Around the Clubs

Omanu

A team of around 100 went down to the Mount Main Beach to compete in the Junior Eastern Regional carnival over the weekend.

A tough two days on the beach saw Omanu come a narrow second to Papamoa. All the athletes gave at least 100 per cent, if not more, and we as a club can be very proud that the future looks good with these juniors coming through the club.

There were some notable performances - the under-11 boys' flags had the top-five all from Omanu, while the top three in the under-12 boys and girls beach flags were Omanu.

The big surf on the Saturday saw the all the water events move to pilot bay , where the U8, U9 and U10 did very well , especially Molly and Gus Shivnan on debut .In the older age groups Connie-Pearl Anderson and Loui Schuler also on debut had outstanding performances on the beach and in the Surf.

The surf on Sunday was challenging but Omanu featured prominently in the overall individual classifications, especially Tommy Gadsbey , Gus Shivnan (under-9 boys), Lucy Sandford and Lucy Bartlett (under-8 girls), Grace Scott (under-9 girls), Thomas Friskney, Tom Scott and Kiahi Horan (under-11 boys), Ella Pollock (under-12 girls), Ben Blackwell and Logan Marshall (under-12 boys), Flynn Kelly (under-13 boys) and Morgan Brockelsby (under-14 boys). We will take these results and move on to Oceans 13 where some hard training in between we look forward to more success on the beach and in the water.

Other success for Omanu over the weekend saw our open woman's boat crew travel to Piha Big Wave Classic.

After a tough day rowing in 3m waves along with testing West Coast surf conditions, they finished second behind the local Piha crew. This is the first full year Leah Scown, Sharleen Irwin, Jo Lambert, Kate Niederer and sweep Ron Dobbs have competed together and it looks like all that winter training is now paying off.

A photo in the Monday morning Herald really showed the commitment and condition they had to compete in and we look forward to some coverage on TV's 'Piha Rescue” next year. Omanu is planning on having all five boat crews competing at the fourth round of the North Island Surf Boat Championships at Waihi this coming weekend.

Sea conditions continue to be testing and life guards have been doing lots of preventive actions as the public enjoy the warmer water condition. Visitors to the beach need to be mind full to swim within their ability and swim between the flags.

Mount Maunganui lifeguards Jacques Glover (left) and Callum Knox on IRB patrol off the Main Beach over the weekend. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Journalism.

Papamoa

Papamoa Juniors had a brilliant weekend taking home both the Eastern Region and Bay of Plenty Championship titles. Beach events were held at the Mount Main Beach on Saturday morning with Nikki Wright taking theU11 Beach Flags title and Maia Bryant and Kian Grey impressing with their respective Beach Sprint first places.

Chanelle West and Caitlin Harris battled for the top two places in the U10 Beach Flags with a rerun being necessary to decide Chanelle as the eventual champion. Both men's and women's Beach Relay teams were on fire with all age groups placing including the U10 Men taking both first and third spots.

The testing conditions saw the event move to Pilot Bay for the water events in the afternoon for the rest of the U10 age group finals and the rescue events for the U14s. Stars that shone brightly were Lucy Mano taking out the U10 W Surf Race, Run Swim Run, Diamond and Board Race to become overall U10 champion.

Elise Luker, Harry McManaway, Chanelle West, Emily Pilbrow, Kylen James and Conor McCarthy were other individuals to stand-out in the younger ranks.

Sunday saw the final events for the U11-U14s move to Shark Alley and the very difficult conditions were unforgiving.

Once again Papamoa proved that working as a united team can bring results with many of our points coming from team events. In the U12 arena Liam Moffatt, Leon Castle and George Mano had an amazing win in the U12 Board Relay with Liam and George also having a great Run Swim Run event taking home first and third respectively.

In the girls events Shinae Carrington and Nikki Wright had some great races becoming overall place-getters.

In the older U14s, Mitch Cowdrey and Maia Bryant once again dominated their U14 age group becoming their overall champions. Malia Josephson also had a great day with a second place to Maia's first in the Diamond. Kaylie Hansen had impressive wins in the U13 13 Diamond and Surf Races.

Overall a very successful weekend and a great warm up before the U14 Nationals Oceans 13 event in a couple of weeks.

On the lifeguard front, although the large swell caused difficult conditions there were no rescues and only a handful of first aids by the volunteer patrols this weekend. Paid lifeguards finish up next week when the beaches will just go back to weekend patrols only.

The start of the under-14 boys board race heat at the Eastern Regional junior championships. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Journalism.

Mount Maunganui

We had another hectic weekend at the Main Beach, with the Junior Eastern Regional carnival, beach volleyball and plenty of public using the beach.

Club members were involved in several incidents, which were stark reminders to the public of the need to be careful in the water on our fabulous coast.

Off-duty lifeguards Callum Knox and Andrew Roy were involved in a rescue on Saturday night, pulling a 16-year-old Hamilton teenager from a rip while swimming. His uncle waved Callum and Andrew down as they drove past on a quad bike, with Andrew swimming out and helping him back in to shore.

"There was a lot of water moving out there - it only took about 30secs to swim a couple of hundred metres out to him but it took us a good few minutes to get back in," Roy said.

"He was certainly pretty grateful we were able to help him out."

It followed a busy day on the beach, with voluntary lifeguards performing a number of preventative actions and attending an incident on the flanks of Mauao, where a 63-year-old woman was lifted off by helicopter and taken to hospital.

Regional lifeguards are patrolling Bay of Plenty beaches until the end of this week.