Kia Ora. I’m fresh off the road from a long trip south. Blair and I headed to Dunedin last Wednesday night to sneak in a few waves before the South Island Champs over easter weekend.

On Thursday we surfed St. Clair sort of lumpy, fun 2-3 foot. Then from Friday full comp mode took over, including early morning meetings at St. Clair to assess the days line up.

With the Womens heats held in limbo for a few days it was free-surfing to occupy the time, along with a few hot chocolates (Thanks Kristi and Leathy!). The Open Womens final was a last minute scramble for me, having secured a 7.7 on my first wave, I had the lead. But deciding to make it more difficult for myself I took off on a wave with a fellow finalist and scored myself an interference call. Needing not that much to get back into first and one minute to go I had to get a wave. One approached and as soon as I saw it I turned and paddled for my life, lucky to catch it and score enough to regain the lead. It was crazy!!!@! Man I tell ya what! Hayley and I were joking about it later over a few cold ones so all good. Apart from the eventful womens final there was plenty else on offer. South Islands top surfing talent was all over St. Clair , competition heating up slightly this year I felt with more cash up for grabs. Local Dunedin boardriders club, South Coast offering up several quality competitors to challenge the more frequent participants of the South Island Circuit.

Lyndon Hutton ended up taking out the Open Mens just ahead of fellow local Danny Carse and ChCh’s top surfers Hayden Brain and Manu Schaufer. Carsey pleasing the crowds troughout the weekend with a sound preformance of stylish radical maneouvers. The event had a total of 110 competitors and the most spectators I’ve seen at a South Island comp in ages! Good on all the local businesses and the major sponsor International Frieght Logistics Ltd. for making it happen, and of course to the South Coast Boardriders and the wave genie for turning it on in Dunedin once again. Shot!

Hey,

Check out this clip from Kaikoura. There’s 3 videos and and I’m in all of them. Just click on the box below…

The NZ wakeboard nationals are on this Friday and Saturday down at the Hora Hora domain on Lake Karapiro.

Jeff Weatherall is making a return to try to take back his National title from me. Dont miss this, it is sure to be the best showing of wakeboarding in NZ.

Come along and check it out.

B-rad

Kia-ora Crew,

Been shooting with Tim Pierce from NZ Snowboarder Mag and the snow has been slushy. Rumor has it thought that we are expecting more snow next week sometime. Sweet!!

Had an epic day down in South Lake last week too. Sooooo fun!!!!!! Below is a shot from out the back looking towards Kirkwood etc..

Well, I get back to NZ on April 2nd and will be aiming to get based in Wanaka for the winter. Hopefully will find a nice place to get set up with the website etc so it’ll be on!

Cheers.

Holler

Hey hey,

Just letting ya know I was up in Taranaki for the Christian Surfers Easter camp. Every year without fail we are blessed with Epic waves and this year was no different. Surfed Arawhata Rd 3 days in a row, perfect 3-6ft (double over head) right hand point break!! So sick!

We hadA teams challenges each night – Eating comps, skate comps, retro surf comps, tug of war, pass the grom over your teams head comps. Our team, Tbay CS, did pretty good which we were stoked about. The eating comp was so funny, they had to drink a whole can of Mountain Dew, then a whole dry bun, then crack an egg over the others head and skull it. The teams got pretty into it ay!

Hope everyone had an awesome Easter weekend! Enjoy the week.

The Hyundai Kaikoura South Island Longboard Pro Am held at Meatworks was a cracker event. The waves were larger at the start of the comp than they were for the finals, yet this did not stop a stunnimng display of new-school and traditional mal riding from the talented field. Including the likes of Mountain Dew longboard hottie Kirk Beyer, the Tongan Dr Burling(Open winner) and trickster Jackson Close from Aussie.

Jackson has come back to the event for the last 6 years which I reckon is a solid effort! The nose riding final had me biting my nails as the compeititors chose to let the time run thin in claiming their ride to countio. People worth a ment include Glen Shuker who was ripping as always, as were other CHCH locals including Troy Scott and Grant Coachrane, untill Grant wenting paua diving off his board and broke his collar bone! Poor him!

Apart from that unfortunate mishap it was a pleasure of a weekend, hanging out with my sister Jo and my neice Olive who made it down from Waitara, Taranaki for the comp. First place for me and 4th for Jo! Stoked. Thanks to Blair for being the driver/board caddy/nanny all in one. Also thanks to JO from Urban Surf and in Sumner and the Carter Stewart Gallery in Sumner for donating excellent prizes for the women, and also to the creator of the beautiful taonga trophy ( I hav’nt found out who made it yet!) Tu MEKE. Awesome.

Hey guys, I have just arived home from 10 days in Australia where I competed in both ‘Moomba’ and the final stop of the Australian Pro Tour of Wakeboarding.

Moomba kicked off the trip, after popping my shoulder out in one of the earlier rounds I strapped it up and went for it in the finals. Unfortunately I had a fall which left me in 3rd place. Stoked to bring in some prize money to pay off the old credit card though.

The following weekend was the final stop of the APWT held at the Carribean gardens in Melbourne. I made my way through the first few rounds untill I was taken out by the current world champion Phillip Soven. This left me in 3rd place at that stop and secured a 3rd place on the overall APWT standings.

Its awesome to be home for a month of rest and rehabilitation for my shoulder. I will be back off to the US toward the end of April.

Check out all of the pics and articles at www.theliquidcircus.com

Peace

BRad

Hey hey,

I have just returned from the International Pro-am in Kaikoura which is part of the Hyundai Pro Longboard tour. It began last Friday with the heats, I was seeded through to round two where I won my heat. I then progressed through my quarter final landing an air and scoring one of the highest single wave scores of the round. In the Semi final I surfed my heart out and made it through to the finals.

In the Final was – Jackson Close who is Auz champ and 5th in the world, Micheal Burling who is pan pacific champ and tongan champ, and Daniel Kereopa who is last years national longboard and shortboard champ. The waves turned to mush and so did my nerves. I placed 4th but was totally stoked to be in a final with those guys. This has given me a boost of points for my final circuit result! Just Stoked!!

Congrats to Sophia Moore for taking out the womans division!

My camera has crapped out so no photo’s really. Below are a few from free surfing before the comp and of the other guys…