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Events Easbourne Fundays Free Wave Series Taranaki Wave Classic Wairarapa Trip Reports 2006 March Funday Reports 2005 Freewave Reports 2004 Freewave Reports 2003 Freestyle Champs Auckland Race Series Freewave Taranaki Wave Classic Reports 2002 Freestyle Champs Slalom Champs South Island Cup Taranaki Wave Classic Australia Formula Nationals NZ Race Nationals Reports 2001 Freestyle Champs Slalom Champs Freestyle Clinc NZ Race Nationals South Island Cup Reports 2000 North Island Cup

29.10.02  Taranaki Wave Classic report  What a fantastic event this was! Although the wind was up and down during the majority of event days, it was enough to provide 2 solid days of competition for the participants. The first day of competition took place at Waitara in a gusty 15 kn SW with some nice swells rolling through. The large contingent of Australian sailors, seemingly used to porttack, were pulling off nice jumps (pushloops, frontloops, backloops) and were generally ripping hard. Highlights of the day included some very impressive pushloops by Australian pro sailor Ben Severne and a mid air collision between two sailors, one trying to backloop, the other doing a forward. Luckily there was no carnage. A few hours later, Craig Mc Creary, planted his jetski directly into the beach in an insane stunt, resulting in a trip to the hospital with a bruised hip. Day 2 (Sunday) allowed for a second elimination expression session, as well as the final "Supersession" containing the overall 10 best sailors of any previous sailing. Kina Rd was the call of the day, with a light, gusty N and mid sized swell. Definitely not epic, but good enough for a competition and it is to be said that the large numbers of good sailors out there were really making the average conditions look bloody good. Overall, it was the day of the Wellingtonians, clearly feeling at home on starboard tack, resulting in a good number of overall top placings in the mens as well as the womens category. The final results of the event is as follows: 1. Dan Berry (Australia) 2. Clayton Dougan (NZ - Wellington) 3. Chris Norris (NZ - Wellington) 4. Ben Severne (Australia) 5. James Court (NZ - Wellington) 6. Quentin Bye (Australia) 7. Aaron Constable (Australia) 8. Daryn Jones (NZ - Auckland) 9. Jeff Sutton (Australia) 10. Trent Petersen, (NZ - Auckland) Congratulations to the Wellingtonians who showed an amazing performance at the final! It was also really nice to have the Australian contingent coming over to Taranaki specifically for this event. They are a great bunch and showed most Kiwis a thing or two about how to party hard. In the women's category, Bronwyn Ward sailed very well during the competition and finished 2nd behind Simone Hollenstein, (both NZ - Wellington) The event finished off with a party at Butler's Cafe&Bar in Oakura on Sunday night. There was a big screen video recap of the weekend's sailing by Chris Brown and a BBQ as well as two live bands who were really making the place alive. The atmosphere was great, culminating in the traditional spotprize give away. This time it was a lucky dude called George from Australia taking away a brand spanking new Carbon Art waveboard. Further noticeable prizes were a Maui Hot Sail, a boom, harness and so on. Everyone was pretty stoked and in a nutshell, the event was bigger and better than in previous years, with everyone looking forward to doing it all over again next year. Thanks again to James Dinnis (Carbon Art), Chris Brown (Deepfried TV) , Aaron Constable (ECB) and Mark Hollenstein for this awesome event and all the sailors who travelled to Taranaki to be part of it! We hope to see you all in Taranaki again next year! (c) S. Hollenstein - www.wellingtonwindsurfers.co.nz

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