After a not so successful month on the Australian Pro Tour, finishing up somewhere in the teens, I was looking forward to coming home and competing in NZ.

Our first stop was Napier for the 3rd Wake up contest, I arrived at Keith and Collette’s place the night before to catch up with a few friends over some drinks.

The contest day was unfortunately pretty bad weather, with showers coming through and overcast sky’s, although that did not stop the crowd from hanging out for the day.

After a practice round we were straight into the open men’s final, a few of the up and coming riders qualified and where up first displaying some impressive riding.

The top 5 riders from last years Wake Up where followed leaving last years winner Antonyo Colling as the only rider after me.

I threw down a solid run witch included a toe side 720 and a gap over the A-frame, unfortunately I fell on my double up leaving it open for ants to throw down and have a chance of beating me. He went out and had two stand-up passes of stock tricks letting me take the win with him close behind in 2nd. Chris Dunn “The Dark horse” finished in 3rd.

The second weekend was a big one with the Tairua Pipe Masters on Friday and Saturday followed by the North Island Championships on the Sunday.

Pipe Masters started off in a bad way for me with a big crash on the morning of the main event. My board dug into the plastic surface of the slider breaking off a big chunk which split my board down the middle, I was thrown out the front and took a heavy fall thankfully leaving me only with a few cuts and bruises.

Finals came around at the next high tide drawing a huge crowd. I had a bad start to my run taking a couple of falls, after some good venting I came back at the end of my ride with some big gap combos on the big Step up A-frame and the gap slider. Jeff Weatherall took 1st place with some impressive sliding and gaps, Josh O’Connell 270′d and pressed his way into 2nd and I took 3rd.

Up early the next day for a quick road mission to Lake Karapiro just in time for my qualifying ride at the North Island Champs. I had a good solid ride seeding me 1st and giving me the final rider advantage. After a long day playing MC on the mic we got into the Open Men’s final. All of the boys had some good rides bringing out some fresh new moves and going huge off double ups. It came down to me knowing what I need to do and to go out and do it. Stomping a toeside 720 and a 900 off the double up sealed me the title of the North Island Champion.

The final stop of the NZ pro tour was the NZ Nationals held for the first time in the South Island in the small town of Blenheim.

The event kicked off to a good start on the first day with some impressive riding throughout the divisions. When it came time for the open men to ride the wind had picked up and was blowing straight down the course, although due to a low number of competitors in the open men’s division the first days ride only counted for seeding the final round

I was in top seed for the finals putting me as the last rider for the day. I was pretty confident on winning until I watched Antz throw down one of his best contest runs ever, that was when I went from relaxed and confident to nervous and under pressure.

I went out on the water knowing exactly what I needed to do to win, I threw down a toe side 720 followed shortly by a heel side 720 along with some big smooth tricks and a couple of solid slider hits. The end of my second pass was where I had my only fall; this meant I had to do something big off the double up to secure the win. I hit the double up perfectly spinning a toe side 900 and stomping it cleanly right in front of the crowd.

That night at prize giving I was awarded the NZ national title, NZ pro tour title and set a new record time for sculling from the trophy, smashing Jeff’s previous time of 45 seconds and bringing it down to 10 seconds. The highlight for me was the fact that the podium was claimed by the “Pretty Wild West” our Mangakino crew; Myself in 1st, Wild man Antz Colling taking 2nd and the Westy Brant Hales bringing home a 3rd place.

I am now in Christchurch doing some filming with Josh Robinson from ‘Sideswipe productions’ for his next DVD release ‘A Road Less Traveled’.

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