Western Circuit Review and Championship rankings.

2010 western Circuit Points Champs

1 Perrin Melchior 40 pts
2 Craig Hansen 24
3 Al Noblet 14
4= Dave Morgan 6
4= Joe Steffert 6
5 Peter Foulkes 5
6 Thomas Martin 3
7 David Plumtree 2
8= Wayne Carkeek 1
8= Aaron Rhodes 1



The Western Circuit is a series of Kite Buggy meetings held on the West Coast of the North Island with a couple of excursions east over the years. Over the years Boarders have joined us and there are often stunters and single line kites flown over the weekend.

The series has been active since 1995. The first proper buggy jam was held at the 1995 Raglan festival of Kites with a sunset jam on Raglan Beach followed by a session at Ruapuke Beach. The first official meet was the Blue balls Buggy Bash in July 1995 followed by the Mighty Muriwai Moose meet in Nov 95. These events have been held annually celebrating 16 years in 2010.
1996 saw the Foxton Fetish Fly in Paraparaumu and a 5 day Beach crawl on the way to the NZKA convention in Taranaki. Western Circuit riders organised a NZKA sanctioned NZ champs at the convention. 1997 saw another raglan Festival of kites and the Foxton Fetish moved to Waikawa. 1998 had another 5 day crawl and a new event the Taranaki Toast. 1998 started with a 90 beach journey and a fantastic Baileys Beach buggy Bash. 1999 had a nother Baileys event and a trip to Tauranga for the Muddy Moose meet. 1999 was the first year we camped up at Moose land.

We had regular racing in 95 through to 98. There was a western circuit kitesport championship in 1997 and 98 that featured competition in single line kites, stunt kites and buggies. From 1999 competition died away.
With renewed interest in racing we had a couple of impromptu races in 2009. Craig Hansen won both and was declared the 09 Western Circuit Champion. 2010 saw an outlaw race meet in January followed by points racing at the blue Balls in August and the Moose in October. Apart from this years event in Raglan racing has never been the overriding reason for organising our events. We had many great years of just riding great beaches with our buddies and even in the years with racing there has been plenty of jamming and some folks have chosen not to compete. If people want to race we will provide a course and a score keeper. If no one is keen we can just jam. And hopefully most of the time we can do both.


2010
We started the year with a non points round in Raglan followed by points rounds in August at the Blue Balls and in October at the Moose. We hosted rider s from Dunedin, Ashburton, Nelson, Wellington, Ohakune, New Plymouth, Napier, Hamilton, Raglan, Auckland and Northland and one from Switzerland. We also had a lone boarder competing with the buggies. If there are 3 boards we will run a board race but as it was he managed some great results and even won the run off against the tail enders at Raglan.

Raglan had fantasic weather with strong winds and 82kph the fastest on the first day. We flew from 10am to 9pm and had an amazing selection of old and new kites out.
Race day started hot and still. A light sea breeze kicked it and we had a very cool 20km race. The south island crew kicked ass. People came from far and wide and a few new faces showed up to get beaten by the king. Craig Hansen turned up to Raglan with a programme and it showed. A lot of the crew showed up in holiday mode and got caught out by a guy who had prepared and spent 11 hrs day before learning the beach. Wayne got bragging rights for first amateur home and everybody seemed to have fun.

The Blue Balls was in August with one day in Kawhia and one in Raglan. The first day it poured with rain and we spent as much time in a wee tent as e did with a kite in our hands. Thomas Martin from Wellington had a great bit of pace when Jamming around but Perrin managed the win on a very soggy race course. Lots of fun. Not so much kiting. A very slow race.
Day 2 in Raglan and it turned on. Nice sunshine, plenty of wind and a hard beach. We had another race this time at full speed. A great day and we got the reward for putting up with a wet 1st day.

The Moose meet Ended up being 6 days of kiting. Deano turned up on Wednesday and had several days of hardcore board action. Gannet and Plummet raced Thursday and Friday in a 24 hr Kitebike vs Landboard challenge. Both got World records Plummet Won. Friday was had a moderate wind and 5 guys nuked the beach. We moved the camp and had a whole bunch of dunes most people had not ridden. We had racing on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. A bit light in the Mornings but it filled in in the afternoon and the patient were rewarded. 3 nights around the campfire was very nice and the new camp worked out well. Perrin got his programme together andf kicked everyone in the racing. Although Joe Steffert passed him in the sprint.


2011
Next year we are hoping for 4 events. The Blue Balls and the moose are certain. Also there will most probably be a meet in Taranaki Jan 29.30 / 2011 and maybe Foxton. There will be racing and you can drop one round so you only need 3 round for the points champs. It doesn't matter if you compete or not. Please join us on our fantastic beaches for some fun in the wind.

very cool write up

i had a borrowed kite for every single race , actually it was the same kite , Petes Yak 7.3

i now have a love / hate relationship with that kite ! How i managed to drop the kite at every turn and still come 4th out of 13 is still beyond me , i guess its a very fast unstable kite !!

PERRIN, PERRIN PERRIN