In the year of the Christchurch hosted NZ Kiteboard Nationals the locals asked for more competition, so here it is - the Canterbury Kite Champs 2009. Jan 24-25, at the Christchurch Estuary Windsurf Area...

Results can be found at http://www.cwa.org.nz/

John.

Registration
Meet at the Estuary Windsurf Area from 9am Saturday. Everyone gets CWA membership, so all riders are deemed to be involved in the running of the event. We are doing this for fun not profit.

CWA Member $20, Junior $10
Non-Member $50, Junior $30 (includes CWA membership)

Format
Depending on the weather, the precise format (and location) will be decided on the day. The plan is to get everyone pumped with some tunes on the P/A for an expression session, then depending on the wind we'll hold a series of 8 minute heats (10 minutes if the wind is light) to find the Canty Kite Champ in four different categories: Open, Women, Juniors (<19 on Jan 1), and Legends (40+).

Winners get to choose something from the prize pool, while the title of Canterbury Champ goes to the highest placed Canterbury Resident. A panel of judges will award points for style, power, technical difficulty, and consistency, and whatever else takes their fancy. There may also be awards for biggest air, best trick, best dressed (accessorise!), worst wipeout, and even some border cross racing.

BBQ (Underground Sausage Sizzle) and Prize giving
BBQ Saturday night, including prize giving if we have results, otherwise prizegiving will be on Sunday. Venue TBA.

Media/Communications
If you have any questions please call Blair Cooke on 027 601 4404 or John Thyne on 027 445 7008. Links to pictures from the event will go up on http://www.cwa.org.nz as they become available.

Safety
You are responsibile for your own actions. Please read the safety information, and act safely at all times. Stay aware of others, help each other out, and above all enjoy the event.

Latest programme from Cookie...

Saturday

reg from 9 @ estuary

riders meeting 11

wave contest from 11.30 to 1.30 at south brighton

exp sesson 1.30 to 2.00 pooie

freestyle 2.15 till late

bbq party at scotty's

Sunday

wave 2 and maybe big air at beach

11.30 to 2 at south brighton

freestyle con or big air or boarderX

prize giving at ale house 6 - 6.30

I don't think the conditions could have been much better? (or worse for that matter? )

For those that didn't attend. The day started very calm. But whipped up to 20+knots after lunchtime.

At least Bri(ana) was enthusiastic about taking it to the boys in the big air jam ...

<a href="flickr.com/photos/11719003@N07/sets/7215...69/"><img src="farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3222278042_bfb51c0ae2.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="bri"></a>

Will edit/sort/delete the rest and add to gallery later.
/edit.. and done. Click image or here

Hi all - Well as Oblivian said, the conditions were great - and afforded some great photo ops..

I took just over a thousand shots, discarded 620, 320 were ok so live on my HDD, and 120 were good enough to process and put up...

Those ones are available here...

www.nzsnaps.com/gallery/7173804_dyhwC#460556163_czmjd

After lots of requests (primarily from Mountainbikers), I have added a paypal system so that you can buy the 1 and 4mp digital images in $NZD. Just use the buttons on the orange panel below the pic... If the pic you choose has been cropped to less than 4mp and you choose that option, I'll do a second one free... But you can check the image parameters yourself on the site

Cheers - Neil Gardner
www.nzsnaps.com

Ding Ding! round 2..

The beach saw the late night recovery troops start to arrive around 12 to Light conditions where only the brave survived.

3ish come the call to push back to the pooey for awesome expressin session conditions that dropped to light wind and what I called 'extreme yoda'. 1 trick, 1 shot. Made for nice close to the beach shots tho

<a href="www.flickr.com/photos/11719003@N07/3225225320/" title="IMG_2112 by Oblivian_nz, on Flickr"><img src="farm4.static.flickr.com/3098/3225225320_cbdb1cae8f_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="IMG_2112"></a>

Coldies in the shade, while the girls got their tan on
<a href="www.flickr.com/photos/11719003@N07/3225225712/" title="IMG_2113 by Oblivian_nz, on Flickr"><img src="farm4.static.flickr.com/3374/3225225712_e34cbdecd3_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="IMG_2113"></a>

I hope the background clutter was co-incidental... Not my fault the lens is so obvious..
<a href="www.flickr.com/photos/11719003@N07/3225225974/" title="IMG_2118_1 by Oblivian_nz, on Flickr"><img src="farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/3225225974_225d99a31b_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="IMG_2118_1"></a>

<a href="www.flickr.com/photos/11719003@N07/3225232784/" title="IMG_2237_2 by Oblivian_nz, on Flickr"><img src="farm4.static.flickr.com/3368/3225232784_6b5b6b54be.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_2237_2"></a>

Nice Oblivion, some really cool shots in there.

Ta.

Have to try similar with you lads next time I spot you at the beach on the boards.

OOO im keen for that. Kitesports challenge is next month. Lets pray for wind for that and hopefully we can get something in before that!

8) Looking forward to it. A big thanks to all the competitors who made for an awesome Saturday. Ants, you kicked ass, keep it up mate.