NZ Wave Nationals 2011

04 May 2011

Conditions were great for the Carbon Art & Rodgers Dental Studio 2011 New Zealand Wavesailing Nationals. The competitors were friendly and the atmosphere was best described by a visiting English windsurfer: "It's great, it's so relaxed, this is the way windsurfing competitions should be..."

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The Friday morning briefing at Carbon Art HQ revealed that along with the sunshine and warm weather Kina Road was pumping, with clean logo waves on the north point and just over 15-knots of steady cross-offshore wind. The first round of competition was soon underway, with the heats progressing without any real surprise results through to the semi-finals. Paul Barron, Chris La Franchie, Paul Hunt, and Mike La Franchie battled it out for completion of the first round of the double elimination, with Paul Barron taking the top position followed by Chris La Franchie in second, Mike La Franchie in third and Paul Hunt in fourth. At this stage the BBQ was smoking hot and the chilly-bin begging to be emptied. Competition was scheduled to continue on Saturday with good conditions forecast to continue rolling in and the second round of the double elimination waiting to be completed.

Saturday morning saw spectacular conditions for the competition, with 25-knot cross-offshore winds ripping sheets of spray out the back of the mast-and-a-quarter high sets. The walls of water were not as long as on the Friday but their size more than made up for that, and occasionally mast-and-a-half rogue sets were breaking over a kilometre out to sea. While warming up for his heat Paul Hunt was caught by one of these rogue sets and subjected to a long hold down, followed by a even longer swim back to his gear. After already tearing a sail on Day One he was lucky that the damage was limited to a small tear and a broken batten, allowing him to keep sailing.

The first rounds of the double elimination progressed with Arnoud Villet and Jebbe Unthank progressing to challenge Mike La Franchie and Paul Hunt for the right to progress. While Jebbe was throwing down some nice forwards, the wave scores were worth twice as much as jumps and the top heat scores were going to the competitors who got deep and under the lip. Paul Hunt and Mike La Franchie progressed to sail against each other in a repeat of the Day One losers final. This time Paul took the honours and went on to challenge Chris La Franchie.

Rogue set, enter stage right… You could have heard the hoots on the beach from out in the break, as yet another rogue set crept up on Paul Hunt while he was lining up the outside peak. It was a repeat of the his effort earlier in the day, with another long hold down and even longer swim in, only differentiated by the fact that this time his board and rig parted company. At this stage the only person on the beach still in a wetsuit was Paul Barron, waiting to find out who would be challenging him in the final. Paul embodied the event atmosphere by promptly sailing out to collect the board drifting downwind through the break. The other Paul (Hunt) managed to swim in with most of his rig and counted himself fairly lucky not to lose everything. Meanwhile his misfortune left Chris La Franchie racking up unanswered points to win the heat and make the 2011 Wave National’s final a repeat of Day One.

Paul Barron’s first round win meant Chris now had to beat him twice to get his name carved on the trophy for a second consecutive year. However a tactical mistake left Chris drifting around on small gear, and this time it was Paul who racked up unanswered points. His masterful display of wave selection and riding meant he didn't need a second heat—congratulations to a well deserved 2011 New Zealand Wavesailing Champion.

Final Results Open

1st Paul Barron

2nd Chris La Franchie

3rd Paul Hunt

4th Mike La Franchie

5th Chris Brown

6th Stephen Braeley (Bikki)

Womens Result

1st Katrin Dau

Youths Result

1st Peter Kohut

Thanks to Carbon Art and Rodgers Dental Studio for backing the event; your ongoing support is invaluable and makes for an event which competitors enjoy and come back to year after year.

Many thanks also to Ferran Crespo for helping with the judging—hopefully we’ll see you out there competing next year. And thanks to Tim + Lanky for the photos + video!

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