Craig Higgins has plenty to look forward to over the next month.
The South Coast Boardriders Association president and his club will host the national surfing championships at St Clair Beach next week, before it celebrates its 50th anniversary at Waitangi Day weekend.
Higgins, who has been the president the past three years, has been involved with the club for more than 20 years.
The full national championships have not been held in Dunedin since 2005, while the long board national championships were held in the city five years ago.
"It's a great thing,'' Higgins said.
"We had to apply for it. It was us against Gisborne Boardriders and Piha Boardriders. We won the bid mainly because it's our 50th anniversary and it's been a long time since it's been down here.''
About 200 competitors are expected to compete at the championships.
Surfing New Zealand will provide judges and equipment, while the South Coast Boardriders will host the officials and fundraise from its food stalls.
Concerns have been raised about the lack of sand and access to and from the beach, which Higgins accepted were valid.
"There is a bit of concern on the high tide and a couple of hours before and after the high tide,'' he said.
"Just the entry and exit points. Trying to get in and out. Once the tide is high, there is only the ramp right down by the piles, or you have got to scramble up the rocks by the salt water pool. We will just have to make sure we inform competitors about it.
"The Dunedin City Council has promised us they will have all the steps waterblasted by Monday.''
If conditions are bad enough on any of the six days at St Clair, the competition will be switched to St Kilda or somewhere else better suited, Higgins said.
Higgins is also planning the club's 50th jubilee, which will start with a registration night at the club on Friday, February 5.
A full day of competition will be held the following day, with a fun day to be held at Warrington Beach, where the club was for its first two years, on the Sunday, Higgins said.
The jubilee, for which 140 people - some from as far away as Australia - have so far registered, will wrap up proceedings with a dinner in town on the Sunday night.
The St Clair-based club has 180 members, well up from about 100 members six years ago.
"It's never really dropped below 100,'' Higgins said.
"It sort of boomed again the past three or four years since we really got the junior thing started back up. There was a big influx of families and kids joining. It's great, that's what a club is all about.''
Josh Thickpenny, who won the South Island Circuit last year, is the club's biggest hope in the senior men's section, while Elliot Brown and Jack McLeod are names to watch out for in the juniors, Higgins said.
The club has won 22 titles in the history of the championships.
Action gets under way at 7.30am on Monday.
