Rain hail or shine, they sure do breed ‘em young in when it comes to surfing in Mount Maunganui.

Surfers Cory McConnell, 12, Jahra Motzen, 10, and Charlise Byrne, 10. Photo by: Tracy Hardy.

The dial on the thermostat and water temperature are dropping but a group of young keen surfers will be looking to heat things up with their very own surfing competition next weekend.

Next Saturday, July 18, grommets will take to the wintry waters in Christian Surfers NZ's inaugural Battle of the Groms Junior Surf Competition.

Set at Mount Maunganui's hub of surfing, Tay St, grommets in the 13 and Under, 10 and Under and eight and Under age divisions take to the waves.

Mount Maunganui chapter organiser Naomi Cranston says the event is the perfect chance to give young surfers a taste of the competitive surfing lifestyle in a fun and friendly environment.

A distinct lack of national surf competitions catering for the younger generation – mainly 12-years-old and under – has prompted the new contest, says Naomi.

'We thought it would be cool to do something over winter for the younger kids as the older ones are over competing in Australia at the moment.

'We don't want the younger generations to feel like they are left out in the cold.”

With registrations from 7.30am on July 18, surfers will run through a standard day's competition – heats, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals – giving them exposure and competition against peers the same age.

Naomi says one week out the interest is building, with competitors from as far as Waipu Cove in Northland signalling their intentions.

'We hope that there is a strong local contingent. We've heard back from several local families that have kids on the surfing circuit. What tends to be the way with surfers and competitions is they are lax and turn up on the day,” says Naomi.

'Across the three divisions it would be awesome to get 80 competitors, but who knows it's pretty hard to know with a first event.”

Christian Surfers NZ's Mount Maunganui chapter also regularly hosts local surf events, charity contests, fun surf days, movie nights, hangouts and the odd mission to Matakana Island.

During winter there are fortnightly surf roadies to Raglan and other surfing hot spots, or when the Mount surf break is scarce.

Surfers can register for the July 18 event on the day or pre-register on Facebook – search ‘Battle of the Groms Mount Maunganui'.

For more information on the Battle of the Groms Junior Surf Competition, contact Naomi on 027 328 6797.