he Nautiques New Zealand
Wakeboard Nationals went off at
Lake Crichton (Just south of 22nd23rd March.
T
compete again in the LCQ’s the following
morning. On the day the riders that made
the cut were Brad Smeele, Nik Gibson,
Darren Bishop and David Stubbs.
Things got started on Friday morning with
a rider briefing before moving straight into
qualifying rounds. The weather was a little
blowy on day one as the winds howled
across the Canterbury plains, although
as fortune had it, the cross wind didn’t
present much of a problem for any of the
riders.
Day 2 got started with the Open Men’s
LCQ’s, and the conditions couldn’t have
been better. The wind had dropped, the
water was glassy flat, and the Super Air
220 was loaded. After a close fought
battle between 2 or 3 riders the top 2 to
advance to join the finals line up were
Josh O’Connell and Guy Robinson.
The standard of riding was high across
all divisions, with a good number of riders
making the trek down from the North
Island to get their name on the National
rankings sheet! Day 1 concluded with
the Open Men’s battle to qualify for the
final, with 4 riders taking a direct route
to the final, and all other riders having to
Things then moved on to Finals time!
First up was the Groms, with a close field
of young rippers the judging was tight,
but Sophie Gallon came out on top on
the day! Next up was Junior boy’s which
was again a hotly contested division,
Francesco Hazelwood pulling everything
he had out the bag to take the win.
This left only the Men’s, Open Women’s
and Open Men’s to go! And despite
the wind starting to pick up a little, the
conditions were still good, and riders
amping to get out on the water.
and Charlotte going hard, and throwing it
down - like Charlotte’s huge toeside front
roll out to the flats to take the title.
In the men’s division James Tinget
stepped up to take the win with a huge
bag of tricks, well worth of the automatic
upgrade to Open Men’s for next years
nationals.
The Open women’s division was
unfortunately a bit small this year with
only 2 riders (so if your reading this,
wondering why you didn’t enter - you
could have take home 3rd in NZ just by
entering!) But that didn’t stop Sophie
Edition 7
Page Fifteen
Junior women’s saw some fresh faces to
the line up, Morgan Haakma defended
her title to take the crown again!
Junior Men’s was the division everybody
had their eye on, especially the Open
Men rider’s, as they know that these
juniors are coming for them in years to
come! To say the battle for 1st and 2nd
was close would be an understatement.
Regan and Theo pulled out every trick
they had, but in the end Regan pulled
ahead to take the title again for 2013.
Do we need to cover veterans? Gavin
Broadbent yet again bought out the
hammers and stuck a perfect stand up 2
passes to take the win yet again! (How
many is it now?)
A huge congratulations to everyone
who entered; and to the Wakeboard NZ
committee for putting on the event, which
was organised from their home in the
This left only the open men to run, and
North Island, so its a huge mission to
with Brad Smeele being injured for the
put an event on so far away. The local
2012 nationals all eyes were on him and
crowd’s wern’t huge, but its important to
Nik Gibson to see who would come out
remember that the scene in Christchurch
on top. Darren Bishop put a Y