SURF LIFESAVING - Control and endurance the key

Mark Bourneville.Mark Bourneville made his sporting reputation as a hard nosed rugby league international not to be messed with and became a household name after featuring in two unforgettable Fight for Life amateur boxing encounters.
But if you're keen to catch up with the man they nicknamed "Horse" don't bother searching boxing gymnasiums.
These days the 43-year-old former Kiwi rugby league international can be found on the beach, wearing budgie smugglers.
Bourneville is now a diehard surf boat rower in the Piha Surf Lifesaving Club.
"I started about nine years ago when my body stopped letting me play rugby league any more," Bourneville said. "And I have been at it ever since."
At the weekend Bourneville was one of a large contingent of rowers competing at the Trillian Trust Northern Region surf lifesaving competition at Ruakaka.
It was a competition that attracted more than 200 lithe-looking athletes competing in all manner of disciplines from boats to surf skis to surf swimming.
It was also a big occasion for the Bourneville family, because it featured Mark Bourneville competing in the same crew as his twin sons, with their mother watching from the shoreline.
"That is part of what I think makes this sport so attractive," he said. "There aren't many sports you can get stuck into where you can end up competing alongside your sons."
Surf boat rowing has certainly made a big impression on Bourneville. Not only has he forced his way from the `old farts crew', as in the masters, into the Piha senior crew, but he has also started organising rowing carnivals as well.
Yesterday he was the sweep (steerer) in the Piha crew with his twins rowing.
This weekend he will be lining up as a rower in what is now the annual Piha Big Wave Surf Boat Spectacular.
There is just one problem. Now Bourneville has rounded up all the best crews in the country, and even a couple of highly rated rowing outfits from Australia, the surf might be a bit too spectacular.
"I have got into organising this carnival because we just want waves to row in," he said. "It is what surf boat rowing is all about. But I am now just hoping the surf isn't too big because we might end up with carnage.
"Last time I checked it was forecast to be three-metre swells."
In surf that big even Bourneville admits life can be a bit treacherous.
"The thing with surf boats is that it is a controlled physical sport with a touch of aggression and a fair bit of endurance. When you are climbing a two-metre wave it can get as aggressive as any sport, and I've been in a few aggressive situations."
Yesterday, though, Bourneville and the rest of the crews played second fiddle to the champion Red Beach outfit that featured several highly rated flat water skiff rowers.
Red Beach were unbeaten all weekend and were part of a Red Beach team that proved too strong in most of the disciplines.