The 30 years anniversary of the Taranaki Wave Classic (New Zealand) took place in October 25th till 28th. The 30th birthday of the TWC was celebrated by 80 keen wave sailors and their families and friends. It’s a fun event that allows for everyone to join in – and those that are more competitive really go for it so they get noticed. The competition were held at several spots around the Taranaki peninsula.

Most of the action took place at Waitara in the north of Taranaki peninsula. The conditions were not too windy, but waves looked nice. The wind was in between 10 and 20 knots. You can watch some freestyle wave sailing by Ferran Crespo, who pulled out a few freestyle tricks on a wave like a clew first spock or a a grubby, all on the wave face and all within three bottom turns.

 

In recognition of the TWC’s humble beginnings back in the 80s a retro sailing competition was also held. Mike la Franchie’s old school fibreglass board got some serious use, with a variety of competitors giving it a crack. Both LaFranchie brothers attempted to bring sexy back to windsurfing by wearing their wetsuits inside-out, resulting in some puzzled looks from those on the beach. Julien la Feuvre had his orange asymmetrical glass-board out.

Not to be outdone Jeff Sutton decided to get around the same issue with his old wave board by taping it to a SUP in an ingenious scheme to get the required float. Other competitors have since lodged protests with the Taranaki Windsurf Club at Jeff’s “Oracle-esque” manipulation of the rules and his ‘hidden volume’ retro concept board.

Ross Johnson was super stoked to be the winner of the Carbon Art Waveboard; he has been doing the TWC mission for a few years now (coming over from the Coromandel) and gave a heartfelt speech thanking James and saying how much he enjoyed the event. Enjoy sailing your new board Ross!

 

There was some great sailing in challenging conditions over  the course of the TWC event and for this the standout sailors were recognised, headed up by Ferran Crespo taking out the number one spot; reflecting some dynamite sailing over the course of the weekend. Ferran celebrated his success in style with road cones and literally swinging from the rafters. Thanks to all those who partied hard in the hopes of bringing some wind in for the Monday.

 

“The event runs that it is judged on standout performances from amongst all the sailors on the water during ‘judging periods’ when the flags are up. If we get good wind then the identified top 10 go out in a super heat expression session and are judged again for ranking – otherwise (as with this year) the top 10 standouts from the overall impression are used for results.

All the prizes are given away as spot prizes, so anyone can win the goodies….and all names are put back in the hat for the grand prize of the board that anyone can win! The actual event winners claim the glory and trophies and get their name engraved on the main trophy.”

 

“At he 30th anniversary of the Taranaki Wave Classic (TWC) we may not have had quite the wind we wanted, but we had the fun. The TWC is all about the gathering of windsurfers from all around New Zealand and the world, for a super fun oriented wave sailing extravaganza. No heats, no pressure, just having a blast with mates and getting a result. About $10.000 of prizes were given out, including the awesome prize of an Carbon Art wave board. Here’s to another 30 years!” Olivier Perkins 

 

Watch the more than 6 min long clip about the 2013 TWC event!

 

Filmed & edited by: spore*

Music: ‘is it my number’ by Bruno (thanks to the New Plymouth singer songwriters)

 

play-sharp-fill

 

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