Northland boys set for Australian Ninja Championships in Melbourne

Friends Nate Boaz and Quest Morris have been practising their best Ninja and parkour moves ahead of a major competition.

Two young Northland Ninjas have been leaping off ledges, and practising their best rolls, flips, and vaults in Whangārei’s urban areas ahead of a major Australasian competition.

Friends Nate Boaz and Quest Morris, both 11, are heading to Australia this week after being selected for the NZ Ninja Team to compete in the Australian Ninja & OCR [obstacle course racing] National Championships.

The event, hosted by Obstacle Australia, is being held in Bayswater, Melbourne from January 25 to 26.

There are 14 individuals representing New Zealand at the competition, which has been running for eight years.

This is the first year New Zealand has been asked to join, and Nate and Quest, the only Northlanders on the team, will compete in the Ninja and 100m obstacle categories.

Their coach, Ashleigh McCaw, from Active Attitude Academy in Whangārei where the boys train, said she’s “incredibly proud” of her students.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to go over and experience it, it will set them up to challenge themselves further in the sport and set goals.”

Nate Boaz and Quest Morris [front] are competing in the Australian Ninja & OCR National Championships with the NZ Ninja Team.

The boys take part in parkour and obstacle racing classes at the academy, a gymnastics and physical activity organisation which also provides cheerleading, breakdancing, gymnastics, aerobics, swimming, and tumbling classes for children and youth.

Parkour is the practice of traversing obstacles in a man-made or natural environment by running, vaulting, jumping, swinging, climbing, and rolling to travel from one point to another in the most efficient way possible.

Ninja events involve individuals and teams competing on Ninja Warrior-style obstacle courses between 25m and 200m long.

McCaw said Nate and Quest’s parkour skills “link in well with Ninja”.

Both the boys are “super excited” to be representing New Zealand and have been training over the Christmas break.

Quest and Nate share a love of parkour, which involves tackling obstacles in an urban environment.

Nate, from Hukerenui, said he became interested in parkour after his mum, Kelly Boaz, enrolled him and his brother Zeth at the academy a couple of years ago.

He said he likes the challenge of parkour, which has become his passion.

“I’ve hurt myself a couple of times; I was doing a vault over something and fell and hurt my rib on a beam and was winded ... but I was fine.”

Nate and Quest are working on level 4 parkour and aim to climb to level 6.

The boys train at the academy’s gymnasium and in urban environments such as the Town Basin.

Nate has also set up an obstacle course in the calf shed at home, where he can jump from pallet to pallet, jump on to a high rope, climb the rope, hop on to Ninja monkey bars, balance on a tightrope, and climb a rock wall.

Quest in action at Active Attitude Academy in Whangarei.

Nate said he’s “extremely happy, but also nervous” about heading to Melbourne this week.

Quest, from Kauri, joined Active Attitude a year ago and has also found a love of parkour.

He said the trip is “pretty exciting, but it’s also nerve-racking going overseas to represent our country.”

Kelly said the boys are mad about parkour and Ninja, which teach them “calculated risk, spatial awareness, and hand-eye co-ordination”.

Nate in action at Active Attitude Academy in Whangarei.

“Anywhere they go they are doing some sort of flips.

“If they can jump it or dive over it, they’ll try.”

Last April, the boys attended New Zealand’s first Ninja warrior-style competition, called Aotearoa Toa, in Auckland.

Nate and Quest returned to Auckland to compete in this year’s competition from January 17 to 19.

Kelly said they both did well, though the results won’t be known until next week.

Kelly said she and Quest’s mum, Toni, are “super proud” of their boys’ achievements.

Nate is also working on a proposal to build a parkour park in Whangārei.

He has met with Sport Northland and a Whangārei District Council representative and hopes to present his plans to the council soon.

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with roading, lifestyle, business, and animal welfare issues.