After a wind-blown win at the nationals back in January, Raglan’s Maya Mateja is ready for the world tour at Manu Bay. Even if she won’t be in the draw.
Maya didn’t hear the moment she won. Out the back at Makorori Beach earlier this year, the conditions were messy with the wind howling, and choppy peaks rolling through. “I couldn’t hear anything,” she says. “I just thought, ‘Oh no, I probably did really bad.’”
She had just surfed a tight final at the Nationals north of Gisborne. At 17, Maya bagged her second national crown, scoring a good late wave. She only realised it on the beach. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh, you won,’ and I was just so happy.”
While Maya mainly grew up in Mexico, Raglan is firmly part of home. “My dad is Kiwi and I come here every year,” she says. “It felt really special to represent that side of my family.”
But that same dual identity is what kept her from competing for the WSL wildcard at King and Queen of the Point: Maya represents Mexico internationally.
Growing up between both countries is “like splitting your heart,” she says. After winning her first national title at just 15, both Mexico and New Zealand asked her to represent them internationally. “There was a lot of thinking, a lot of analysing with my dad, just figuring out where I was going to be based,” she says. “Yeah, it was hard.”
With the world tour about to hit Manu Bay, Maya won’t be in the draw but she’ll be watching closely. “It’s gonna be really cool to see how the pros surf the wave that I’ve surfed many, many times,” she says.
Maya is already cheering from the sidelines. “I am so proud of Alani Mores. She’s only fifteen and she got the wildcard. So amazing.”
