Over the last 18 months we have proudly provided sponsorship to Bay Boardriders (BBR), a local Mount Maunganui/Tauranga surf riders club. With 120 active competing members aged from 5 years old to 61 years old BBR are the largest Boardriders club in NZ.

Our Group Sales Manager, Bruce Tod, has been on the BBR committee the last two years, helping to organise events and sponsorships. He also judges and travels with the team all over the North Island for competitions.

We sat down with Bruce to chat all things surfing and to hear how the year has panned out for the BBR crew.

I am a keen recreational surfer and both my kids Arlo (10) and Maddie (13) surf competitively with the BBR which has lead Maddie on to win a host of local titles and to compete at a national level, currently ranked a 14^th in NZ in her age group!

We run a calendar of surf comps through 8 months of the year and compete nationally as a club team and many of our individual club members compete on the national circuit.

This season alone has seen many amazing results/performances for local Mount based surfers. Tao Mouldey and Jack Hinton NZ team representatives at the Junior and Open ISA World Surfing games respectively with Tao finishing 17^th overall in the U16 Boys. Anna and Sophia Brock selected as NZ team reserves. Top Tier professional performances from Kehu Butler – WSL Challenger series, Levi Stewart WSL Qualifying series just to name a few.

The most important function of the Boardriders club is giving kids from an early age exposure to surfing in a fun based competitive environment, that also offers a development pathway for kids potentially through to a professional career. With surfing’s inclusion in the Olympics there has been a massive surge in popularity in the last few years which is great for the future funding and growth of the resources for NZ to help some future world class surfers.