After a a long break the western Circuit has seen some racing action again. Races were held at The Blue Balls Buggy Bash in the winter and the Mighty Muriwai Moose meet in the spring.

Both races were flag races. the blue balls had 3 1/2 km single lap flag race and the Moose saw a 10 lap short course flag race.

Both Races were won by Craig Hansen of Ashburton.

Unfortunately accurate records were not kept due to the impromptu nature of the Racing. Pommy Al, Canterbury Matt and Perrin AKA The Terminator all featured well but were beaten fair and square by the African Kiwi from the south.

The Western Circuit is a series of events held on the West Coast of the North Island of NZ. It started in the 1995 with the Blue Balls and the Moose. Other events were held in New Plymouth, Waikawa, Paraparaumu, Tauranga, Baileys Beach, Raglan, and some road trips down the west coat as far as Himitangi. The Moose is always at Muriwai, the Blue balls has been at many locations from Mokau to Port Waikato and one jaunt to the Coromandel. There are records of the old competitions stuck on an old disk and this will be made available when I can find a PC that will read it

If any one wants to run a an event on the circuit it must not clash with the established slots and it should have a silly name. Racing and competition has never been a primary focus but we have had plenty of it in the past. New events may be the catalyst needed to turn the small racing scene emerging in the north into an established sport.

Finally.
The 2009 Western Circuit Champion is Craig Hansen of Peter Lynn Kites in Ashburton. Congratulations Craig. 2 wins, Circuit Champ and crossed the Sahara. A great year.

well 90 mile needs to be done. maybe you could have the "nutty ninty down winder extraordineer" an 88km down wind race? i'm a landboarder but i'd still beat all but the very best buggiers! fighting words? you bet.

Himatangi,foxton,waitareri is a sweet spot and needs an event. Himatangi to paraparaumu race is also i moot. Small problem of 3 to 4 estuaries and the manawatu river to cross! it would sort the men from the boys and dude with the fastest kite probably wont win!

Ohakea has a kite day on fathers day every year. That could be another good event. how often do you get a chance to fang an airfreild?

Saying all that its pretty hard convincing the aucklanders south of the bombays.... i'm sure they completly forget theres sand down this way.

Plummet dead keen on either of those options especially from Tangimoana to Waikanaie or further down as far as Paraparaumu. The time to beat on a kite is exactly 2 hours between Tangi and Waikanaie. I am sure someone can do it faster but they will be sore at the end of it!

A few of us down in Wellington have been talking about doing the Paekakariki Pub to Pub event. Just a few mates to start with as we don't want the liability of organising anything official. Basically it involves starting at the Paekakariki Pub, running up the coast, jump on a bike up to Waikanaie river, swim/run up the river, jump on the kite and kite back to Paekakariki, run up the road to the pub and most importantly finish the race with downing a pint of beer. Just under a 30 km round trip and you get to drink beer.

Course is roughly as follows
maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl...2ef5684c2eb&z=11

haha, i love it. yourl have to add a pie into the race somehow. maybe scull a pie and run,bike,kite beer.....

I'll take that challenge of 2hrs tang to waikanai. in theory i can beat that time on land but don't know how much the river crossings will slow me down.

yakernz wrote:


This is NZ. There are only so many of us. Sometimes events are just a few mates. The Blue balls sometimes has 5 kite buggies. Just so long as everyone knows its on. Don't forget the silly name

Tangi to Waikanae in 2 hrs eh...? Ambitious but dooable.
I now have all the tools i need to complete the challenge.
A new 2010 Ground Industries Conflict 116, and now my estuary board has arrived, a 112 Decay custom, Im now awaiting a big low tide and 20-25 knots NW and its on..

board looks good Butch.
i'd be keen to give the tangi-wai a nudge on 12 or 13 dec if the wind plays ball. low tides 2 and 3 on those days. its not super low low tide,,,, but i'll still give it a go.

It would be great to see you guys do it under 2 hours. I would be impressed if you can keep the speed going through Otaki and the river mouths. Its hard enough on a kite but having walked down that beach it looks pretty hard on a land board. Start and finish points are on this map.

maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=U...294&t=h&z=11

Hey yaker. do you have an official distance? my rough measuring on google maps says 68km.

your right though otaki to peka peka the beach is pretty average so the whole challenge will be difficult. on the rest of the beach if we have favourable conditions cruising at 50+ kph will be on the cards.

plummet wrote:

Yes it is roughly 68 km and I did try to get an exact distance on my gps logs. the gps results software i use has lost its key for some reason. Give me few days and I will have something more accurate for you.
Every time I have done that trip the wind is always lighter in Otaki for some reason.

plummet wrote:
[quote]Hey yaker. do you have an official distance? my rough measuring on google maps says 68km.

Just had another look at the logs from the last trip and it looks like it was around 1.5 hours for the trip but I cant tell for sure where it starts on Google Earth. I have attached the file and you can take a look at it for yourself in gps results something similar. The wind backed off on the last part of the run so it was slower than it could otherwise have been.

wowa 68 km in 1.5hrs 45kph ave.
i'm going to say that will be impossible on the land inc the river crossing... it would be hard out without the river crossing.

anyway gives us something to aim for. first up maybe the 2 hour goal will be the target.

plummet wrote:


Those speeds didn't sound right so I downloaded the new version of Google Earth and over-layed the start and end points. Looks like the gps reset and only recorded from Foxton so a sub 2 hour time is still the time to beat.

Impossible???? Speak for yaself dude. You give up way too easily...
Tested my wee estuary board and it rides like a dream! Cheers DK. Doesnt take too much wind to get it planing either so the crossings will be a breeze as far as im concerned. Waiting for the right day and im in there.

Hey Butch make sure you get a photo of the speeding ticket....that would be too funny!
www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/3135941/New-weapon-for-police

Don't worry butch i'm not giving up. I'll give it a nudge and see what happens. Since i'm not on the water yet i'll be slower dragging may arse across the manawatu river. kitesurfing will take place shortly for me so hopefully in a month or 2 when i have the equipment and abit of pratice i'll be skimming the rivers with you.
yes if a cop busts out from behind a piece of driftwood and gives me a ticket for speeding i'll be freaken amused....

Its looking like some wind up the coast tomorrow. Not record setting conditions but worth a look. I might head up for the afternoon if the forecast looks good. Anyone keen.

Ill be about in the avo.Planning on hitting the tangi to Waikanae run on Friday as im teaching sat/sun. Fingers crossed for good wind

ahh crap. the timing is always hard. i'm out during the week as i have the big boss man down. i could have hit it on saturday.....bugger. maybe next time.

Looks like wind for the weekend although low tide is not convenient for you guys unless it is a really early or late start. Wind doesn't look super steady but it would be good for a blast.


www.sportstracklive.com
Just came across this site today and it looks wicked to upload GPS files and share them. I have created a NZ kiting group where we could upload sessions to and share the love so to speak. It is easy and has everything you would want, full analysis options and live replay on Google maps, wicked!

Since Butch is teaching sat/sun i can't be arsed going nigel no mates. i'll hit it another time. i'm gona fang mokau beach this weekend. wind is supposed to be onshore and 15-20 so i'tl be good for abit of distance training.

Let me know how your friday attempt goes Butch.