Red Beach came from behind for a surprising and convincing win in the Owen Chapman Cup surf lifesaving carnival at their own beach on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
And to the surprise and pleasure of their coach Vaughan Skiffington, it was their age group competitors that led the charge.
After the first half of the programme Skiffington was not confident, but was very happy to finish the day 21 points clear of their closest rival.
"I definitely was not confident. I thought we were going to struggle," said Skiffington. "We mostly have under-16 competitors, but we pulled a few of the older competitors that have done well in the past and they help us along."
Red Beach's points spread covered the open men and women and the under-16 men and women categories.
"The points score was very pleasing, but the significance was that our under-16 competitors also entered the under-19 and open events as well making up a good portion of those open points," he said.
Skiffington is concerned that his team make up and the different points system could work against them at the Northern Region Championships in February.
"When the system changes from the 3-2-1 scoring to 6 through to 1 we will really struggle," he said.
The points structure for both the NRCs and the nationals are similar to those adopted for the Owen Chapman Cup.
"Red Beach has its sights firmly set on the bigger picture with the Northern Regional and National Championships its ultimate goal," he said.
Standout performances came from out of town competitors led by Steven Kent from the Titahi Bay club from Wellington.
Kent has plenty of heritage, being the youngest brother of Olympic swimmer Dean, who recently qualified for the Beijing Games this year.
A New Zealand team member at the recent German Cup pool championships, Steven won the open men's surf race and run-swim-run, while his cousin Martyn McDowell, also from the Titahi Bay club, gave some very strong competition a lesson in paddling to win the open men's ski race.
Completing the family connection was Danny McDowell, who won the under-19 ironman and surf race, and was second in the board race and third in the run-swim-run.
