Downwinder THREE Series Finale!

It's always a pleasurable experience to organise an event and have people willing to get out and paddle our courses no matter what training they have...........or haven't or what type of craft they paddle.


It's all about putting an activity on that people are ablet to feel good about taking part in and also providing some much needed viewing for the public, who are always happy to see some form of activity going on in their neighbourhood. Your activity makes a great talking point and when people talk it's great publicity for what we all do.

Hey again I must thank Butch (Glenn) Butcher at Wind Warrior Kitesports and SUP's. Butch has been around us for 3 years now and he always brings a spare board or 4 .... to every event just in case there's someone who is going to miss out.


Thanks to Chaz Quin who met Swedish Tourist Danny Reinhart the other day out on the water, he said come along on Sunday ........ so today wallah he was paddling one of Glenns Boards ......... that epitomises what the Wellington SUP scene is like and why it will continue to grow.

Every time we host an event we met more awesome people and though not everyone can make it to all the events we know that every now and again we'll welcome back some  regulars and many new people so we thanks to you all for supporting these events on behalf of all of Wellington, Horowhenua and Wairarapa Paddlers.

Sorry for the quick change in course today but the breeze and swell certainly picked up more than the predications of Friday and Sunday which were relatively parallel forecasts ......... but you don't know what you'll get till the day of the event. Today's option wasn't perfect ....... but it was better for SUP's than the other course.

Finally big thanks to Dave Annear at Fergs Kayaks Wellington who cut our event a great deal with some of the great Paddling accessories..................please support them when you are looking to buy paddling gear as they support your event's!  All your $5 entry fees paid for all the prizes you received today.

Please keep an eye on the event calendar on the left hand side of the page..............we post any local event that we know is coming up..............we also post info on that event at the same time to give people an idea on who is running it and where the course options will be................because you never know what the weather is going to bring in Wellington.

The Next event is "Travel to paddle" for an article and photos for Standing Room only NZ magazine this will either be this coming weekend or the next and will be the flatest fine day on the Saturday or the Sunday of either those weekends.

Plan is to meet on Oriental Parade paddle down to the bottom of Evans Bay across past the wind sculptures along Cobham Drive, then up along the shoreline to Shelly Bay............then we have a picnic stop for 45 mins to an hour then paddle across to Point Jerningham to Oriental Bay Frank Kitts park maybe, then finish.
Chester will be taking the van around to the Shelly Bay boat ramp with all your picnic hampers where you can sit down and chill out with Family and other friends also.

(After that there's our Welly Paddlers  "Motorway Race" on April 14........... Petone - Interislander -Petone 13km with a 6 km and 3 km SUP option.)

Click on any photo above to enlarge

See the photo slideshow on the right hand side of the page.

SUP 3.75 km

26:02 Howie Clark
31:21 Alex Dean

SUP 6.25 km

49:09 Glenn Butcher 14
50:00 Michael Clark 12.6
52:11 Danny Reinhart 12.6
53:14 John Toomath 12.6
53:48 Chaz Quin 14
55:29 Karl Le Quesne 12.6
56:01 Gillian Warren 12.6
58:35 Nick Kapica 12.6
59:51 Nick Vaughan 12.6
61:29 Katie Townsend 12.6
63:01 Scott Viner 10.5
65:36 Ilka Kapica 12.6
69:57 Neal Luka 9.8
70:58 Mel Parkin 12.6

Waka Ama 6.25 km

45:43 Piki Emery
45:49 Kark Timu
50:22 Dennis Ngatai

Surf ski 6.25 km

39:42 Mike Tate
40:32 Chester Burt
45:22 John Taylor