Waitara's young surfers spur revival

BRADLEY AMBROSE/ Taranaki Daily News

GUNG-HO GROMMETS: Standing on Waitara Bar Board Riders Club's brand new deck are the future champions the club is helping to breed, from left, Toa MacDonald, 12, Roni Ellis, 8, Seth Bailey, 9, Mahorahora McLeod, 12, and Reef Matthews, 9.

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Nine-year-old Reef Matthews says he is going to be the best surfer in New Zealand.

His dad, Jason Matthews, was a national champion and Reef is out in the water "whenever there's surf, whenever it's good".

"I like riding the waves, it's the feeling," the young and hungry member of Waitara Bar Board Riders Club says.

But Reef's not the only Waitara kid who has their sights set high.

The club has about 180 members, many of whom are juniors from local families.

They spend as much time down at the club on the Waitara River mouth as they can and recently that's got a whole lot easier.

As part of a grand plan to bring the club back "from the wilderness," the rooms have been renovated, going from a condemned building to a pleasant place to hang out and watch the waves roll in.

There have already been two gala openings and the club says it's grateful for the $80,000 grant from TET that made it possible.

Mr Matthews, the club's president, says a committee of dedicated volunteers has put in plenty of hard work to bring the once-famous board riders hot-spot back from the brink. The club closed about 14 years ago after it got a reputation among local families as being a "drug haven".

Mr Matthews said this saw a massive drop in the number of young people in Waitara taking up surfing, which he describes as a "distraction from trouble".

"The benefits are huge. Families think it's incredible how much their kids [who start surfing] have changed. They're too afraid to turn their backs on the sea in case they miss a wave. They're too busy and too tired to get in trouble."

After the club reopened in 2007, it has been running popular summer holiday programmes and now has a project going with Waitara High School and Manukorihi Intermediate where talented surfers are identified and receive special training in and out of school.

Mr Matthews says if the kids misbehave at school they miss out on their surf and "that really hurts".

And from here the club plans to keep on rising.

It wants to run yoga and kapa haka from the rooms. It also is aiming to dominate New Zealand competitions and host an international event.

And from where the club's come from, that doesn't seem too hard.

- © Fairfax NZ News