Around the Clubs

Papamoa lifeguards have had a busy time patrolling their beach so far this year. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Journalism.

Omanu

It was great to have Max Beattie back from the Gold Coast to train and assist in coaching our younger surf athletes recently.

Max took out the Ian Porteous m-shaped ironman for the first time at the club's Pak 'n Save Omanu Classic carnival, which was a huge success.

Max is one of the front people for OPSM, a major sponsor of Surf Life Saving New Zealand, and while in the Mount, he took some time out and visited the store at Bayfair and signed some autographs.

We had a few senior surf competitors compete at the Owen Chapman at Red Beach over the weekend and with some good performances across the groups. We're also looking forward to hosting the Eastern Region Masters competition on January 20.

Four Omanu surf boat crews competed at the second round of the national series at Whangamata last week, with the under-19 men's crew of Fraser Kirk, James Cooper, George Cortesi, James Martin and sweep James Berthelsen taking out their division in style. This crew has been only been competing since the start of the year, so it was a great effort for their first official outing.

Our women's crew of Leah Scown, Sharleen Irwin, Jo Lahmert, Kate Niederer and sweep Ron Dobbs finished third ahead of some more fancied crews, backing up well from their fifth placing in the first round at Wellington.

Volunteer lifeguards have been kept busy with lots of rips and last week lots of blue bottle stings made for a busy time.

The water temperature dropped from 21° to 17° due to the westerly winds pushing the warmer water further out to sea, but over the weekend the water temperature was starting to rise again.

The club held a very successful fund raising event on New Year's Eve, with a fancy dress party at the club. Most attending got into the spirit of the event and there was some great outfits and lots of fun was had by those that attended.

Remember to swim between the flags and if not, swim with a group of people.

Omanu's Max Beattie has had a busy time during his stint home from the Gold Coast. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Journalism.

Papamoa

Beach conditions have been keeping our Papamoa lifeguards on their toes over the past couple of weeks, with strong rips and currents and some big swells combining with large numbers of beach-goers and lots of sunshine.

Volunteer and paid lifeguards have performed hundreds of preventative actions recently to keep people safe, while the 37 rescues in the last week are a record.

Overall, the public have been fantastic and are listening to instructions well and keeping between the flags - remember this is always the safest place to swim.

If you find yourself in any difficulty put your hand up sooner rather than later. If in doubt, stay out.

Papamoa Junior Surf sessions recommenced last weekend after the Christmas break. New children aged 5-13 are always welcome, just come down to the club on any Sunday before the 10am start.

Just a reminder, we've got our big Papamoa Junior Invitational Carnival on Saturday January 19 for any athletes aged 7-13. This is an awesome event and entries close on Monday January 14 - wee our website for details or email info@papamoalifeguards.co.nz for more info.

In surf sports, Papamoa had an outstanding day at the 57th Owen Chapman Cup carnival at Red Beach on Sunday. Some of the standout performances were Scott Cowdrey winning the under-19 board race, Ben Johnston winning the under-19 ironman and Natalie Peat winning the under-19 surf race and ironwoman. Jackson Edwards paddled his ski in fine form, narrowly losing the ski race final after leading all the way. The under-19 men won the board, taplin and ski relays and the under-19 girls won the taplin relay and had a podium finish in the board relay. Maia Bryant stepped up into the under-16 ranks and had numerous top-three finishes.

Omanu's Dan Hooker competing in the Omanu Classic. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Journalism.

Mount Maunganui

The first 10 days of 2013 have been great one down here at Mount Muanganui's Main Beach. We've had some stunning weather, plenty of events and earlier this week, even had some pretty amazing surf rolling in. The beach has been super busy, with holiday makers making the most of the conditions.

Sunday and Monday's epic swell certainly made things both interesting and challenging. At 11am on Sunday, there was a dribbly half-metre swell rolling into the beach but by 3pm, it had risen to a thundering 4m. The volunteer patrollers, led by life member Kent "KJ" Jarman, did a great job of responding to the major change in conditions, upping their presence at the flagged areas and urging swimmers not to enter the water outside the flags. By taking these preventative actions, the public were still able to enjoy a safe swim if they chose to. KJ noted the public were very respectful and responsive to the proactive lifeguarding approach and the patrol only had to deal with four rescues on a day when the potential could have been for many more.

On Monday, the large swell was still present, and by probably the hottest temperatures of the summer so far and a very blustery offshore wind. Head regional lifeguard James Roy said that the large surf and subsequent large, powerful rips meant his team of lifeguards focused on preventing people from getting into trouble by marshalling them into the flagged area. James also noted that the public were really responsive to the lifeguards requests and again, they only had to make a couple of rescues.

All in all, we're most grateful to the public for their behavior at the beach. Lifeguards up and down the coast are there for your best interests and it's gratifying to see that our good advice is being heeded.

On the sports scene, we had great success at the Owen Chapman Cup carnival at Red Beach over the weekend, winning the Jubilee Cup as the top New Zealand-based club. We finished with 97 points, ahead of Red Beach (90) and Papamoa (64).

Stand-outs were wins in the open men's taplin (Andrew Newton, George Haynes, Sam Newlands, Julien Lalanne, Perry Farrell and Sam Shergold), while the two Sams and Julien also won the ski relay. The under-19 girls board relay of Emily Campbell, Jess Miller and Katie Wilson also triumphed.

Perry Farrell had a great carnival, swimming strongly in the under-19 surf race and leading out superbly in the open taplin.

We've got four athletes - Julien, Katie, Andrew and Hamish Treanor - heading down to the Central Region champs in Taranaki this weekend - best of luck to you all.

We've also got the 30th annual Round the Mount swim on this Sunday - still plenty of time to enter this iconic 4km ocean swim, which ends in front of the surf club.