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Young people faced challenging conditions at the 2019 Northern Region Junior Surf Lifesaving Championships at Omaha Beach on the weekend of February 2 and 3.
Saturday presented relatively calm and easy surf conditions, but bigger wind gusts on Sunday created choppier and messier surf.
Sunday’s action featured board and tube rescue events for under 14s.
Surf Lifesaving Northern Region sports manager Lewis McClintock says those in that age group will soon graduate to become lifeguards, so it was a good challenge for them.
“It’s not just about who is the fastest swimmer and the fastest person on the board. It takes understanding of how to read waves, as well. It’s also about being brave enough and holding on for the ride if you happen to be trying to paddle a board through some surf,” he says.
“Hopefully kids thrive on that kind of challenge because it is what we are preparing them for.”
Lewis says the juniors acquitted themselves well, especially as a lot of surf lifesaving clubs in the Northern Region are based at East Coast beaches, which don’t traditionally have big surf and are, therefore, not used to the conditions.
More than 300 juniors took part in the championships from 12 surf lifesaving clubs.
Red Beach Surf Lifesaving Club took overall first place with 130 points. Red Beach also won the Cath & Eddie Millar Trophy for best performance in teams’ events.
Omaha Surf Lifesaving Club was the best performing club in the Mahurangi area, coming sixth with 14 points.
