Around the Clubs

At last, summer has arrived, though with the settled spell of weather people need to remember to take extra care near the water.

Papamoa's Danny Hart, left, finds the going tough against Mount Maunganui's Perry Farrell at the Central Regional championships in Taranaki last weekend. Photo by Jamie Nilsson/SLSNZ.

Sadly, the drownings haven't abated in New Zealand this season and we even had one close to home in Tauranga last weekend.

Remember, if you're at the beach, swim between the patrolled flags. If you're in a river, estuary or lake, wear a personal flotation device or appropriate swimwear, stay within your comfort zone and don't swim alone. It's just not worth the risk.

Already this season, Eastern Region lifeguards have performed 164 rescues and treated 121 people for first aid.

The good news for Bay of Plenty beach-goers, is they have some of the best trained surf lifesavers in the world. Last weekend, the next generation showcased their skills at the Eastern Region Top Rookie Competition.

Under 14 rookies from the nine clubs in the Eastern Region – from Hot Water Beach to Whakatane – competed in a range of challenges throughout the day. Papamoa's Jake Cowdrey starred in the 200m swim, the tube rescue, resuscitation and run-swim-run to win the top male rookie, but it was his clubmate Maia Bryant who grabbed the female and overall title to bring back to Papamoa for the second year running.

Omanu

Omanu regional guards have been kept busy with the sea conditions during the last week, with one major rescue at Tay Street and a few minor rescues from the numerous holes and rips along the beach. Hopefully, the settled weather and drop in swell will help things for a while.

There has been a bonus to the dodgy sea conditions, as well as the uncertainty over Rena – we've seen good numbers attending the Mount College swimming pool, which has Omanu Beach lifeguards patrolling. It has been great to see the number of families taking up the option of this community facility. Entry is $2 and the pool is open every day during the school holidays, plus weekends once school goes back.

We're looking to send a good number of juniors to the Papamoa Invitational carnival this weekend and it will be a good test for the young squad to see how they are placed leading into bigger events. We're also sending 15, Under 16 and Under 19 athletes to the Gisborne championships as well.

Papamoa

The Papamoa Junior Invitational Carnival is on this Saturday, starting at 10am, followed by about five hours of furious competition. Teams from across the North Island are attending and the forecast is pretty good for a change – we're keen to get as many athletes, officials and supporters down to the beach as possible.

It was disappointing that last Saturday's Eastern Region Junior Carnival was cancelled at Papamoa because of conditions, but a big thank you to the Mount club for inviting our older juniors down to have a bit of a friendly competition with them to make up for it. We look forward to more ‘friendlies' in the future, as it was a lot of fun for all.

Our rookies again performed superbly at the Eastern Region Top Rookie Competition – well done to Jake Cowdrey (top male) and Maia Bryant (top female and overall), taking the mantle from Scott Miller and Ariana Moffatt who won last year. A huge thanks to club captain Ailsa Cowdrey and her young helpers for all their time and effort training our rookies to this standard.

Our senior athletes also did well in Oakura at the Central Regional Championships on Sunday, finishing second overall with some great performances in the testing conditions.

Mount Maunganui

The big Mount squad had a great trip to the Central Regional championships at Taranaki's Oakura Beach, with 16-year-old Katie Wilson leading the charge, winning the Under 16 ski race, board race and diamond lady and finishing second in the surf race.

Andrew Newton won the open board race, Jamie Banhidi took out the beach sprint and flags double, as did Arna Wright in the women's division, with Arna also using her board skills to help Mount Maunganui take out the open women's taplin relay, with Emmanuelle Bescheron and Brooke Shergold. In fact, the ‘Mounties' took a clean sweep of all three women's taplins, winning the Under 19 and Under 16 finals as well.

Unfortunately, some of our board relay teams have taken a leaf out of the Euro currency crisis, heading all over the place!

Rena has been kind to the Mount Main Beach for a change and the public has been very well behaved, listening to the lifeguards on duty and swimming between the flags.

Our next big carnival is the Eastern Regionals on our home beach next week.