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Chris Norris
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Member Profiles
Burkhard "Boogie" Vierth
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Chris "Woo" Norris
Mark and Simone Hollenstein
Chris Norris
Jan 2004
Name:
Age:
Born in:
Grew up:
Lives in:
Occupation:
Years sailing:
Spot sailed mostly:
Favourite spots:
-greater Wellington:
- in New Zealand:
- globally:
Favourite move:
Favourite food:
Favourite music:
My surf van is a:
My equipment:
Other activities:
Disciplines:Chris "Woo" Norris
37
Wellington
Eastbourne
Central Wellington
Ownes a barbershop
23 years
Plimmerton
Tora
Tora
Hookipa
big clean backloop
any pasta
Jazz, blues, techno
Subaru Legacy GT s/wag
paraponting, MTB, surfing, wakeboarding, waterskiing, skiing, modelgliding
Wave Sailing, Slalom, Freestyle,
The questions:
My first time: (windsurfing !?!?!)
Eastbourne Yacht Club on an "open day". Sailed on a "Comet" back in ~1975 at 12 years of age. Inspired by father. Didnt have another go at it for the next 5 years after that.Best windsurfing experience:
Just getting fully planning for the first time.Worst windsurfing experience:
Lyall Bay 1996. Big swell, 3.7m2 weather. Wind died out, got cought in the middle of the impact zone which was quite a way out due to huge swell. A massive set cleaned me up and mastfoot broke. Lost board, lost rig, thought would drown. Rig sank to the bottom of the ocean, board got swept to beach. Rig was equipped with a brand new carbon boom, and is probably still out there somewhere !!What fascinates you the most about windsurfing?
The thrill of speed and the freedom with no noise involved.How do you see the sport of windsurfing developing in the future:
Like skateboarding, good sports never die out. They have revivals and always come back strong. I reckon there will be heaps of young poeple getting into the sport and pushing it to new limits. Windsurfing is becoming very popular again. It's just the best sport there is out there. Better marketing of the sport in general which can be seen these days through retailers, websites and other occasions, the sport will establish itself strongly once again. There will be more racing and wave events and contests. The biggest future lies within the freeride - race and wavesailing. For the windsurfing addict who wants to sail all the time, they complement each other perfectly, despite being at the opposite ends of the sport. In my opinion, it helps being active in all aspects of windsurfing and helps me improve my sailing. Racing helps my wavesailing, and vice versa.Something to say to all other windsurfers out there ?
See you at Tora !!Woo in his younger days could be described as a typical Eastbourne boy, growing up near the beach, and hence the unavoidable contact with surfing and later windsurfing did take place. Woo recalls his first "windsurfing" attempts at the age of 8 years when he sat on a 9'6 surfboard, paddled upwind into the northerly, then kneeled on the surfboard, opend up the umbrella he had with him and "sailed" back. At about 17 years of age, his friend Alan Bud, owned a "Seaskate", which was the first windurfer money could buy in New Zealand in those days. After Woo was able to borrow it off him for a while, he was already hooked, and worked at his fathers friends factory all summer in order to buy himself also a Seaskate complete with rig for $ 950 off Barton Marine. Woo has been sailing on and off since then, only interrupted by a couple of years overseas. Even after all these years, Woo would have to be one of the keenest sailors out there, and after sailing many international top spots, he still rates Wellington spots as right up there with the rest. You will see Woo out on the beach pretty much every time its windy (which is a hell of a lot in Wellington), and if its not really windy, watch out for a pretty quick guy on course gear in the Ditch.
Woo is also quite competitive and has taken part in many windsurfing events in New Zealand. In jumping-oriented wavesailing events, he is a top contender on national level, and his course racing ability is just coming through now. After only seriously course racing for 2 years, he came 11th overall at the 2000 racing nationals on the South Island.
One handed shove-it ?? Whatarangi point. photo by Carmen Sulzberger
>Typical Woo big backloop, his favourite move. photo by Carmen Sulzberger
Big forward. Photo by Carmen Sulzberger
Woo and mark at the ditchWoo's sailnumber is NZL 300 and he is sponsored by Boardriders, North Sports and Carbon Art.
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