Claudia Kelly may have claimed six gold medals at the Eastern Region surf lifesaving championships in Mount Maunganui over the weekend but her biggest victory was just getting onto the water.

Torrential rain and strong onshore winds played havoc with the scheduling of the three-day carnival, which saw more than 700 surf athletes from all over New Zealand competing.

Kelly was among the star performers, with the 21-year-old Taranaki lifeguard claiming individual wins in the open women's board race, ski race and ironwoman and adding gold in the board relay, board rescue and double ski with her East End clubmates.

"Considering how bad the weather was throughout the upper North Island, it was an amazing effort by the organisers to even get us on the water racing," says Kelly.

"They could have so easily pulled the pin but you just have to look at what our fellow lifeguards were doing in Auckland during the peak of the emergency and the astonishing rescues they were making - it just shows we need to be prepared to race in or respond in any conditions."

Ahead of the dramatic storm, which saw record rainfall in Auckland and slips and flooding in Tauranga and wide swathes of northern New Zealand, Kelly and clubmate Julia Padrutt won double ski gold on Friday night in big, messy 1.5m swells.

It needed all of their surf nous to negotiate the long, whitecap-strewn course in Shark Alley, especially after the pair had been wiped out plunging into a heavy wave during their warm up.

A surf race heat gets underway at the Eastern Region surf lifesaving championships in Mount Maunganui. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media.

By Saturday morning, with rain teeming and the waves picking up, organisers switched all water-based racing to Pilot Bay, with boats and canoes further up the harbour.

Such was the rainfall that, at times, it seemed the driest place to be was actually shortly after diving in at the start of races.

While conditions improved marginally on Sunday morning, organisers were forced to make changes again as the water clarity deteriorated during the morning, with all swimming legs taken out of the programme after lunch.

With no waves, it left competitors to focus on pure speed and racing nous, with spoils in the open men's division shared widely.

Omaha's Ben Blair leads the under-19 board race field through torrential rain in Mount Maunganui's Pilot Bay during the Eastern Region surf lifesaving championships. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media.

Jack Dufaur led a Mairangi Bay trifecta in the ironman, heading home clubmates Paul van Achterbergh and Connor Beamish, while Orewa's James Scott won the board race and Red Beach's Kalani Gilbertson took out the ski race from Mount Maunganui's Sam Roy, with Scott in third. Louis Clark from Christchurch's Taylors Mistake won the surf race, from Omanu's Gus Shivnan and Luther Maxwell (Otaki).

On the sand, 10-time national champion Morgan Foster turned back time with an astonishing win in the beach flags, a week after his 47th birthday, holding off Waikanae's Oska Smith, with New Plymouth's Logan Smith third.

Oska Smith had his revenge in the beach sprint, however, winning gold and forcing Foster to take silver. Waikanae sprint queen Briana Irving took home the open women's beach sprint/flags double yet again.

Mairangi Bay's Michaela Pocock wins the under-17 beach flags at the Eastern Region surf lifesaving championships in Mount Maunganui. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media.

Mairangi Bay and Whangamata shared spoils in the open men's surf boat division, with Paekakariki's open women winning both the short course and the long course.

Mount Maunganui, meanwhile, kept hold of the overall points trophy with a string of impressive relay and team results, finishing on 169 points, with East End second on 95 and Red Beach third on 57.

Final points: Mt Maunganui 169 1, East End 95 2, Red Beach 57 3, Mairangi Bay 55 4, Waikanae 54 5, Orewa 50 6, Midway 40 7, Omanu 36 8, South Brighton 30 9, Ocean Beach Kiwi 27 10, Paekakariki 25 11, Piha 25 12, Whangamata 24 13, Lyall Bay 19 14, Taylors Mistake 16 15, Papamoa 14 16, Westshore 10 17, Muriwai 10 18, Waimarama 8 19, Whakatane 7 20.