Surf Lifesaving: Piha ride to victory

He boldly predicted it and Piha surf boat sweep Shane O'Halloran and his crew managed to back their words up with deeds at the third round of North Island surf lifesaving championships at Waihi Beach on Saturday.

O'Halloran's Piha Boomers, with Wayne Simeon, Myles Bowker, Hugh McCarroll and Chris Eade rowing, upstaged their national champion clubmates Piha A, swept by Mark Bourneville, in a gripping open men's final.

Titahi Bay, swept by Wil McDowell, finished a valiant third having narrowly missed a wave in the final run home that would have given them successive wins in the national series.

Instead, it was O'Halloran savouring the victory, along with the chance to decide the overall series title at Piha later this month.

"All we wanted was it to be a little bit gnarly and three to four foot waves, because we train on that stuff," O'Halloran said.

"We've been progressing slowly but our target was this event. Not only do we get the North Island title, just as importantly it puts us into the hunt with Titahi Bay and the Piha A crew which sets it up perfectly for the Piha Big Wave challenge. At Piha, there's a whole different race strategy, so we're very happy with that win."

The rising swells at Waihi were tempered by onshore easterly winds, creating tricky channels and lulls for the boats to negotiate.

But nothing could stand in the way of the outstanding Mairangi Bay women's crew, who utterly dominated their division and showed themselves on another level.

The crew of Nina Reid, Carmel and Erin Tolhurst, Sarah Woolley and sweep Rob Jones, rowed away in the women's final to win comfortably, with Red Beach and Mount Maunganui filling out the minor placings.

O'Halloran's great day continued when he swept the Piha Pirates to the under-23 title, ahead of Bourneville's Piha Pistols, while the Piha Coladas won the under-21 women's crown.

There was jubilation from the home beach supporters when Waihi's under-19 crew rowed home to take out their division, ahead of Titahi Bay and Red Beach, while Rarangi won the under-19 women's section.

The Piha Big Wave challenge is the fourth and final event on the national series and will be held on February 25.