Swell time at surf lifesaving championships

The 1200 competitors faced 2.5m waves at Midway Beach, stirred up by a deep depression to the south-east of the country. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

Gisborne poured on the surf on a dramatic second day at the New Zealand surf lifesaving championships today when even some of the country's best struggled.

The 1200 competitors faced 2.5m waves at Midway Beach, stirred up by a deep depression to the south-east of the country.

While it made for spectacular action, particularly in the boat and canoe arenas, the swells caused havoc for organisers, who had to juggle events and move age-group races away from Midway to the relatively sheltered Waikanae Beach 1km away.

Even the open competitors struggled _ the open women's board relay final turned into a 27-minute epic, eventually won by Mount Maunganui's Arna Wright, Aimee Berridge and Katrina Madill, with Mairangi Bay and Westshore the only other teams to complete the race.

Red Beach took out the open men's board relay, through AJ Maney, Chris Moors and Jared Pouwhare, with his club Midway second and Mount Maunganui third.

Midway's big-wave experience and local knowledge helped the Gisborne club storm up the overall points table, grabbing wins in the under-19 men's board relay and both the under-16 and open men's surf teams race.

On the sand, Paul Cracroft-Wilson won his fifth beach flags crown, heading off Japanese visitor Tatsuya Honda, with Mount Maunganui's Dan Peacocke and South Brighton's Morgan Foster filling the minor spots.

Mairangi Bay's Chanel Hickman defended her open women's beach flag title, her fourth win in a row, holding off Red Beach's Naomi Young and Alison Craigie (Muriwai).

Berridge won her second relay gold for Mount Maunganui, joining with Emmanuelle Bescheron, Johanna O'Connor and Rebecca Lockwood to win the open women's surf race.

With the big swell expected to ease overnight, the last day of action will be packed with finals, including the feature ironman and ironwoman races and the boat and canoe finals.

Gisborne schoolboy Cory Taylor will eye a slice of history when he chases the under-19 and open ironman titles, a feat managed only twice before by Dan Moodie in 2006 and 2007.

Among his rivals are reigning ironman champion Chris Moors (Red Beach) and former national ironman champions Moodie (five titles from 2006-10) and three-time winner Glenn Anderson (New Plymouth Old Boys).

Berridge is the reigning ironwoman champion, although Sydney-based competitor Devon Halligan has been in withering form this summer. The 19-year-old capped a gutsy effort at the Surf League last month by winning all four ironwoman races over the two days, out-sprinting Westshore's Nikki Cox in the two open races.

Cox has twice won the ironwoman crown, in 2008 and 2010, while Mairangi Bay's Madison Boon has two seconds and two thirds in the last five years.