Hawai'i has another team of youth world champions.

This time, it's in surfing.

Hawai'i beat 27 other countries to win the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships yesterday at Huntington Beach, Calif.

Tonino Benson of Kailua, Kona, led the way, winning an individual world title in the Boys under 16 division.

"Anybody who follows surfing knows what a tremendous accomplishment this is," Hawai'i head coach Rainos Hayes said. "We've had individual world champions before, but we've never won the team title, so that's huge."

Because of its storied history in the sport, Hawai'i was allowed to enter as its own nation. The event is considered the world championship for surfers age 18 and younger.

Hawai'i finished the nine-day event with 5,904 points. Brazil was second with 5,321, followed by the United States (5,173), and Australia (4,966).

Each team had 12 surfers — four each in the Boys under 16, Boys under 18, and Girls under 18 divisions.

"Think about the countries we beat," Hayes said. "Those are big countries with a lot of government funding in the sport. We came here and knocked them all off."

The contest started Oct. 9 and finished yesterday. Conditions varied from day to day, although the waves never got higher than 5 feet.

"Some days it was good, other days it was choppy and inconsistent," said Jack Shipley, Hawai'i's representative on the international judging panel. "The Hawai'i kids did a phenomenal job adapting to the conditions."

Benson, 15, became just the third amateur surfer from Hawai'i to win a junior world title. The others were Kalani Robb in 1994, and Joel Centeio in 2000.

"I didn't want to hold back, so I just kept going for big scores," said Benson, who is a home-schooled student.

Maui's Clay Marzo placed second to Benson in the final of the Boys under 16 division.

"It was good to have Clay in there with me because we were kind of helping each other get waves," Benson said. "But I also didn't want to lose to him."

Benson's two best waves scored a total of 13.56 points to Marzo's 12.43.

"Those two guys carried us to the (team) win because we were the only team to get a first and second in any division — that's a lot of points," Hayes said.

In the Boys under 18 division, Dusty Payne of Maui placed fifth, and Torrey Meister of the Big Island was sixth. They were both eliminated in the semifinals.

Hawai'i had two finalists in the Girls under 18 division, with Carissa Moore of Honolulu placing third, and Lani Hunter of Punalu'u fourth. Coco Ho of Sunset Beach made it to the semifinals and placed sixth overall.

"The girls were our stars," Hayes said. "Most of the other girls they were up against from the other countries were older, so it was a good showing."

Stephanie Gilmore of Australia won the Girls under 18 division, and Jeferson Silva of Brazil won the Boys under 18 division.

Members of the Hawai'i team were: Meister, Payne, Casey Brown and Mason Ho in the Boys under 18 division; Benson, Marzo, Granger Larsen and Hizson Lin-Kee in the Boys under 16 division; Moore, Hunter, Ho and Malia Manuel in the Girls under 18 division.

"Everybody contributed," Hayes said. "We had some really good performances early in the week when the waves were a little bigger. Other countries were getting kids eliminated early in the week, but we kept going and it all paid off in the end."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.