A group of Bay triathletes have been receiving advice and tips from one of New Zealand's elite champions in the sport thanks to their Papamoa club today.

Continuing tomorrow, world cup-winning triathlete Sam Warriner, from Whangarei, is visiting the Bay of Plenty via invitation from TriPapamoa to help its athletes in their Papamoa Triathlete Camp.

'I'm just down to here to give a load of triathletes – whether doing Ironman's or halves [Half Ironman events] – advice on how to prepare themselves for the race of ahead and how to get the best of out of themselves,” Sam told Sunlive today.

Sam, who is New Zealand's most successful female triathlete, being an ITU world champion, two-time Olympian, Commonwealth medallist and multiple Ironman event winner, says it's really important for athletes to have a network of friends and support from a club like TriPapamoa.

'It's really important because it gives you that support you need. Triathlon's a hard sport – there's three different disciplines – swim, bike and run – so if you can get in a good group and you've got friends you can go out on the bike with, or go on a run, especially on those days where you may not be feeling quite so motivated, it's great.”

'Also, the friends you meet; they've always got stories of when they've had bad days and they've had a great race and you just learn from that – so it really important to have that network.”

After a ‘meet and greet' barbecue last night, TriPapamoa athletes got to take part in an ocean water swim at Pilot Bay this morning, a question-answer session with Sam at Papamoa Library, and a 10 km run.

Tomorrow, the triathletes can look forward to a bike-to-run simulation at Tauranga's Half Ironman Course, a lunch and a question-answer opportunity.

TriPapamoa founder Louise Dumee says the club was established in 2012 to target people 'that didn't want to become part of the mainstream, because they didn't feel like they belong there, or the pressure was too much within the group, and didn't feel comfortable in that environment”.

Starting with a group of five, this year 'by word of mouth”, TriPapamoa has 34 members – mostly of Maori descent.

'They like to train in group environments to give them the encourage, so our focus sort of shifted to Maori health and fitness – so incorporating that into lifestyles changes as well, so they're getting within whole dynamic and being healthy and learning all skills while enjoying sport of triathlon,” says Louise.

Louis says the group of beginners to advanced triathletes has newcomers learning from the experienced but 'vice versa as well'.

'Through encouragement, of the whole group, a lot gone onto to do individual races,” says Louise, who this weekend has a group at Karapiro competing in the Tri Maori Festival race.

'That's the first quarter ironman they're doing; and we're taking a group of 24 to an Iron Maori event on December 7.”

TriPapamoa has a squad training three times a week – Tuesday and Thursday nights is a swim and run clinic at Pilot Bay, there's a RPM session Wednesday nights at the local gym at Papamoa, Saturdays boasts a race simulation – swim, bike and run – at the Mount.

'[It's] Just making the triathlon a fun event to do – and not out of everyone's reach.”