Just a big THANK YOU to all who came for the event, and especially to Ralph for organising and the sponsors. More of that Mata beer would have gone down well, its a good drop. Despite a few hiccups with the vote scoring format everyone I spoke to had a great time in a great part of NZ and got to meet kiters from around NZ.

Hope to see this agin next year, maybe with dedicated surfer judges for Semi's and Finals ??

That was an awesome weekend, thanks everyone involved. I am doing a vid that will be available later today.

Suggestions for next time

Yeah, I think that is the end of rider judging but was worth a try. Many riders (not all) voted for themselves! and the score sheets were anonymous lol

I like all wavestyles - strapped, unstrapped,surfboard and even shock horror twintip in waves! - whatever is good for the conditions and the riders ability, style/equipment snobbery for sure sux. But this not what it is about -putting them up against each other is like putting wakeboarders up against wakeskaters, having a skateboard comp where skateboarders can choose to tie their feet to their board, or a comp of paddle in surfers vs strapped tow surfers...! So how about an unstrapped division next time if enough riders want to form one for the conditions available...

come on ! pics ! pics ! pics !



show those of us that missed it exactly what we missed!

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61215&...amp;amp;id=577305847

try this link....

Had a fun weekend overall with some reasonable waves to ride. Certainly not epic Taranaki but at least we had wind, waves and sunshine! Thanks to the organisers and sponsors for putting on the event. There were some great aspects of the event and it was good to catch up with everybody.

To the not so serious rider the weekend would have been a good fun event.
For the riders who went there with a national title in mind the event was disappointing.

Here’s some constructive criticism, having competed nationally and internationally in many events.

In my opinion (and im sure many will agree) it is inappropriate to call an event with a rider judged format a national event. Some riders rely on comp results for their sponsors and really it makes a mockery of our sport when you have a rider judged event with national titles on the line. When an event is titled a national event, the appropriate competition and judging format should be used and adhered to.

There were also a lot of bad decisions and mistakes made during the running of the event. The excuse was made "this was the first wave event ever and of course there will be mistakes" but that’s not acceptable to say. There have been so many events in both waves and freestyle (Kiteboarding as well as other sports) which have a set competition format and proper judging rules which could have easily been adopted.

The comp had the potential to be a lot better than it was, but the format (rider judged) and some bad decisions (not competing Friday, and cancelling early Saturday with a forecasted dropping swell) let it down. I think that for the next NZ Wave Nationals there should be an appropriate set out heat format with a dedicated panel of judges which would make it fair for everyone.

If the same comp is run next year with the same format then I suggest it should be classed as a “free ride” wave event, because at the end of the day that’s pretty much what it was.

This could be viewed as harsh, but someone had to put it in writing; no doubt many others will share these views.

ok a video. Some of epic Friday and a bit of Saturday, no Sunday footage though

I agree with this point & have mentioned it to Ralph. I think with a team of dedicated judges who know how to judge a wave riding comp, & a defined format then it would certainly make a fairer comp as far as judging is concerned.

For the first year I think it was a pretty good effort & yes there is a lot that can be learnt from it, but overall I think it was certainly successful enough with a heap of interest for it to continue on as a yearly event. Its great to see people giving feedback already, as that's what needs to happen to make next year's event even bigger & better.

good work with those pics & vid - looks like you guys scored!

wind and waves and kites - can't ask for more than that!

Kites and Rocks!

I have surfed up in the naki for a summer a few years ago...but kiting.

Man those rocks look dangerous.

Where did yous ride?

And could you launch and land ok?

Any kites come to grief on the rocks?

Choooice,

Good to see some wave action going down in NZ. I have just spent the last five years in West OZ, moving back in April 09. I was wandering today if there was much of a wave scene there. I'm in luck.

Look forward to meeting everyone next year. Where does Auckland based crew do their wave kiting? Oh and what size most you guys using.

P.S. Anyone coming to WA this summer look me up, and yes its as good as they say it is.

Some of us will be at Lancelin for session on 16th jan, see you there, and anyone else up for the session (I know a few other riders will be over there too from NZ)

I will be in Perth around that time... should all hook up for a kiwi BBQ!

Yeah for sure. Get the ramp down shakes some time again I reckon, I want to be able to hit some of the slider jam stuff this year if it's out , and not just stare at it lol

For shizzle.

She is just getting a new purple paint job at the moment and will be back on the water soon. Thinking of building some more sliders at some stage but need somewhere near a beach to store it if anyone is keen.... maybe cheltenham??

A day, a night & another day at the circus.



Firstly I would like to acknowledge Ralph - ringleader extraordinaire, well done! You single handedly brought it all together man, it was thoroughly entertaining ( high praise from a jaded cynic such as myself ) please do not take any offense from my following comments.


Some of my thoughts/impressions on what went down on the weekend.

The riding & conditions highlighted how far from the criteria of high-performance wave-riding kitesurfing was that weekend
( riding closest to the critical section etc, using the power of the waves not the kite etc etc).

Admittitedly the conditions were shithouse both days, onshore & light on Sat, offshore & strong on Sun. Gutless, soft waves 2-3 ft with long lulls - a dying swell that had peaked on the previous thursday night. On Sunday there were few waves with a critical section to be had. If you were impressed by the marginal conditions on offer over the weekend then you would be shitting yourself if you saw what true Naki conditions are like when it is 25-35 kts & 4-6 or 6-8ft

Got to mention the rocks here - what a f@cking mockery, if you come to the Naki you gotta expect to deal with rocks - harden up or head home. Dozens of riders carried on riding. Sat afternoon / evening a couple of guys were scoring the best waves of the day on the south reef, the beach was grinding and the middle & north reefs continued to break & be ridden. Calling off Saturdays heats early & planning a final for Sundays forecasted choppy windswell was a waste of the already limited conditions on offer.

The rider-judging combined with overcrowded heats & total confusion regarding identity of anyone you didn’t know turned the 1st round heats into a lottery / popularity contest - instead of numbered bibs over wetties it might as well have been bikinis.

Even in the final there was confusion over the identity of two riders with identical kites.

The party on saturday night was more like an entomoligical society function, we needed Armie to liven it up or some crazy D.J. I would like to suggest next time a party with more rock n’ roll / boogie, less kite-talk with endless silent background Ben Wilson instructionals.


I have a video of the final. I’ve got to say It was a huge distraction having an M.C. with no knowledge of the sport calling the riding & same with a head judge. I heard the head judge several times award 10pts to a rider who rode a mediocre two or three turns out on the shoulder of a wave - makes me wonder if this sport is ever gonna grow up & get taken seriously by the surfing world.

Finally there were the friggen hoards of twintippers.... For F@ck sake man it was advertised as a WAVE competition - so they come & overcrowd the venue with their jumping-sliding-bogging & sinking. Do Golfers use a putter to drive down the Fairway or a 3-wood? If you enter a wave-comp with a tt does that mean that you are getting your surfboard all waxed up for the Freestyle Nationals in Christchurch?

Aside from all the shite that is now consigned to history I had a fun time ( & thats coming from a known sociopath ) on a weekend I would never normally have bothered to go to the Naki.

Cheers Ralph

Looks like the waveriding Gestapo was on duty!
To be honest, once everyone agrees on the objectives of waveriding, being as close to the critical section as possible, and really riding the waves, plus style, flow, wave selection, etc... there shouldn't be any discrimination in terms of gear to be used, as long as no one is an embarrassment to others or comes in the way of others, (compliance with the rules of the competition).

I mean someone could turn up on a kite powered seakayak and do the most impressive wave riding, scoring highest marks from the waveriding expert judges, why not? Quite unlikely though, but would it be wrong?

I was expecting the usual dribble from Skywalker, but I think he's got a point for once. If it's a wave event, the surfboards should be out. Face it, TT's are shite for riding waves. It's not really wave riding, when you're powered by the kite 99% of the time. Yes you might be able to get in close to the pocket but theres no flow like there is (or should be) with a surfboard.

That said, it looked like there were a few ripping it on surfboards. Good job!

Gluing the board to your feet ie a twintip and a strapped surfboard are so far from riding unstrapped on whatever board. I like both styles and sometimes they simply suit different conditions but they should not be competing together with each other in the same event simply because you cannot score fairly between them. Unstrapped floater vs strapped re-entry.... unstrapped lets you position your feet where you want them at anytime to suit what you are doing on the wave eg generate more speed from the wave.

Is it still a surfboard if it is not possible to paddle into a wave with it?

Well! what an entertaining weekend complete with in depth exposay of nz's kiting culture.

Jesus we must have our heads so far into the sand that we are totally oblivious to the international kiting world of the past 6 years!!
Has anyone actually registered in their isolated kiwi brains that wave riding HAS BEEN defined by a myriad international luminaries. Ironically one such example beamed a shining mockery onto the bean counters sat night meeting.

I have to agree with ianc that there is a certain variety of gear selection that can be used to suit the wide range of conditions we experience on this fantastic island. If you are out in a cranking onshore with some nice wind waves, or even swell then take anything cause it all works, except if theres swell and you want to ride some - a surfoard is a must as you sail upwind at least 10 degrees higher = more waves!
If However you are at a cross shore down the line wave riding destination, you are living a self deluded paleodream to think you can maximise the conditions on a board designed soley to be pulled along by the powered up rider. If the waves are clean and surfable then my pick for the best board is one that i could paddle in as well (6'2-'6'6 strapless for me). If it is howling and/or very large/choppy outside on takeoff it would not be surfable anyway, then a smaller tow style strapped board is the pick (5'9 for me). Wave riding is an act of human grace and power combined into one of earths pure energies. when done well it is art! an artist must have the right tools, DaVinci did not paint with crayons!

As For 'Epic' riding there must first be epic conditions (no evidence of any epic conditions so far produced from the weekend, the reason for which is simple-They did NOT exist at that time and place. No disrespect that some had a great day on friday, but to call it epic makes kitesurfing look very lame (all i could see were some guys getting some turns on slow fat head high S kina, it was NOT anywhere near a cranking Naki day.

As for the comp, unfortunately it suffered from inappropriate titling. great concept and well done for the freeride event that it was. Strange random decisions cutting out top national riders on a whim. Old windsurfing, give way rules, used after being shown to be flawed prior to event - meaning many good wave riders lining up a section that no one else could have ridden, had to back off for tweakers riding upwind on the shoulder of the wave - effectivly wasting the best part of the wave! several zillion tt's who WERE being thoughtless and annoyong and getting in the way, freestyling in the lineup where people were trying to set up for the shifty swell... judges without a clue... There is NO WAY it can be called a national wave title event.

Good to hear it was a great time for people though, but just remember that is as mellow as the place gets so if you dont like rocks dont come back!

regardless of all... life in this place is bloody fantastic and im stoked to be able to breath the clean nz air and rant my swolen spleen to those who care.
peace and love y'all

The conditions certainly weren't epic,,,,,,,,,but will they ever be at an organized comp ??? Its difficult to get the conditions to cooperate with any event Date.

How ever it meant that lots of folks got to go out and throw buckets of spray in the relative safety of head high waves, so the enjoyment factor and participation was high.

It will be interesting to see how the comp develops going forward.

Competitor judging didn't really work well for kite surfing, and identifying who was who was difficult,,,,,,,,,

So if the comp is going to develop into different divisions with separate judges etc it will need a lot more support in the organizing of it.


Cos I live here I get to ride Epic conditions with Hippy Seano and the like when there is only 4 or 5 of us out there, so for me the whole comp thing was pretty busy .

I would like to see more focus on fluid powerful riding using the power of the wave not the kite, but the conditions didn't really make that possible.

So I guess its a case of watch this space and see who puts their hand up for contributing to the event in the future.

I just watched the vid posted above. Looks very Naki to me....

I was surprised by all the people riding twin tips. I'm not making a judgment about this either way - no point getting into that bunfight, but I wondered why so few had surfboards.

Is this because most competitors are from Auckland where your wave options range from 1 inch swell on the east coast to Certain Instant Watery Enema Death on the west coast? Or is it because kiwis are famously odds and ends when it comes to their gear? It was certainly pretty interesting to see the surfing with kites thing doesn't really have seemed to penetrate in NZ...

Also - no one should be shocked by the rocks at Kina road! They've been there for ages.

Good to see everyone out in the sunshine having a nice time in NZ.

maybe the waves were so tiny it didn't really matter?

i rode my strappy directional surfy thing and was pleasantly suprised i remembered how

Yeah, there were a lot of twinnies there that weekend, but really only because Kitesurfing (as opposed to Kiteboarding) is relatively new in NZ. BUT it did expose this end of the sport to a whol;e lot of people (both surfers and kiters) who are gonna be back next year with surfboards. \

Of course the kitesurfing uprising will make things more crowded for Skyrider, but I'mm sure he will cope

Personally I think that it should still be a national title. The semi's and finals were all surfboard riders anyway (heats served to get a bunch of people involved, which is essential to grow and pay for the event) and the standouts (incl Torrin) were competitive freestyle riders and they were definitely standouts on sirfboards too. Now these guys may not come down if there there is no title and sponsorship glory/$$ involved, and ther paricipation makes it all the richer.

For me I would still come to the competition even if it was a freeride event. Im sure other top riders would too. Not all comps are about the titles etc, riding with and meeting new people is part of it aswell. Thats what I think a rider judged comp like this one should have been and should be if it was to be held again in the next years. A local event or freeride event. Not the Nationals.

In my opinion there shouldnt be any comps that are rider judged when national titles are on the line. There should be a dedicated judging panel. It would make it fair for everybody, theres no bias and doing so would probably spark up more interest/entries from the other serious riders in NZ.

Yes I agree 100% and it appears you guys from the Mount made a joke out of rider judging so its not likely to happen again.
Voting for your team riders that weren't even competing is a bit obvious isn't it ?????????

I'm sure that getting judges who are not aligned in the industry would be the way to go,,,,,,,,,

So it will be interesting to see how it all develops .

And don't go getting all bitter and twisted,,,,,,,,just telling it like it was 8)