Sunset Beach win another bp Surf Rescue North Island IRB Championship

Waipu Cove turned on perfect conditions for IRB Racing - the sun was out, the surf was good and the racing was fast.

73 crews from 21 clubs made their way to the North Island IRB Championships and it was great to see new crews from Baylys Beach, Omaha, Whakatane & Whiritoa and Mairangi Bay crews returning after a few years hiatus.

Saturday saw the completion of the Tube rescue, Assembly Race and Teams Race with a mixed category introduced for the first time. The event was wrapped up on Sunday with Mass and Single rescue.

While they didnt have it all their own way, Sunset have delivered another full club effort to take out the title.

In the U19s Opunake dominated the female podium taking Gold & Silver in the Mass & Single and Silver and Bronze in the Tube and Assembly. In the men’s, Sunset were three from three, taking gold in the Mass, Tube & Assemebly, however Waihi had the best finish of the day taking a clean sweep of the podium in the Single.

Waikanae was the pick of the U23 men’s crews in a competitive division, winning the Tube, Mass & Single races while Bethells managed a clean sweep across all female events, featuring a full podium for the Mass Rescue as well as winning the Open Teams Race.

Despite missing their dominant Open Women’s combination of Taylor Shrimpton & Abi Chapman, defending champions Sunset Beach continued to set the standard taking out the Open female Mass, Tube & Assembly. Sunset Open Men achieved the same feat as their female club mates, however they would be denied a podium place in the Single with East End, Waikanae and Waimarama getting the medals on the last race of the day.

The bp New Zelaand IRB Championships will be held at Waihi Beach on April 15 & 16. 

For all results - http://www.surflifesaving.org.nz/.../2023-ni-irb-results.pdf

Final Points:

Sunset Beach -147

Waikanae - 94

Opunake - 92

Bethells Beach - 89

Kariaotahi - 45

Waihi Beach - 44

East End - 42

United North Piha - 40

Mairangi Bay - 33

Waimarama - 28

Whiritoa - 20

New Plymouth Old Boys - 16

Ruakaka - 15

Paekakariki - 11

Raglan - 7

Maranui - 6

Baylys Beach - 4

Orewa SLSC - 2

Whakatane – 0

 Photo Credit - Sunset Beach