It’s a midweek morning in the small beachside community of Wharekahika Hicks Bay, a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Turanganui a Kiwa Gisborne. As the sun rises above maunga Hikurangi, tamariki, whānau and kaiako from coastal kura have gathered for the third annual Ngāti Porou Primary School Surfing Competition.

Surfboards and gear are stored in a shipping container at the event, available 24/7 for anyone in the community at no cost. Funded through Trust Tairāwhiti, it’s one of three containers now permanently installed up and down Te Tairāwhiti | East Coast.

The event, surfboard containers, and the increasing number of skilled tamariki on the waves are the result of powerful community collaboration with a shared vision to connect tamariki with te moana.

This initiative has been led by local organisation Gisborne Boardriders. After several years of engaging with coastal communities, they heard a clear message: tamariki wanted to surf more, but a lack of equipment and teachers was holding them back.

Three years later, surfing lessons – focused on tikanga, water safety, and basic surf skills – have become a regular part of the school day for all 15 kura along the coast.

Designated local surfing champions, who are upskilled through courses such as surfers rescue, ensure that this knowledge flourishes and is retained within the community.

With access to the containers, tamariki can continue practising outside of school hours, further fostering their love of being active outdoors. Events like the surfing competition, funded through Tū Manawa and supported by the Manawakura Healthy Active Learning team at Whiti ora Tairāwhiti (formerly Sport Gisborne Tairāwhiti), play a vital role in this initiative.

Regulating in the wai

Kōkā Vee, tumuaki of Makarika School, a small rural school near Ruatoria, says having the local knowledge and resources easily available to them has been vital to the success of the programme.

“The barriers have been taken away. We have the surfboards, we have the wetsuits, we have the kaiako,” she says.

As well as teaching water safety and encouraging ākonga to be physically active, she has also seen how surfing is supporting their emotional regulation back in the classroom.

“When our tamariki are learning to regulate in the wai we can make connections with how they feel in the water to the classroom,” she says.

Atira, 8, says knowing she will be surfing at school makes her want to go.

“It makes me so happy.”

Blake, 9, says she used to fear the water but supported by her whānau and school, her confidence has grown and she loves it now.

“I get to be free swimming and surfing,” she says. “It’s beautiful out here.”

Ride the learning wave!

Shyla-Drew Taiapa, Manawakura Healthy Active Learning advisor and local surfing champion, is one of the driving forces behind the surfing competition.

With ties back to, and living in, Wharekahika, Shyla-Drew has been able to create the connections between the kura and Gisborne Boardriders. She hopes that the programme will help shift the narrative of surfing on the coast.

“Surfing is more than just fun, it’s teaching our tamariki tikanga, keeping them safe, and helping them feel proud of who they are and where they come from,” she says.

“They are just in another world out there and everyone that comes out of the sea is happy, just smiling.”

Shyla-Drew also encourages kaiako to see te taiao and surfing as a vehicle for learning.

“There is so much learning, and the beauty is they don’t even know they are learning.”

Mary-Beth, the mother of two tamariki competing at the event, says she appreciates how surfing and the way they are being taught encourages them to be respectful both towards others and to te taiao.

Inspired by her girls, she has also taken up surfing, attending her first lesson the previous week. As a whānau, they have started attending a weekend surf school.

Wellbeing at the heart

Flo Bub, Gisborne Boardriders regional manager, says that the programme has been so successful because everyone involved shares a clear ‘why’.

“It’s not about one of us individually, it’s for the tamariki and the rangatahi to get in the water and experience the stoke,” he says.

Shyla agrees, because the commitment to support her tamariki and their wellbeing is at the heart of this kaupapa.

“I just want them to be good people. I want them to contribute to their marae, to looking after the whenua, to looking after their awa. If they make the world circuit even better, but I just want them to be good humans.”

She gestures to the moana behind her.

“And I would love to see them out here with their kids and their mokopuna.”

This article first appeared in the Education Gazette, 28 April 2025.