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2010 KITESPORTS Challenge 6-7th March
2010 Canterbury Champs winner Anthony Hopkins with Tim from Kitesports- Ant's sponsors, Ocean Rodeo & Underground
Ant in action 23-24th Jan
17m Zephyr in action...
WANAKITE 09
Kitesurf trip to Peru
KITESPORTS Challenge 28th Feb & 1st March
5-8th Feb NZ Nationals
2008 Taranaki Wave Nats
Wanakite pics...
6, 7, 8th June 08
8th March 2008
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2011 WANAKITE Snowkite Freeride
We'll be celebrating more than 10 years of snowkiting here in NZ. Friends & freeriders from all over coming together to share the stoke! Gotta love it!
party location TBA
WINTER IS HERE! Snow to Canterbury hills at the end of June was a great opportunity for the SNOWKITE NZ team to get out snowkiting & try out the new 2011 Ozone AccessXT range of snow kites. The light winds were fun on the fresh foot of powder snow, plus we had a bit of fun blasting out the cobwebs on our Skidoo snowmobile...towing behind the sled & setting up kickers & sliders will be a blast this winter if we ever get caught short of wind! video here.. The NZ Mountain Film Festival was held in Wanaka the first week of July, SNOWKITE NZ was there talking up the sport with newcomers & locals amped on the new season & what it holds! We hit up Queenstown too & were well received by locals keen try this insanely fun & accessible kite sport... more soon.
KITESPORTS CHALLENGE 2011 As you probably heard, Christchurch had a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on February 22nd 2011. The central city basically colapsed, killing 182 people, injuring many more & pretty much stuffing up alot of homes & businesses all around. This in turn has killed our local kite spots through polution into the water ways. Waikuku beach north of Christchurch has been our saviour, whether for kiting, surfing or just a place to chill away from the depressing sights within our city...The annual KS Challenge was postponed because of this until things started to settle down in our city. Camping at Waikuku sounded like a great idea, wind or no wind it was going to be a fun weekend! The Friday we arrived we were very lucky to get very strong winds, & big swell for great kitesurf action, it was like people from town were arriving in shifts, kiting till they dropped then bailing home...we camped out after kiting till sunset:-) Saturday went NW & gusty, lots were keen to get out on buggys in the wide expanse of the sand spit, plus many more having a go in the off shore swell. SUP was the main attraction once the wind died & the calm day we had Sunday. Great turn out from kiters all over the south island, it's always great to meet new people & share the stoke! Hopefully we'll get some buggy racing next year at our local South Brighton spot:-)
Canterbury Kiteboarding Champs 29-30th January 2011 The low down: Pre-registrations for this years event got numbers up to 45, mostly from Canterbury, but also including 21 riders from other parts of New Zealand. Including riders from other regions has always been the priority of the ‘Canterbury Windsports Association’ so as to raise the level of riding in Canterbury & give competitors a chance to mix it up with the more experienced & even Pro riders like Marc Jacobs & Torrin Bright! As a warm up to the main freestyle events we held a ‘Slider Jam’ freeride session at the Estuary on Friday night. The Nor-east winds were very good on Friday & gave riders a taste of the superb conditions Christchurch has to offer. Southerly winds on Saturday had us take the competition out to Lake Ellesmere, this spot works well in all winds & has always played a major part in Christchurch running successful events. We started freestyle heats but the increasing wind in the early afternoon of 30-40 knots has us stop the freestyle because of safety reasons. Riders were still able to go out & jump big, so we held a Hangtime & kite loop expression session. This style of big powered jumps was a hit with spectators & really shows the true potential of the riders & the equipment, even in very strong winds! In the evening we had a big crew at Winnie Bagoes Ferrymead & had a great night. A dying easterly wind on Sunday with Norwest change in the afternoon had us head back to Lake Ellesmere. Mid afternoon the wind kicked in & we were able to complete all freestyle rounds.. the Junior & Open semi’s & finals were greatly contested! Dash for $1000 cash, sponsored by ‘Sport Canterbury’ followed & was the last event of the competition. We had a race boat start & all competitors had to race around marks & back to the finish line. It was quite spectacular to see the 25 kites & windsurfer racing head to head with a very close finish at the end. Prize giving followed at the Ferry Ale House. Thanks to our SPONSORS:
Canterbury Windsports Association Canterbury Open 1.Jackson Mills,2.Martin Harris,3.Aaron Smith Canterbury Juniors 1.Jackson Mills,2.Anthony Hopkins Canterbury Womens 1.Kim Bunt,2.Joanna Brody Canterbury Masters 1.Tom Cook,2.Blair Cooke,3.Karl Soulos Canterbury Legends 1.Mike Dibb,2.Jason Tweedie Open 1.MarcJacobs,2.TorrinBright,3.Geoffrey Waterson Naish Junior Title 1.JacksonMills, 2.FergusRobertson, 3.Joel Savage Womens 1.Anderson Romero,2.Su Kay,3.Kim Bunt Masters 1.Tom Cook,2.Olly Brunton,3.Hugh Pinfold Legends 1.Glenn Bright,2.Richard Burgin,3.Mal Porter Sport Canterbury Dash for $1000 cash 1.Chris Dimock $500 (windsurf) 2.Hugh Pinfold $300 (kitesurf) 3.Blake Porter $200 (kitesurf) We also had other categories for those riders who stood out during the weekends kiteboarding action: Hangtime Big Air 1.Torrin Bright,2.Blake Porter,3.Su Kay Most Improved Sam Geary Worst Wipeout Craig Knights,Fergus Robertson,Olly Brunton Best Kite loop Brendan Laughlan, Olly & Joel synchronised
Best Dressed Kim, Ariana, Joanna, Cookie & Gretchen A great time was had by all. A big thanks to the organisers & helpers for your tireless effort & our sponsors who got in behind the Canterbury Kiteboarding Champs with some great prizes! Tim Stockman
WANAKITE 28th August-5th Sept. Just returned from a fantastic week of snowkiting in Wanaka...a big crew from all over New Zealand came to experience how epic the snowkiting is down here...the first day we had light winds & sunshine, still the kites came out & people were stoked as it is all about just being here! It was great to have Gavin from Ashburtons Peter Lynn Kite factory along for the week, as his skidoo was workin hard getting the troops around the hill. Day 2 we hit Cadrona across the valley. Lost in cloud & still light winds the riding was difficult for most & the deep fresh snow made the leg burn kick in early...funnily enough Paul my instructor was having a great time back at Snowfarm getting a group of newcomers stoked on our sport! Day 3 our mission was to hit The Old Man Range out of Alexander...this proved a mission for me as I have quite a bit of running around to do before I could even get to that hill...but getting another newcomer stoked on his new kite then venturing high into the range late in the day made it all worth while...thick cloud came in then more snow so we gathered all the troops together & headed for home. I must admit, kiting the Old Man Range was certainly an experience, vast terrain & huge pillars of stone out of the snow, fantastic! Back at Snowfarm for day 4, Gav got everyone to the Bob Lee Hutt for another session...another light one but still quite a few kiting round. Weds & Day 5 the wind was a perfect blue bird NW & building...kiting from the carpack at Snowfarm, great snow & kites for Africa...kited to the top of the Pisa with a big crew, infact kited till my legs were wrecked!!! A keen team booking themselves in for a night at the Bob Lee...overnight the winds got real strong, our team made the call to hit Cardrona, & oh yeah, it was good:-) The weeks many snow falls had given us light & fluffy half metre of the good stuff in which to play...which we did till late in the day! A snowy Friday & day 7 was up to Snowfarm in a gusty westerly as Cardys was shut...funnily enough the riding was still good & plenty of fun things to jump off, boost & carve round...Day 8 & the teams were split between Cardys for an early morning session & Snowfarm for an epic afternoon sess...4 of our keen Christchurch/Dunedin bunch hailing to kite both hills in one day, & slay them they did! Day 9...50 knots at 7am, good day to drive for home I think as thoughts strayed to family & friends in the midst of the Christchurch earthquake the day before...Gav did manage to put as kite up though, he reckons he was underpowered on his 1.5m!
12th August- Myself, Nico, & Alex headed for a day trip to Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand...forecast strong Norwest winds!
30th July- New snow late last week freshened up things for snowkiting in Wanaka this week:-) We had a magic session Monday at Cardrona with sweet dry powder, new students picking up the sport really fast & strong winds that made for great riding! Monday night it snowed 10-20cm... so we were back at Cardrona with a really strong Westerly! Once the cloud cleared we had another blue bird day & our students on their second day were really getting around well on the low aspect powder terrain below the carpark... Myself & the others who were riding their found areas of of fresh well over knee deep & relished how prefect a days kiting it was...everyone was totally exhausted from such an epic day:-P Wednesday, Paul was back up there teaching, getting travelling kiters all sorted for on the snow..good job! 10 July- We've had great Snowkite sessions every week at Cardrona & Snowfarm so far this season! The new snow from 2 weeks back is still in great condition...wow! We are now starting to get a flow of students through the kite school & people seem to be picking the sport up really fast:-) With the school holidays we even had some young students through, 11 & 13 years, and yes, kids pick things up real quick! Getting lots of comments that people are loving the space & freedom back country has to offer...no queues, powder that lasts..and yet all so accessible!! 20th June-Snowfarm snowkiting is Epic! Just returned from two days snowkiting at Snowfarm in the Cardrona Valley...Thursday we were supposed to be travelling straight to Queenstown to set up the new Kite shop in Q'town Mall, but I just thought we'd drive through the Cardrona Valley rather than take the short route (just wanted to have a look:-) we parked up by the access road at Cardrona Ski Resort.. looking up there was a nice we breeze blowing in from the NW...so, not much thought needed, just to get up there & check out the conditions! On arrival at the Snowfarm Lodge Carpark it was a bit cloudy, but about 15 knots NW:-) The Norwest wind is the best you get, perfect for exploring ALL the terrain available (& there's alot of it:-) snow had a very slight crust but more than 20cm & quite dry once you were walking round, & knee deep in the bowls:-) With a van load of new Ozone kite gear, mostly all to set up the new shop & school I broke out a 2010 10m Ozone AccessXT...Paul & Manu started the short snowshoe assault to the next hill where we teach... within minutes I'd rigged & launched the 10m by the carpack & made my way across. This is the best foil I've flown, heaps of power & so lively & easy to turn & loop..looping or underlooping the kite while ascending a hill being the easiest way to get maximum power out of your kite with least effort:-) Ripping round the untracked hills, boosting & throwing down some tricks...this was too good (and this is Ozones entry level depower foil kite:-) I soon passed the 10m over to Paul who kitesurfs but never snowkited before, he was away straight off! Spending a bit of time at the learners spot with Manu we quickly progressed from the 3.5m IMP Trainer kite to the much more powerful 8m Ozone AccessXT, both these kites she got going on, which was pretty cool as she'd never snowboarder before either:-) The 8m was great for her though as harnessed in she could pull herself up onto her feet & get going UP the hill, then turning & coming back down:-) all she needs now is a couple of days mastering her board skills at a ski resort:-) I sessioned the 8m afterwards while riding with Mark & Jo, EPIC kite, so much fun!!! Friday was very windy, probably 25-30 knots, myself & Mike Holland had a good session in the afternoon...late drive home for us, but everyone on a high:-) Back into it next week! KITESPORTS Challenge March 2010 RESULTS: Buggy 8km Time Trial: 1st Craig Knights (10.09), 2nd Kirk Hansen (10.12) Wave Master Mens: Blair Cooke Wave Master Womans: Kim Bunt, Landboard Freestyle & Best Dressed: Mason Griffiths, Fastest Landboard over 8km: 1st Jo Scorgie (13.23) 2nd Mason (13.27) Retro Blast & Hardout: Roy from Nelson Fantastic weekend! Thanks to all that came & enjoyed the great riding!
In association with our windsports club here in Christchurch the CWA www.cwa.org.nz we are again running the annual Kitesports Challenge this weekend the 6-7th March. 2010 Canterbury Kiteboarding Champs
This year the prevailing southerly winds in Canterbury had us take the competition out to Lake Ellesmere Domain. For both days we had great riding & winds gusting from 10-30 knots. This made for high adrenalin competition in all classes, with 34 competitors. The teenagers were the show stoppers this season with Anthony Hopkins, 15 years from Linwood dominating the competition & taking out the Canterbury title plus the Junior titles. Brianna Boyd also from ChCh won the title for the Canterbury Womans division. It was great to get such a high level of talent from all over New Zealand attend, especially Marc Jacobs, NZ Champion! Organised by 'Canterbury Windsports Association' committee members Blair Cooke & Tim Stockman, this annual event never fails to get a good result here in Christchurch, which was also the location for the very successful 2009 Kiteboarding Nationals. OZONE Zephyr Review- I had the pleasure recently of getting a 2010 Ozone Zephyr 17m SLE kite sent to me from Matt Taggart, Ozone owner, for demo purposes here in Christchurch. Unfortunately October was not a month for good weather as it normally would be, with endless cold days of rain & even snow! This is normally what we get in August, but apparently October was the coldest on record for the region in over 50 years! I had only a few opportunities to test the new kite, making sure others had the chance to demo also... As the advertising says, you can certainly get riding in 6-8 knots on a normal size board (mine a 131x40) maintaining upwind reasonably easily, even able to do small jump transitions & maintain a good plane. If your on a surfboard in the waves, certainly enough power to carve up a small swell:-) My best day was when we had it out at our local flat water spot, The Estuary. The wind was 8-10 knots for hours with heaps of crew about. Many riders trying, & floundering in the light breeze on thier regular kites. Wee Kim, all 45kgs of her & a 10m SLE kite, & myself 85kgs & 17m in hand were the only ones out riding hard...nice big jumps, transitions, & even powered kite loops, & sooo good for unhooking...man, I had the biggest grin on my face for such light wind conditions:-) So...I had to pass the kite round, to share the stoke, & for others to see how easy this beast was to fly! As for Kimmy, she reckoned it was a grovel for her on her 10m, but she could see I was having fun... later in the afternoon the wind finally kicked in, 16-18 knots. All of a sudden there were 25-30 kites on the water, riders ripping it up.. I thought I'd try out the upper end of the 17m, so out I went again. The light, yet positive feel on the bar made me feel like I was flying a much smaller kite...the grin came back, no need to change down in kite sizes, just keep on flying...into the evening I jumped onto Scotty's wake skate, having an awesome time coming to grips with that & nailing shovits & other wee tech tricks.. I was just about the last one off the water, & 6 hours at the Estuary... Good on ya Ozone for making such great kit! Next, bring on the C4...I can't wait!
CHINA COMP- China has just held it's 1st International kitesurf Comp on 21-23rd August at Bohai Bay in Binhai, Weifang. It all happened real fast, my involvement started 7 weeks prior as event director, working with organisers in Weifang China. All the wind seemed to be in the days leading up to the event, but even so a result was achieved...
WANAKITE- Thanks to everyone involved with the 2009 Wanakite Snowkite Freeride, it was an epic week of high wind snowkite action & freshies for everyone who ventured high into the Pisa range on Saturday for some of the best snowkiting ever! It was however difficult catching up with everyone who was there, as we were spread out & with so muching kiting, leaves not much energy for socialising... May 2009- Myself & Cookie took off to the North Coast of Peru for all of May to escape the harsh Christchurch weather that usually leads winter...sounds like we missed the worst storms that May has dished out in years. I am certainly impressed by the snow cover on my return. We had a mission, to kitesurf the famous long lefts at as many places as possible while making our way up 1000km of coast anyway we could, all we had were our kites & strapless surfboards...bus, tuktuk, taxi, or donkey...from Lima to Mancora, eventually catching the Wanaka crew who gave us the heads up on the trip. After a blow out in Lima we headed north to Huanchaco...not much wind but good times, nice surf...then we hooked up with a surf tour & headed for Chicama, the longest lefthand point break in the world. On arrival the wind was howling through, quite offshore, blowing through the desert off a high cliff...standing on the beach it seemed sideshore-ish, but we're use to difficult conditions, so we both rigged 10m kites. Had three sessions over that day, all high octane, pumped when we got a long ride of 100-300m. Definately a heads up for things to come. We surfed over the next couple of days while checking out other possible spots...we then headed up the road to Pacasmayo...here we found wave kiters heaven, everyday was windy, everyday a wave to play, the kites most used over the week we spent here, 8m & 10m, with swell up to 2m. Here with much cleaner wind, you could ride one wave for over a kilometre! We'd been emailing Mark from team Wanaka, they'd been getting riding in, all their trip via the local guides they'd hooked up with. We decided to head to Mancora as we heard Lobitos was a place we had to go...we got the overnight bus to Mancora, small sleep then off in a van with the crew of Mark, Jo, Kirsten & Whitney, plus our guide Inigo. The waves were small, but soon the wind came in & the waves picked up, fun day at Lobitos. The second day we went back to Lobitos & did a downwinder, along the way we struck a nice big rocky out crop point break called Baterious. We made our way to Lobitos beach & kited & surfed all afternoon. After a couple of days at Mancora Beach kiting & relaxing myself & Cookie were itching to get back to Lobitos, so when we finally got there we spent a few days kiting & stayed while a good swell kicked in... was a fun wave to kite, powerful, fast & barrelling the whole way down the beach. Towards the end of our trip we headed back to Pacasmayo for three more good days of kiting, then started our journey home. Peru was a great place to ride waves, nice people, consistent weather, a really fun trip. Looking forward to returning...next time though I want to know more Spanish!
3 March 2009
RESULTS: SPONSORS: A big thanks to Peter Lynn Kites, DAKINE, Stance DVD Mag, RUCK JACK, Watershed Bar, & The Bach Bar If anyone wants a Tee or Hoodie of the event, just email me tim@kitesports.co.nz within the next couple of days... We had great conditions last weekend for the NZ Kiteboarding Nationals here in Christchurch. Sixty or more riders from all over NZ came to battle it out for titles in the Juniors, Womens, Open, Masters, & Legends divisions. For 2009 the level of riding has never been higher, with International Pro rider from Tauranga Mark Jacobs taking out the 'open' title. KITESPORTS & OCEAN RODEO team rider Anthony Hopkins placing third in the Juniors amongst a very high level of Junior competition...Dave Kay took out 1st in the 'Masters' & Karl Soulos 2nd, both riding OCEAN RODEO Rise kites! We had great support from the Christchurch business community, City Council & CWA club...for details of results & sponsors please go to event website www.kiteboarding.org.nz
TARANAKI WAVE EVENT November 08...When I heard that there was going to be a wave event in Taranaki I new I had to be there. It was seven years since I kited that rocky coastline on the North Island westcoast & I have distinctive memories about the huge surf & the strong cross off shore easterly winds. I drove up from Christchurch with John Thyne & Craig Knights. It's a big day but with our midnight start from ChCh & first light ferry crossing we were looking for kiting spots along the westcoast road from mid am. Not much wind as we drove north but by mid afternoon we'd made New Plymouth & there was a steady seabreeze at Eastern beach. We have a fun time riding in the light winds & very small surf. Later we headed back to Okura & 'The Wave Haven', the backpackers where Sam was hidding out. The next day we met up with everyone at the Eastern Surf Club for a briefing, was looking like a freeride day as no particular call was made & local leaving us with a split decision....Kina Road South Taranaki...light wind & waves, or, hang at the surf club, no waves, little wind.....no choice really, I'll take my chances on the 45min drive & the chance of a wave.... We weren't to be disapointed, over head high surf & sideshore wind from the south about 15-18 knots....Big Grins! Those that kited this day were pretty stoked....Sam won the wave non-event for the day in my book, but we all had fun, sore feet from walking over all the rocks at low tide though. That night we had tickets to see a band in Openake, just up the road. This turned into one huge night......the next day we woke to a rustle in the trees & an early call that we were all meeting at Kina Road & starting the wave comp from 11am.....The conditions back at Kina Rd were great, side onshore wind with a nice wee wave, already plenty of people out kiting. I had a sore head from a big night, but was keen to go riding...once on the water the head cleared. All the heats went well & I think most were pretty pleased with the conditions. By mid afternoon Kina Rd was getting pretty rocky, riders were struggling getting in & out through the minefield so they left it at that & those that wanted to headed south for waveriding from the sandy beach just south. That night at the event party the riders who made it through the heats were called out. There were some who didn't make it through, that probably should have, but the rider judging made for a tough & not necessarily fair decision, especially since the condition were small for Taranaki standards. The next day there was wind, cross off this time, still for the north. The waves had all but gone, just a few set waves whipped up at times. My heat was lame, but still enjoyed the riding, as it was hard to find a wave on lake Taranaki....Those that made it through deserved it! The finals saw the swell build & the men & woman all compete in true style...the results were deserved also. Jamie Barrow taking it, & Laura Adams top female. Great event, great fun! Lets see more surfboards on the water next year:-)
WANAKITE Late August 2008 June 08 Wanaka Trip. Last weekend four of us decided to get an early snowkite session in in Wanaka. Myself, John Thyne, Sam the Pom, & Genis the Spanish. Forecast- Galeforce winds ALL weekend!!!....oh shit! plus a bit of fresh pow pow at some point.....good enough for us I thought We arrived very late Thursday night, the updated forecast for Friday was 120km/hr winds NW, the snow from Tues...was rained on:-( We headed up to Snowfarm early, about 10ish....the snow was thin, & the wind was strong 20-30knots....I wasn't that keen to get out of the van even, but we new we had to test the conditions, you don't come all this way to sit on your ass when its blowing. John (who's always keen) was first in his gear, the other two followed....then me.
Once we got across to the next hill which is a bit higher, straight in front of the main carpark, it was obvious the snow was OK, softening nicely in the very windy but sunny NW day. We all rigged small kites...I was now very excited, cool sounds blasting on my ipod, I new what we were in for |
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