They conquered the nation and the world last season - now Papamoa's champion IRB team will be looking to kick-start this season on a similar note.

Eight crews from the Bay of Plenty surf lifesaving club are heading south to compete in tomorrow's BP Surf Rescue North Island championships in Taranaki.

Papamoa's crack IRB team, with eight crews, is off to Taranaki for tomorrow's BP Surf Rescue North Island championships. Photo: Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media Services.

This is the first major surf-based sportsevent of the season, and plenty of fast, exhilarating racing is expected from some of the best in the country.

It is also the same event Papamoa hosted last year and won, kick-starting their dream 2013-2014 season.

They'll also feature three premier crews, including identical twins Kirby and Chad Wheeler, who are set to get their first taste of the top echelon.

'It's definitely going to be tough competition stepping up to the prems this year but we're feeling good and we're just focused on having fun and getting the basics right,” says crewman Chad Wheeler.

'The Papamoa teams have been training hard over the last few weeks and we'll need to be on our game because we know Taranaki will put up some good racing, particularly on their local beach.”

Papamoa broke the Taranaki stranglehold at the national championships in March, collecting their first-ever overall title, after five straight wins by East End had followed a Fitzroy three-peat.

Sumner (2000 and 2005) and Spencer Park (2003) are the only other non-Taranaki clubs to have won the national title since 1996.

They then won the world title in France in September, collecting a nomination for the Bay of Plenty Sports Awards' team of the year title.

The other top premier hopefuls include Waimarama's Mike Harman and Ben Cross, Paekakariki's Dwight Garton and Tyler Mills, Papamoa's Tomee Berthelsen and Liam Smith and Sunset Beach's Samuel Dwen and Hogan Shrimpton.

Sunset are also bringing five crews, joining Papamoa in having at least one in all four divisions, with brothers Shane and Mark Edwards combining again after Shane broke his leg at the national championships.

The ultra-competitive under-21 ranks include Westshore's Taylor Dick and Ryan Ennor and Sunset's Lewis Powell and Bryce Nichol, who captured national titles earlier in the year.

In the women's division, Fitzroy's Katie Watts and Jamie-Lee Reynolds have serious surf lifesaving nous across a range of disciplines – with Watts a former New Zealand beach flags champion who won silver earlier this year.

They'll line up against seven other female crews at their home beach, hoping to build on their first national title in the single rescue earlier this year.

Taranaki has 13 crews taking part in the championship - comprised of Fitzroy (2), New Plymouth Old Boys (4), Opunake (2) and five from East End - with 43 teams in total coming from 15 clubs around the North Island.