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TWC 2004 EVENT REPORT
By James Court
The TWC phenomenon.
After three successful years in a row and a long rich history dating
back to the Sirocco expression sessions in the late '80s and '90s, the
TWC has firmly asserted itself as the largest and most well organized
wave sailing event in the southern hemisphere.
Wave sailors are a rare breed. Spread few and far between they doggedly,
some fanatically, pursue this lonely discipline at their local spots
in small tribes of often half a dozen sailors or less. Each year the
advent of Labour weekend signals a migration of these tribes from all
over New Zealand, the east coast of Australia, and some from more remote
places, to Taranaki forming the largest collection of wave sailors in
the southern hemisphere.
This phenomenon is known as the Taranaki Wave Classic (TWC).
After three successful years in a row and a long rich history dating
back to the Sirocco expression sessions in the late eighties and nineties,
the TWC has firmly asserted itself as the largest and most well organized
wave sailing event in the southern hemisphere. Over the last three years
between 60 to 70 competitors and an equal amount of supporters come
together to sail against each other, party, catch up with distant friends
and basically celebrate and revel in the sport of wave sailing.
Taranaki is an almost perfect location for a wave sailing event, set
against the stunning backdrop of Mount Taranaki, the region offers a
diverse variety of quality lineups to suit most wind and swell conditions.
Saturday - Size does matter!
The tribes finally converged on the Kiahihi Road Carbon art Factory
forming an impressive crowd. Once the formalities of registration had
been gone through sailing instructions and the venue announced, a moments
silence was observed for kitesurfer and windsurfer Doug Wisor who died
while kiting in the Hawkes Bay earlier in the month.
Saturdays Venue was Kina Road North break. The starboard tack specialists
had been foaming about the possibility of the contest being held at
Kina Road North all week. However, the wind conditions were at best
marginal and any advantage was lost in the very light cross-offshore
conditions, especially for the fatter guys (sorry, I meant larger).
There were waves however and not bad at that, with a clean groundswell
sometimes logo high forming a shifty outside peak and clean inside section.
Following the same expression session format as previous years, everyone
hit the water to impress the judges and attempt to get a slot in the
hotly contested top ten.
The session was dominated by sailors well equipped for the light wind
condtions and the marginal wind did very little to stifle the quality
of their wave sailing. Aussie young gun Luke Johnson impressed the gallery
with his vertical attack, adding emphasis with snappy aerials and critical
turns under and over the lip. The Wellington boys led by Woo Norris
and Clayton Dougan held up the Kiwi end. Clayton was sailing for effect,
toying with the lip and almost sailing away from a gu-screw attempt.
Occasional gusts enabled a few forward and backward loops, some getting
slapped more than others.
The problem with expression session events is that you don't know how
well you have done, so to make sure you have a chance at the super session
you end up sailing yourself silly. Luke must have been really worried
about not making the final ten, or perhaps he was just enjoying himself,
sailing a marathon session in full contest mode eventually coming in,
with blue lips from the cold.
The Super Session.
Ten sailors were selected for the super session. The three tourists
got the nod: visiting Aussies Luke Johnson and Aaron Constable, and
impressive UK sailor Spenser (the UK guy). A record five slots went
to the Wellington crew: Woo Norris, James Court, Clayton Dougan, Lawrence
Young, and 17 year old Tom Taylor. Auckland rippers Darren Jones and
Tony Knussen also made the final cut.
The super session lasts for thirty minutes with the three best waves
and the two best jumps counting. Waves scores were multiplied ensuring
fierce competition for set waves.
The ten exhausted sailors set about making their mark. Wave selection
was critical with much wailing and moaning as waves were lost and won.
Luke and Clayton continued to duke it out with their snappy wave riding.
Jumps were restrained to some desperate forward loops and back loops.
The exception was Aaron Constable from Australia who showed us how a
few months in Maui can improve your technique, by hammering home some
beautiful dry plane-away forwards in sub 15 knots. The young Wellingtonian
up and comer Tom Taylor sailed tactically getting a good number of quality
waves under his belt. A combinations of exhaustion, marginal wind conditions
and poor wave selection plagued the other sailors.
Sunday - The Fog rolls in
Looking out the window on Sunday morning I had to do a stock take on
how many beers I had consumed the night before. Overnight a dense sea
fog had rolled off the Tasman lowering the visibility to about 100 metres,
it didn't look good and to top it off film chopper was grounded for
the day... no Kodak glory for the boys. Thankfully down the coast at
Kina Road the fog had lifted and an 18 - 20 knot north westerly had
kicked in. The swell with the exception of the occasional set was no
where near as good as Saturday.
The 2nd expression session kicked off and was an opportunity for the
starboard tack specialists to throw themselves around. Woo Norris went
into pycho forward mode pulling about a hundred forwards. But wave sailing
was confined to milking the ever decreasing wind swell.
Unfortunately the waves continued to degrade into 1-2 foot slop and
it was decided that the second Super Session would not be held. So in
the end Sunday didn't count and the final placings would be based on
Saturdays Super Session.
The final results were:
Men
1 - Luke Johnson (Aus)
2 - Aaron Constable (Aus)
3 - Clayton Dougan (NZ-Wel)
4 - Tom Taylor (NZ-Wel)
5 - Spenser (UK)
6 - Chris 'Woo' Norris (NZ-Wel)
7 - James Court (NZ-Wel)
8 - Lawrence Young (NZ-Wel)
9 - Tony Knussen (NZ-Auc)
10 - Darren Jones (NZ-Auc)
Women
1 - Alex Burnett (UK)
2 - Ruth Wallis (NZ-Wel)
Congratulations to Luke who put a mammoth effort into his sailing and
really stood out with the quality of his wavesailing.
The Party - Freestylers
WARNING: It is highly likely that
the following recollection of events is a little inaccurate, as the
author has a very fuzzy recollection of events after 10pm.
Ok, previous TWC parties have been relatively subdued affairs, possibly
due to how rooted the sailors have been after the contest. However,
this TWC party absolutely went off, and deserves to be permanently etched
in the annals of all time windsurfing parties.
Master of ceremonies James Dinnis professionally guided us through the
announcement of placings and the ritual handing out of the spot prizes,
worth over $10,000. The major spot prizes were dished out and in the
ultimate streak of good Karma Stu Warmin walked away with the new Carbon
Art board after losing his old board off the roof of his car the day
before.
If the collection of wavesailing tribes and their supporters weren't
partying hard before they certainly were after the results were announced
and the spot prizes were dished out.
The other ingredients ensuring a kick arse party were:
- A snug venue on the beach at Oakura, just snug enough to not be
able to avoid talking to the stranger next to you.
- Enough food on hand to make sure everyone had a good feed.
- A large plastic bin of ice cold brews free for the drinking.
- A smattering of Aussies ready to party with loads of duty free
liquor .
- A gang of gate crashing Auckland kiters, also with lots of liquor.
- And a DJ cranking out some phat dance tracks until 2am
The liquor and conversation flowed, the music cranked up a notch, and
the stories gushed like diarrhea. The DJ got the place moving with some
great sounds, and it ending up looking like a dancing expression session.
At times it seemed like everyone was on the floor grooving it up pulling
impressive freestyle moves (I am sure I saw at least a couple of grubbies),
some even sought more room to move by swinging off the rafters. As the
night went on into the early hours absolute madness set in: complete
strangers became best friends; people swung from the rafters by their
feet, men hugged men, men hugged women, even windsurfers hugged kiters.
(it was a bit of a hug-fest really - ed) Yes, I saw it all with my own
eyes . . . .
. . . . well I think I did.
And that was the Taranaki wave classic for 2004, long may it continue.
See you next year.
Extra special thanks to the organisers and sponsors James Dinnis (Carbon
Art www.carbonart.co.nz) and
Chris Brown (Deepfried www.deepfried.tv). With out these guys organising
epic contests like this New Zealand windsurfing would be much duller.
Also, Gaastra, Hotsails Maui, Neil Pryde, Naish, Wind&Kite Magazine,
Stashit, Point 5, Surfinn, ice breaker, Red Bull.
Support these guys because they're the ones that make the event so enjoyable.
Words by James Court.
All Photos by Thomas Hoffman.
copyright Thomas Hofmann, www.mindfactory.com
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2006 TWC Event Report
By Mike La Franchie
2005 TWC Event Report
By James Court
2004 TWC Event Report
By James Court
2003 TWC Event Report
By Mark Hollenstein
2002 TWC Event Report
By Mark Hollenstein
An Aussie point of view
By Karl Doran
Q-Mans version
By Quentin Bye
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