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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Surf life saving: Papamoa fully support juniors

By Ben Guild
Bay of Plenty Times·
19 Jan, 2014 04:00 PM4 mins to read

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The Papamoa Junior Invitational Carnival under-13 girls Diamond starts. Photo/Andrew Warner

The Papamoa Junior Invitational Carnival under-13 girls Diamond starts. Photo/Andrew Warner

If Saturday's Papamoa Junior Invitational Carnival proved anything it is that there is no secret to the long standing success of the hosts

The large Papamoa junior contingent thrived in familiar conditions over hours of pulsating racing before being pipped for overall honours by Omanu, but it was the story behind the scenes that showed why the hosts continue to churn out champions.

The senior surf team were in the water on safety duty, while other club members organised races and surveyed from the tower.

Three-time world champion Natalie Peat dished out chocolate bars and high fives to anyone within sight, while fellow members ferried food down the long line of tents.

Head coach Kurt Wilson, who congratulated kids by name on strong swim or run legs with every other step, was overjoyed the event had regained all of the ground yielded after the Rena struck.

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"It's a big part of our local calendar; it's got a lot of history now and every year we try to make it a little bit bigger," Wilson said.

"It's consistently sat between 400-450 participants - the only year that wrecked us was that Rena year, but we've bounced back really nicely from that and it's got a good reputation all over the country."

Wilson believed the Rena affair had both hurt and strengthened the club.

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"It was a tough time. We had our beach unusable for 12 weeks. These local families, this is where they live, where they play and where they train. To have that taken away from the community for that long was really tough.

"But it also brought out their resilience. We did things like train in the Kaituna River, we went to Pilot Bay, we used other beaches, we had training camps in Gisborne, Taranaki, we took our life guards to other beaches so they could stay sharp.

"It was neat seeing nearly 700 members in the club and every single one of them calls this place home. They were really keen to clean up and get that stuff off our beach.

"But it was tough, especially financially for the club. We lost a lot of members - why would you come join a club that was covered in oil? We've built back up and are past the numbers that we were, but it's put us back a couple of years."

The result of the hardship and strong coaching systems is a club united and excited about a future that includes expansive clubrooms running parallel to the coastline.

Based on yesterday's competition, that future looks bright.

The infrastructure is set-up and ready to go and every year a new batch of kids pours in.

"They get to turn up to the beach and get coached by Natalie Peat who is a three-time world champ, Danny Hart who's in the New Zealand team, Taris Harker who is a national kayak representative and then myself who coaches the New Zealand under-20 team," Wilson said.

"These kids pretty much get a professional environment from 10 years of age.

"The best part about it is those trainers wouldn't want to be anywhere else. They went to the Big Day Out last night, but they were here at 9am this morning ready to go. It's unbelievable. You can't replace that."

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Mitch Cowdrey, who said he had been at the club since he was a "little baby", was just one example of the new wave of talented juniors.

He had picked up two wins and a second by mid-afternoon, and was happy with his work leading into next month's nationals.

At 13 he is no stranger to success on the national scene and is tipped by Wilson as a hot prospect among a junior club boasting nearly 400 members.

The junior athletes will compete at the Eastern Region Champs at Mount Maunganui in the lead-up to nationals, which defending champions Papamoa have won five times in the past seven years.

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