Northland swimmer Emilia Finer stars in Swim the Shore in Auckland

Swimmer Emilia Finer is finding great success after her recent venture into ocean swimming. Photo / Supplied

One of Northland's promising swimming talents, Emilia Finer, is making her mark on the ocean swimming scene after just 18 months in the sport.

Finer, already an accomplished pool swimmer, realised her potential in open water on the weekend in the Harcourts Cooper & Co Swim the Shore event in Auckland on Saturday.

Competing against almost 500 other swimmers, Finer finished 45th after completing the 3.8km swim from Narrow Neck beach to Takapuna beach - the same length swum in an Ironman event.

However, Finer was also one of about 50 swimmers who did the course without a wetsuit, which gave her a natural disadvantage.

From those without a wetsuit, Finer was the fastest woman and fourth fastest overall with a time of 57 minutes, 39 seconds - only 45 seconds from the fastest non-wetsuit swimmer.

In addition to that, the 16-year-old finished first for her age group in the Swimming New Zealand Harlequins Zonal Secondary School Open Water Swimming Championships - a competition held in conjunction with the Swim to Shore event.

"I was happy with how I went," Finer said.

"I wasn't completely sure [how I would go] because it depends on conditions."

Finer said she had enjoyed her time competing in ocean swimming, relishing the challenge of long swims in rough conditions.

"I like that quite often it's unpredictable and you often have to change your tactics."

Finer's next ocean event is in the New Zealand Open Water Championships in Taupō in January, where she would compete in a 10km race - her longest yet.

Other Northlanders to compete on Saturday included Greg Monteith, Pamela Abercrombie, Annemarie Malcon, Robyn Skerten, James Walsh, Peter Wilkinson, Alyson Cross, Shane Cross, Mary Farmer, Rob Farmer, Jack Farmer, Zoe Farmer, Murry Nock, Karen Markin, Lynette Shepstone, Pat Owens, Kyle Smith, Luke Smith, Beverly Johnston, Mathilde Schwarz, Abbey Wright and Andrew Wright.

Markin, an experienced ocean swimmer from Paihia, said Finer was one to watch in ocean swimming.

"[Finer has] got a natural ability in the ocean and she's fitted in really well with all the adults in the ocean group, so I just think she's going to go from strength to strength."

Markin explained that swimming in a pool, where you were guided by lane lines and markers, was very different from swimming competitively in the ocean.

"In the ocean, every single time that you go in, conditions are going to be different and you've got to learn how to navigate, how to read the tide, you've also got to deal with the fact that you might be a little bit nervous about what's in the water," she said.

"You can be an average swimmer, but if you are very good at your water skills, then you can actually go very well compared to someone who could be very fast in the pool."