Six Bay of Plenty school teams are set to compete in this week’s New Zealand School Surfing Festival at Maukatia-Māori Bay, in Muriwai, Auckland.

Running from March 25 to 27 and presented by Muriwai Surf School, the event will feature a team format, with both boys’ and girls’ teams battling for the prestigious Cranch Cup.

Over the past two months, schools across the country have been forming their squads, with 18 teams confirmed to compete.

Known for its strong tradition in junior surfing, the Bay of Plenty region is returning as the defending champion of the Cranch Cup.

Sage Fritchley is a member of the Mount Maunganui College girls' team competing at the New Zealand School Surfing Festival being held at Muriwai this week. Photo / PhotoCPL.

In last year’s competition, Mount Maunganui College took home the title in the girls' division, while Whangamatā Area School claimed the boys' crown. Both schools also saw their respective teams place second, underscoring the Bay’s dominance in the junior surfing ranks.

Six Bay of Plenty school teams have entered this week’s event including Pāpāmoa College, Whakatāne High School, Onewhero Composite, Trident High School, Tauranga Boys' College and Mount Maunganui College.

Zade Pitkeathly is a member of the Mount Maunganui College boys' team competing at the surfing festival. Photo / PhotoCPL

Mount Maunganui College has a youthful boys’ team that will be aiming for final day honours with Zen Mouldey, Zade Pitkethly, Jaxon Willows, Remy Sale, and Sol Fritchley.

In the girls’ team, Sage Fritchley, Maddie Tod, Izzy Evans, and Molly Leary will look to back up their result from 2024.

Whangamatā Area School is another team to field two strong teams with Harrison Biddle, Jay Tingle, Manu Roberts, and Lincoln Easton for the boys and the girls’ team includes Lola Groube, India Kennings, Zahlia Wyper, and Shantel Curtis.

New Plymouth Boys’ High School has a team lead by Lee Takurua and polished surfers Occy Tapara, Logan Verster, Beau Parker, and Kentaro Mitchell.

Joe Goodjohn is a member of the Tauranga Boys' College team. Photo / PhotoCPL

Gisborne Boys’ High and Ōpunakē High will make the journey north to Muriwai and they are joined by a number of Auckland schools.

Takapuna Grammar, Westlake Boys, Rosmini College and Rangitoto College have all entered teams as have St Dominic’s College, Liston College, and Kaipara College, which is new to the event.

Teams of five boys and four girls make up each team. Surfers compete in a relay format known as tag team, the team having an overall allotted amount of time to get their scoring rides and return to the beach.

The Cranch Cup

The Cranch Cup is being awarded in honour of school surfing stalwart Carol Cranch who instigated the New Zealand school surfing programme in the late 1980s with the formation of the Scholastic Championships.

Cranch was responsible for the development of numerous top-level surfers around the country and was one of the founding promoters of the World Grommet Titles which ultimately morphed into the ISA World Junior Championships.

Beau Broadhurst is a member of the Trident High School team. Photo / PhotoCPL

Cranch spent her final years based at Gisborne before passing away in early 2022. Sister Janice is currently back from Australia and intends on making the trip to Muriwai to check out the action this week on behalf of her sister.

The New Zealand School Surfing Festival is being held during Summer Tournament Week with support from School Sport New Zealand.

Team surfing takes place at the New Zealand Club Championships in New Zealand but is uncommon nationally outside that event.

Being a festival event on the School Sport New Zealand calendar, the event has Cup and Plate rounds. This helps promote surfing to a wider number of schools that are at different stages of developing their surfing teams.

“Surfing is traditionally an individual sport, so the aim of this event is to bring schools together to participate in a team environment, an aspect which is so often missing in standard surfing events.” said Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings.

“This gives schools an event to target and test themselves against other schools from around the country, whether they are at the top end or starting their surfing journey.”

The 2025 New Zealand School Surfing Festival presented by Muriwai Surf School is being held this week, March 25-27. Photo / PhotoCPL.

The festival will take place from 8am to 4pm on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Visit Liveheats.com/SurfingNewZealand for live scores and results.

Follow the action via social media – @surfingnz across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X. Follow the hashtag #nzschoolsurffest and #schoolsportnewzealand