Surf lifesaving: Events cancelled because of massive waves

Safety fears, fuelled by massive seas, forced organisers of the Northern Regional surf lifesaving championships to cancel almost half the weekend's events and send hundreds of athletes home disappointed.

Mountainous seas -- with 4m-high walls of whitewater rolling into Mount Maunganui's main beach yesterday -- meant surf athletes at New Zealand's biggest two-day event were hit with a severely curtailed race programme.

Most water-based events were either hurriedly rescheduled or cancelled altogether.

Surf and board races for under-19 and open competitors were shifted from the main beach yesterday and Saturday to Shark Alley, south of Moturiki Island.

Surf boat raced yesterday in Tauranga Harbour near Matakana Island, rowing across the Harbour entrance after launching at Pilot Bay.

Surf-ski and ironman competitors were hardest hit.

All their events were cancelled as the relentless surf, which grew from 2m on Saturday, pounded the beach.

Piha's surf boat crew, used to big seas on Auckland's wild west coast, demonstrated the ferocity of the waves when they tried to negotiate their way out beyond the breakers after the competition was abandoned yesterday.

Dwarfed by the walls of white water, the boat crew were twice forced back into the beach having barely made it beyond the first breaker line.

Allan Thompson, controller of the Northern Regional event, admitted they would have been putting athletes' lives at risk by sending them out in the heavy surf.

"It was a major safety issue,'' Thompson said. "The top lifeguards would have persevered and battled out in it (the surf) but we couldn't guarantee having enough IRBs on hand in case of a mass emergency if people couldn't get back in.

"This is the coal face of surf lifesaving right here, with the public on the beach watching every move.

"We were talking to our safety officers and the lifeguards who patrol the beach every day and conditions just weren't conducive to running a carnival or to racing.''

Thompson estimated about half to two-third of the weekend's programme was run in some form, with the surf canoes, surf-skis, ironman racing and taplin relays the hardest hit.

Mount Maunganui finished the curtailed programme in third place behind Midway and Muriwai, led by their sparkling beach sprinters and the form of national representative Johanna O'Connor in the water.

Sprinters Holly Moszydlowski and Stephanie Van Dijck were one-two, with Moczydlowski third in the flags. The winning duo combining with Arna Wright and Veronika Van Dijck to streak the field in the relay.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES