Stand-out performances from the country's best surf lifesaving athletes

With three days down and one to go, the 2026 Aon New Zealand Surf Lifesaving Championships has put on some showstopping performances from New Zealand's best. 

Today at Ōhope Beach we saw surf boat heats and canoe short course finals in the large craft arena, and further up the beach the surf team races, beach flags, ski relays, plus iron and diamond races. 

The club leaderboard still has Omanu SLSC out front, now on a massive 436 points. East End SLSC in second place has 293 points; and Mairangi Bay SLSC has 277 points with Mount Maunganui LS behind them on 208. Full results are on LiveHeats. 

Surf Life Saving New Zealand's National Event Manager Luke Smith says; "It has been a thrilling few days and Ōhope has gifted us stunning conditions – with the relatively low surf leading to some very fast racing. Surf lifesaving sport at all levels is going from strength to strength and looking at today's performances, we can see that our future is very bright."

Saturday's highlights 

The open iron men and women provided impressive races and the crowds on the beach were pumped to see some of the world's best battling it out. 

Pipi Te Pania from Omanu SLSC won the U19 iron, then with a 15-minute gap between races she moved straight on to the open women's iron race and again won gold. Alongside this impressive feat, Te Pania has had a hugely successful championship so far. Her results on day three include 1st in the U19 surf race, the open surf race, the U19 board race, U19 run-swim-run and the U19 double ski; alongside 3rd in the open board race. 

In the men's iron, Joe Collins from Fitzroy SLSC and and Cory Taylor from Midway SLSC fought it out for first and second – going toe-to-toe in flat, fast conditions gave spectators an epic duel, with Collins narrowly taking the gold medal. 

Collins has also so far taken 1st in run-swim-run, 2nd in the surf race, double-ski and beach relay, and 3rd in the board and ski races. 

In the U19 surf team race, Omanu SLSC won gold, with all four of their members finishing in the top seven at the finish line. In 1st place was Sam Chaffer, 2nd Charlie Shivnan, 6th for Braith Swanberg and 7th for Fletcher Cameron. 

Emily O'Driscoll from Omanu shone in the diamond race, winning the U15 race after also winning the ski yesterday, and coming 2nd in the board race. 

Races up on the sand today were battled in the heat, and Mairangi Bay SLSC was dominant with Ryder Heath winning both the U19 male beach flags and the open male event. His club mate Abigail Moxon also took gold for both the U17 and U19 female beach flags race. 

Down in the large craft arena, the U19 surf boat crew from Titahi Bay SLSC if in 1st after the first three rounds of the long course, with two more rounds to go on Sunday. 

Surf canoe racing concluded today, and the events host club Whakatane SLSC celebrated a huge win for their open female team.

Sunday's final day of racing kicks off at 8.00am on surf boats, mixed double ski, board rescue and board relay, and the taplin relay. 

Full results are on LiveHeats.

About the 2026 Aon New Zealand Surf Lifesaving Championships: