FAR North Coast Branch's injection of youth will be a key to retaining their country branch title when they tackle the state's best in the Surf Life Saving NSW Interbranch Championships this weekend.

Cudgen Headland SLSC's Nadi Canning, who will lead the team alongside Northern NSW Lifeguard coordinator Scott McCartney, said Far North would be gunning for the country title, with the team's youngsters spurring senior athletes on.

"We're always pretty strong in comparison to other country branches and a lot of our young athletes coming through are really strong competitors,” Canning said.

"They push us at training and that makes everyone perform better.

"Our aim is to always win that country title, but we aim to get as high on the leaderboard as possible.”

Canning is looking forward to racing over the shorter distances after claiming the Coolangatta Gold short-course title over 32.4km in October, just 10 weeks after tearing a calf muscle.

A key cog in the Far North team for the last 11 years, Canning has a full schedule ahead of her and the 30-year-old is relishing the opportunity of setting an example for the team's young athletes.

" As team captain you have to step up, so I'm looking forward to it,” Canning said.

"I think it's a privilege to be the captain and to be there for the younger athletes to look up to. That's a real honour to be able to do that.

"All the kids are great and they have confidence but it's great to be there for them if they need.”

The championships see three male and female competitors from branches compete in under-12s-17s, 19s and Open age groups in ocean and beach events.

Far North finished fifth overall last year behind Hunter, Central Coast, Sydney and reigning champion Northern Beaches. While Far North is up against it and hasn't trained together as the team's 40 members stretch from Coffs Harbour to Kingscliff, Canning said the side always banded together through a special bond.

"We always talk about never giving up, every single point counts and every single place counts, and the Far North kids are strong,” Canning said.

"Scott (McCartney) talked about cheering each other on and we're always the most vocal branch. We head down to the beach to support each other and we've got a really great team morale which helps.”

The championships are on today and tomorrow at The Lakes on the Central Coast.