It was meant to be a gentle initiation into kayaking's senior ranks for Mana paddler Kurtis Imrie, until he helped knock over two of the sports leading lights.

Bay of Plenty kayaker Andrew Roy competing at the Blue Lakes regatta in Rotorua on Sunday. Photo by: Jamie Troughton Dscribe Media Services.

The 18-year-old paired with Wanganui's Max Brown, 19, to win the open K2 1000m title at the Blue Lakes regatta in Rotorua on Sunday, relegating national representatives Scott Bicknell and Marty McDowell into second.

'We thought we'd have a good crack against some of the other boys but then found ourselves alongside Scotty and Marty halfway along, we thought we'd better give them a nudge,” Imrie says.

'We waited for our chance and just got them on the line. We were stoked and that's given us a lot of confidence.”

While world champions Lisa Carrington and Teneale Hatton were missing from Canoe Racing New Zealand's traditional season-opener, the men's ranks were still strong.

Brown, who is at Victoria University, and trainee electrician Imrie train together in the capital, although this was only the fourth time they've raced together.

They backed up with another open podium finish, finishing third in the K2 200m, with Bicknell winning with Bay of Plenty teammate Taris Harker and Andrew Roy, also from the Bay, finishing second.

Roy leaves this week to train with members of the Australian Olympic kayaking team in Perth for the next four months, as he attempts to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Imrie, who finished fifth in the K1 1000m at the junior world championships in August, also picked up two silvers in the under-23 individual events, finishing behind Poverty Bay's Ben Tinnelly in the longer distance and Roy in the K1 200m.

Bicknell beat Roy in the open men's K1 200m, while McDowell edged North Shore's Jasper Bats in the K1 1000m.

Eastern BOP's Rachael Dodwell dominated the women's K1 200m, beating Kayla Imrie by 1.13secs, although Imrie cleaned up in the K1 500m, with North Shore's Rebecca Cole second and Ann Cairns third.

Dodwell was fourth, although she's recently changes coaches, with athletics sprint coach Fraser Cameron now writing her programme.

'Last season didn't go quite to plan so I just needed a change,” Dodwell says. 'It's been quite a drastic change and for now, we've just worked on the first half of my race.

'That worked in the 200m but now we just need to work on the back end to get that 500m sorted. There wasn't a big contingent of open women here this weekend but it's a good place to draw a line in the sand with my own programme.”

Among the younger age groups, North Shore collected plenty of silverware, as well as blooding a number of new paddlers into the sport.

North Shore secretary Diana Austin explains a recent move to employ 18-year-old coach Jamie Slessor-White had seen the junior ranks take off.

"We've got 18 first-time paddlers at this competition out of the 40 that came down," Austin says. "It's been a huge transformation so it's just a matter of keeping ahead of it now and making sure we've got the resources and systems in place to support it."

The next event on the national calendar is the second Blue Lakes regatta in early December.