More than 800 athletes from 31 clubs throughout NZ – including Olympians – will hit the Mount's sand and surf this weekend as the 2017 Eastern Regional Championships unfold.
In the thick of it will be 75 athletes from the Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service – the third largest group in the competition behind Red Beach's 88 and Orewa's 79 – learning from their efforts how they are tracking on the way to the nationals.
And rivalry will be tough – the championships draws in some of the country's top surf lifesavers including a number of Olympians, Black Fins and NZ representatives.
Mount club member Lisa Carrington will join fellow Olympian Marty McDowell representing Titahi Bay and former Olympian-turned-coach Steve Ferguson representing Piha.
Four of the 2016 World Lifesaving Champion Black Fins – Wainui's Laura Quilter, Mount Maunganui's Olivia Eaton, and Omanu's Devon Halligan and Max Beattie will also join the line up alongside eight of the 12 Junior Black Fins.
They include the Mount's Hamish Miller, Zac Reid, Libby Bradley and Daniel Barron with fellow Black Fins from other clubs, Hannah Williams, Javon McCallum, Jamie Gedye and Alaynah Bettany.
Other Western Bay of Plenty surf lifesaving clubs competing include Omanu Beach with 43 athletes, Papamoa fielding 38, and Waihi Beach with 23.
Eastern Regional Championships has long been one of the biggest surf lifesaving carnivals, second only to the nationals, NZ Surf Lifesaving Championships in early-March.
Events include beach sprint, beach flags, run swim run, surf race, board race, ski race, diamond race, ironman, 2km beach run, beach, board and ski relays, board rescue and taplin with the action beginning 8am tomorrow.
Surf boats and canoes will also form part of the racing, with more than 70 crews taking part in short and long course races.
Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service head coach John Bryant says this weekend is the perfect test for his athletes to know how they are tracking for the nationals.
'It's part of our build-up to the nationals and the Australian title – we train year-round and everything builds to this event, then the next six weeks to nationals.”
'It shows whether we are tracking or not.”
John says ERC has traditionally, bar one or two years, always been at the Mount. 'For us, it's always a big deal. Everyone wants to be the champs – and we definitely go out and race our hardest,” says John.
'It brings a lot of people into the town – and it's great for Tauranga full stop.”
Surf Life Saving NZ eastern region sport manager Mark Inglis says the event has a proud history and they hope to continue the event's success this year with the introduction of twilight racing on the Saturday night for beach events.
'It's an exciting new initiative. The intention is to speed up the large programme throughout the weekend and ultimately result in less conflict of events,” says Mark.
For more information, see: www.facebook.com/events/639832516189424/ and for live results, visit: http://liveresults.co.nz/sls