{"id":468212,"date":"2026-06-09T10:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468212\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T10:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:41:08","slug":"kiwi-surfing-great-troy-hirst-mourned-by-muriwai-and-maori-bay-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468212\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi surfing great Troy Hirst mourned by Muriwai and M\u0101ori Bay communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a tribute on Facebook, the club wrote of the \u201cmassively talented\u201d surfer\u2019s lasting impact on the organisation and the wider surfing scene.<\/p>\n
Troy Hirst had an outsized impact on the close-knit West Auckland surf community. Photo \/ Al Ashworth<\/p>\n
\u201cTroy left an indelible mark on M\u0101ori Bay and the Muriwai community as well as surfing in NZ and abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe influenced many of the up-and-coming groms at the Bay back in the day who looked up to him as he pushed the bar constantly and pushed them to become better surfers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club described Hirst as \u201ca massively talented surfer\u201d who achieved legendary status in heavy barrelling waves, particularly at his spiritual home of Lakey Peak.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was someone who was never afraid to hit the lip hard or pull in to giant caverns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Troy Hirst has been remembered by the New Zealand surfing community for his contributions to the scene. Photo \/ Al Ashworth<\/p>\n
Friend Al Ashworth also paid tribute to Hirst, whom he met in 1990 after moving to Muriwai.<\/p>\n
\u201cTroy gravitated to my place hanging out as a young teenager grom, in fact he became part of my furniture after school.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said while Hirst \u201chad a bit of an attitude at times\u201d, that competitive streak was what gave him an edge over his rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will always treasure my shots of Troy and my memories which I hold dear to my heart. I watched him grow into an amazing human and I will miss him dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others shared their grief in the comments, describing Hirst as \u201ca true character\u201d and \u201ca smiling assassin\u201d who would be deeply missed.<\/p>\n
The M\u0101ori Bay Board Riders Club said Hirst\u2019s \u201cgreatest achievement\u201d was \u201cbeing a loving son, brother, father and husband as well as a great friend to many\u201d.<\/p>\n
He leaves behind his parents Paula and Richard, siblings Brodie, Ryan and Cooper, wife Yuni, and his children Westen and Mikayla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a tribute on Facebook, the club wrote of the \u201cmassively talented\u201d surfer\u2019s lasting impact on the organisation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,1561,1558,3595,40750,236887,1445,16773,123177,46323,194,236888,2720,3025,147656,42034,111,139,69,4494,108172,15120,44549,213,2564,2558,5824,77689,376,102,2963],"class_list":["post-468212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-bay","tag-been","tag-by","tag-communities","tag-fearlessness","tag-friends","tag-great","tag-hirst","tag-influential","tag-kiwi","tag-largerthanlife","tag-mori","tag-most","tag-mourned","tag-muriwai","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-presence","tag-recalling","tag-remembered","tag-respected","tag-sports","tag-surfers","tag-surfing","tag-talent","tag-troy","tag-water","tag-with","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}