Fifty of New Zealand's top inflatable rescue boat crews took to the water for this year's Papamoa IRB Classic today.

Event organiser Shane Smith says 155 competitors took part in today's event which he described as challenging with waves getting up to 6ft at times.

New Plymouth's Fitzroy Surf Life Saving Club's IRB U21 team. Photos: Tracy Hardy.

'It's going really well. The conditions are really, really challenging for the crews. One minute we're getting nice flat water and then it's pitching up and creating some real issues but they're handling it pretty well overall.”

The event was a great chance for the crews to get a sneak peek at the venue for this year's national championships later this year.

Papamoa hosted the event which saw crews from Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Palmerston North to name a few.

The Next Door Realty-sponsored Classic, which will feature four divisions of racing, has been bumped back in the season after its wildly successful return last summer, when 42 crews turned up to race at the end of January.

However, as Papamoa is hosting the BP Surf Rescue championships in April, Shane says it made sense to bring it back to December.

'There's a hole in the competition calendar pre-Christmas this season so we decided to jump in and grab it,” says Shane.

He says today's event was the perfect opportunity for crews wanting to come and test the venue before nationals.

Shane says it was also a great opportunity for new crews wanting to see where they stack up against the other crews likely to take part in next year's champs.

'These guys race hard it's in their blood to do so. But they also using it to get used to the beach. What it's like here, what our surf is like. So it's a bit of intelligence gathering. But you can't stop them going full-throttle when they need to.”


Papamoa's Sam Dwen and Mitch Logan taking off.