Rivals chasing North Island surf boat success

Series leaders Titahi Bay have a large target on their bow heading into the third round of the national surf boat series in Waihi Beach this weekend.

The round doubles as the North Island championships, attracting more than 60 crews to the Bay of Plenty beach, with national champions Titahi Bay preserving a perfect series record so far.

But defending series champions Piha have other plans. Sweep Mark Bourneville is adamant the series is still alive, with the final round of the series at his home beach later this month at the Piha Big Wave Classic.

"Titahi Bay are a great crew - they are very tight and the one thing they have above all others is the amount of time they have spent together in the boat," Bourneville said.

"But we won the series last season, out-performing Titahi Bay over the four rounds, so we know they can be beaten."

Much of the fleet have spent the week bogging up cracks and fixing sweep after taking part in last week's Northern Regional championships in Mount Maunganui, which saw a hefty swell batter the boats on a storm-ridden Sunday.

Organisers eventually called off the carnival when conditions got too dangerous, though a handful of boats - including Bourneville's Piha crew - opted for a few more races to get valuable big-wave experience.

Last year's North Island championships produced a string of upsets, with the little-fancied Omanu crew grabbing the men's title and Mount Maunganui's 'B' crew beating their 'A' crew for the women's crown.

Both clubs will feature strongly this weekend, along with Whakatane's women's crew who won the last round of the series in Whangamata, after Mount Maunganui cleaned up in the first event in Wellington.

Men's crews will be competing in open, under-23 and under-19 divisions while the women will have open and under-21 ranks.

Tomorrow's racing starts at 11am while Sunday's Champion of Champion short-course series starts at 8.30am.