With the Olympic Games about to get under way in Beijing, we take a pictorial look at Red Beach lifeguard Erin Taylor, the first-ever female to represent New Zealand in flat water kayaking at an Olympics.
She’s a talented young woman who has performed well in every sport she has participated in – swimming, netball, surf lifesaving and now kayaking – and we track her successes during the past few years.
Erin's had a rapid rise in kayaking and we can reflect on having in our midst a Kiwi sportswoman with the X factor. To read the article Taylor-made for a Career in Kayaks by journalist Kevin Tutty, click here.

Red Beach, November 2000: Alongside some newly sponsored training equipment, 13-year-old Erin Taylor (right) with Lauren Johnson and James Clarke. All three were top competitors in the surf club’s JuniorSurf division.
March 2002: At the age of 14 and competing for the very first time at the NZ Surf Life Saving Championships, she won the U16 Women’s Beach Flags event at Mount Maunganui.
March 2004: At Kurrawa on the Gold Coast, Erin Taylor became the first-ever Red Beach competitor to win a medal at the Australian Championships. She placed third in the U-19 Surf Ski event.
March 2005: Winning the U19 Surf Ski race title for the first time at the NZ Championships at Mount Maunganui.
March 2005: Red Beach's gold medallists in the U19 Women’s Ski Relay at the NZ Championships, Mount Maunganui. From left: Erin Taylor, Jodie Johnson, Jane Moors. Taylor collected a third gold medal for the U19 Taplin Relay.
March 2006: The TV interview following her win in the U19 Surf Ski race at the NZ Championships in New Plymouth where she retained her title. Taylor was a key competitor for Red Beach when the club won the Allan Gardner Trophy for top New Zealand club for overall points at the championships. Even Nostradamus didn’t see it coming.
March 2006: Erin Taylor with Red Beach surf coach Vaughan Skiffington at the NZ Championships. It was Skiffington who suggested that she give kayaking a go because it was similar to surf ski paddling and also an Olympic sport. “I thought that was a really good idea,” said Taylor.
March 2006: Erin Taylor (right) winning the Australian U19 Surf Ski title at Kurrawa on the Gold Coast, finishing ahead of Australian paddler Elyse Yardley from the North Wollongong club. Taylor was one of 73 starters in the event and made her way to the 16-berth final after displaying top form in the heats, quarters and semifinals.
November 2007: Erin Taylor made her representative debut as a member of the New Zealand surf lifesaving team at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, the birthplace of surf lifesaving in Australia. She was a member of the 12-strong Kiwi team, along with a surf boat crew, to compete with five other countries in the International Surf Challenge.
Taylor provided one of the highlights in an otherwise Australian-dominated event. She caught her international rivals napping with a dominant display on her ski and sealed a great three-test series by beating the best surf ski paddlers in the world in two of her three ski races.
She was also a member of the New Zealand women’s beach relay team which completed a clean sweep by winning the beach relay event three days in a row.
December 2007: The New Zealand surf lifesaving team on Bondi Beach at the conclusion of the International Surf Challenge. Held over four days, the event was a celebration of 100 years of surf lifesaving in Australia. Erin Taylor is pictured fourth from the left in the front row. The stint with the New Zealand team in Australia temporarily ended Taylor’s foray into surf lifesaving.
On her return to New Zealand she was back on Auckland’s Lake Pupuke to resume her steely focus on making the kayaking team for the Beijing Olympics.
May 2008: Erin Taylor was officially named in the New Zealand kayaking team to compete at the Beijing Olympics. She will contest the K1 500m event.
Watching the 2004 Athens Olympics sowed the seeds of an Olympic dream for the teenage Taylor. Her initial goal was the 2012 London Olympics, however, Beijing quickly came into contention when she began to make rapid progress in the sport.
The four paddlers who make up New Zealand’s Olympic kayaking team are currently in training in Rockhampton, Queensland and are about to head to Beijing. From left: Steven Ferguson, Erin Taylor, Mike Walker, Ben Fouhy. The kayaking heats begin on Monday 18th August, with Taylor on the water on Tuesday 19th.