Claudia Kelly is fit and firing and has put in some intense study on Mount Maunganui's Main Beach but she'll still cast a wary eye over her shoulder during this weekend's Eastern Region surf lifesaving championships.

The 19-year-old Taranaki ironowman star has been training in Mount Maunganui for the summer, while working as a professional lifeguard to pave the way for the medical study she's about to embark on.

She's shed some frustrating injuries and will enter the three-day carnival - now in its 59th year and the second biggest on the national calendar - without the added workload of competing in the agegroup ranks.

"I'll be doing every event bar sprints and flags but it will be a really different vibe because it halves my workload, just focusing on the open events," the East End club member says.

"I've always found it hard to know which events to target, when I was competing in under-19 and opens, so this will be really good for my development. It's been really valuable staying here and training here with the Mounties over summer because I feel like I've learned so much about the beach and I've been testing myself with proper starts and finishes on ski and board so I can get a good feel for the shore dump. It can be brutal, definitely."

Kelly will be among nearly 800 lifeguards competing at the carnival, which starts this afternoon with beach sprints and double ski finals. And she's tipping the open woman's board race to be particularly competitive, with a cluster of fast-rising females chasing success.

Continuing New Zealand's tradition of producing outstanding female board paddlers, the likes of Ava Smith (Wainui), Rebecca Barron (Mount Maunganui), Molly Shivnan (Omanu), Pippa Nicol (Lyall Bay) and Georgie Pitkethley (Waikanae) should all be in the mix on Sunday afternoon.

"All of the craft athletes are doing really well at the moment but the girls in particular are on fire - they're really fast at the moment."

With none of the Australian-based stars able to compete this weekend, the carnival is wide open, though organisers have been delighted with a rise in competitor numbers; 800 will attend from 33 clubs around the country, including four from the South Island.

They've also brought in several Covid-related safety initiatives, including scan-in zones around the arenas.

Auckland's Red Beach club has the largest contingent, boasting 72 competitors, followed by hosts Mount Maunganui (57), Mairangi Bay (45) and 40 from Omanu.

Even the weather is expected to play ball, with warm conditions and a gentle half-metre swell for the weekend. Action gets underway at 3pm today, with Saturday and Sunday racing beginning at 8am.