Around the Clubs

We've just had the glitz and glamour of the Lion Foundation NZ Surf League in Mount Maunganui, but this weekend the grassroots of surf life saving are on show.

The proud Pukehina Club will host the Harris Cup on Saturday, named after club founder ­­Selwyn Harris, which sees some of the smaller clubs around the Bay of Plenty come together to compete.

The hosts – who beat Whakatane by a point last year – will go up against the likes of Maketu, Whiritoa and Opotiki on the beach in a range of events.

Omanu

It was good to see some great competition at the Surf League and well done to all the Omanu members who represented the club – Jessica Gadsbey, Kane Sefton, Ben Cochrane, Dannielle O Connor, Max Beattie and Dan Hooker. The seniors have been training hard, with a small number heading to the Northern Region champs at Ruakaka this weekend. Our coaches have been working hard with the athletes, Brad Murdoch – swimming, Thom Yule – Ski and Mark Inglis – Board.

Since Christmas Simon Willis has returned from Auckland and has been assisting our athletes with their Ironman training.

Also, our Masters are starting to sharpen up their training for nationals in Gisborne next month, where they hope to defend their national title, while our Oceans 12 team are fine tuning their training under the guidance of coach Brooklyn Reardon-Nikara, with competition starting next Thursday at the Mount Main beach.

This weekend will see the introduction of a new Mule vehicle for our voluntary patrols.

It's a safer option than our quad bike and will allow our guards to be posted at Tay Street and Arataki, while providing better protection from the elements.

Thank you to Southern Trust and First Sovereign for their donations towards the new vehicle.

Papamoa

Papamoa athletes Natalie Peat and Kodi Harman shone for the open team at the Surf League, with both 17-year-olds stepping up against much older opposition.

Natalie shouldered the ironwoman burden for the weekend and finished fifth in a class field both days, behind Australians Devon Halligan and Joanna Baxter, and top Kiwis Nikki Cox and Maddie Boon.

'It's huge for a 17-year-old, especially after getting pulled up late into the ironwoman,” Bay of Plenty and Papamoa coach Kurt Wilson said.

'I'm looking forward to the future with Jess Miller and Natalie doing those swims together – Jess is still only 16 but they got second in the surf teams race yesterday which was huge.

'Kodi was dominant on the track and then got fourth in the flags – stuff like that is really cool.”

Papamoa athletes also helped the under-19 and under-14 teams finish second, while the all-conquering under-16s were brilliant as they beat the other seven provinces in New Zealand.

Some of the best performances of all, however, were showcased in the stands – where a big crowd of Papamoa faithful joined other Bay supporters and were comfortably the loudest, proudest and best-dressed on the beach.

Mount

We had a lot of great performances over the four days of the Surf League, from Andrew Newton in the opens, Sam Shergold and the Wheeler twins in the under-19s to Jess Miller and Katie Wilson in the under-16s.

Jess competed all four days – an incredible achievement – while Sam's gutsy display on both board and ski made us all proud.