting Gen Z-er Louis Johnston – a Year 11 student from Mount Maunganui College – was sent out to investigate.

For many of you who have passed your younger years, youth language and culture can be hard to grasp.

Kids these days are using outlandish words like “slay” or “rizz” and it’s hard to understand what they’re saying.

Luckily for you, with almost 12,000 intermediate-age students gathered in Tauranga this last week for the Zespri AIMS Games, there is the perfect opportunity to ask around and find some meaning to all this gibberish.

Mount Maunganui College student Louis Johnston investigates urban slang at the Zespri AIMS Games. Photo: Supplied.

One phrase that has been bouncing around all week is “Up the Wahs”. A few of the AIMS Games competitors shared their definition of that popular saying.

“Go the Warriors, the best team in the world!” says one of the students.

The Warriors, of course meaning the mighty NZ Warriors, who are on their way to the NRL playoffs for the first time in five years, having had their best regular season since 2007. Some of you may have noticed that excitement is building around the country.

The AIMS Games kids also gave explanations for some other modern slang, explaining it in a way even their parents would understand.

• Slay: “If someone does something really well, you know, it’s like saying, great job, you know, they’re slaying.”

• Clutch: “Clutch is when you’re losing and then you score the game winner. It’s like, getting up there and carrying your team.” 

• I’m dead: “That's if something is like, really funny, you know. I’m cracking up, I’m dead.”

• Sending me: “If something’s just really funny you’d say like, oh that's sending me. Just something hilarious.”

• Delulu: “When someone is like, over obsessive, or they think everything’s really amazing. It’s basically just delusional.”

• Low-key: “If you low-key want something, it’s like you kinda want it. It could also be if you didn't think you’d enjoy something, but then you low-key like it.”

• Salty: “Not really nice, not really friendly.”

• Rizz: “If you’re good looking, you know, getting all the girls.”

• Talk smack: “If you’re trash talking the other team, or even your own teammates.”

The Havelock North Intermediate netball team even claimed to have created their own term.

• Loves up! “We made that up, it’s for our netball team. We say it before a game and it just means, like, spreading the love.”

Mount Maunganui College student Louis Johnston investigates urban slang at the Zespri AIMS Games. Photo: Supplied.

Youth culture seems to have taken over the Zespri AIMS Games this week, and we are all about it.

The good vibes have followed and you didn't have to look too far to see a smiling face around the venues. Even the rainy days hadn't put a dampener on the 2023 Zespri AIMS Games.

Leshgo!