Downwinder TWO

Massive turn out.......... Wellington Stand Up Paddle Boarders today you were just awesome. We can't forget many who travelled for a few hours to get here like Mike Tate, John Taylor and Butch for all coming down from the Horowhenua as well.
Man when Wellington turns the weather on............ it really does just that, how lucky were we today!

To get such a good field out there today comes down to many good people supporting each other and  a good bit of word of mouth. We are really fortunate to have three of the best SUP retailers in the Country supporting the regions paddlers and more importantly they are out on the water with us, or if not that, supporting shuttle runs of boards and vehicles on days like today.

Chris at Ocean Outfitters, Butch at Wind Warrior, and Dave at Wild Winds, also we get great support from Dave at Fergs Kayaks when it comes to supporting our events, he does a lot of work behind the scenes for us too.

As far as the on water stuff went today we probably had something like a 20 to 25 kmh Northerly, with a swell varying between 300 to 500 mm. A great mixture of SUP boards from 10 foot surf sups, the odd 11 or 12 footer, heaps of 12 foot 6 's and a handful 14 footers.............and of course so many different widths.

With many of our events it's not so much about talking up a big storm, how much or how little you have trained....................it's about getting people together and out on the water............ and from the public's point of view, big groups mean great viewing.

Our events are for everyone, so thanks for joining in.

Finally thanks to all those people who turned up early introduced themselves to each other and arranged vehicle shuttles both before and after the event. Thanks to Aaliyah Clark for helping Sharlene out.............. you will see the photos that Sharlene and Aaliyah took on the slideshow on the right hand side of the page. The above photos are my on water shots except for the ski photo, that one Aaliyah took!

Click on any photo to enlarge

Point Howard - Burdens Gate (Eastbourne) 6.5 km

32:30 Mike Tate SS
32:59 Chester Burt SS
37:24 John Taylor SS

SUP's
43:48 Ned Hemopo 12.6
45:48 Howie Clark 14
46.20 Glenn Butcher 14
47:19 Chris Brown 14
48:02 John Toomath 12.6
51:24 Gillian Warren 12.6
51:49 Tommy Fahey 12.6
51:50 Clark Townsley 12.6
52:24 Nick Kapica 12.6
52:44 Andrew Pigler 12.6
53:25 Chas Quin 14
54:46 Alex Dean 11.6
56:00 Fabrice Bacconais 12.6
56.10 Nicolas Ganivet 10.6
56:11 Anton Ognyer 10.6
56:44 Laura Adams 12.6
56:44 David Sweeting 12
58:56 Sonia Waters 12.6
59:37 Karl Le Quesne 12.6
60:14 Brook Rapson 12.6
65:29 Neal Luka 9.8
68:19 Ilka Kapica 12.6
74:40 Sasha Kapica 11
66:22 Ruth Highet 10.6