Home beach advantage became home bay advantage for Mount Maunganui on the second day of the Oceans 11 under-14 national surf lifesaving championships on Friday.
With big swells again curtailing competition on the Main Beach, the action was shifted to Pilot Bay for the board rescue and tube rescue events, with Mount picking up two wins, a silver and a bronze.
It helped them edge three points clear of Waikanae, although Papamoa, Red Beach, Midway and Omanu were all still within striking distance.
Earlier, Mount's Matt Hyde had grabbed gold in the under-14 boys run-swim-run, one of the last events held at the Main Beach, and he later grabbed bronze in the tube rescue with Mickey Ellis.
"It was pretty tough out there again with a huge current, though the waves had dropped a lot since yesterday," Hyde said.
"I caught a big dumper and that put me 10m in front of the next guy and then it was a matter of holding it up the beach."
Hyde believed the switch to Pilot Bay aided the home club, though he doubted they had the overall depth to stay in front for the whole weekend.
"I don't think we'll win but if we made the top three, we'd be pretty happy. In saying that, we've got a lot of good pool swimmers in our team and it would probably be to our advantage if the competition stayed in Pilot Bay."
Other local winners were Mount's Hamish Miller and George Williams in the under-12 boys tube rescue, with clubmates Adriana Bird and Grace Eglinton winning the under-14 girls board rescue.
Maia Bryant and Megan McCarty kept Papamoa hopes alive with a win in the under-12 girls tube rescue, while Papamoa's Sean McKenzie was third in the under-13 boys run-swim-run.
Mount's Julia Conway and Grace Eglinton were second in the under-14 girls tube rescue, ahead of Papamoa's Eden Craig and Arianna Moffatt.
One of the most popular results was in the girls under-14 run-swim-run, where Millie Johnston, from embattled South Brighton, picked up gold ahead of fellow Cantabrian Brittany Tucker (Sumner). Tucker also paired with Brittany Andrews to win bronze in the board rescue.
Waikanae dominated the under-14 tube rescue, with Tom Dods and Harry Dods winning the boys event and Georgia Donnelly and Tayla Lum the girls.
Conditions are due to improve today, with organisers hopeful of staging the final two days on Main Beach.
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