KITEBOARDING - High fliers head North for champs

MORE than 80 of the country's top kiteboard riders will be praying Good Friday brings more than a moderate breeze as they travel to Northland for the Kiteboarding Nationals at Ruakaka.
It is the first time in the sport's brief history that the event will be hosted in the area and kiteboarding enthusiast Dave Kay is responsible for bringing the event here.
"The nationals alternate between the South and North Island and they were held in Nelson last year so it was back to the North Island this year and we decided to grab it and run with it," he said.
Kay and his wife Sue operate Ruakaka Kitesports, a kiteboarding school and DK Kiteboards, which manufactures their own brand of kiteboards.
Both are also keen kiteboarding competitors, with Sue the current national women's champion, but the couple are putting their competitive aspirations on the back burner this year, as they don event organiser hats.
"We decided that rather than pursuing national titles this year, we'd give something back to the kiteboarding community and actually run the event."
A kiteboarding contest is obviously a spectacular event for the audience, but it is a tough event to judge.
"The competition is primarily a freestyle competition and that mean's it a combination of moves done on the water ... the riders who show the highest technical ability, combined with power, speed and who get plenty of height in their jumps are the ones that should win," he said.
The event is scheduled for all four days over Easter - just in case the weather fails to co-operate.
"We need two full days to complete the competition across all four divisions, but we're wind dependant and that's why we've scheduled the event across four days," Kay said. A 12 knot minimum is needed for a contest to get underway, while 35 knot winds are likely to halt proceedings or risk carnage on the water. A breeze of 20 knots is considered ideal.
The centre of attention this weekend will focus on the open men's division, but there are three other titles up for grabs with the junior men, women's and legend's (over-40) divisions to be decided.
The most anticipated action will see top Auckland rider and 2007 National Open Champion Jamie Barrow continue his rivalry with Tauranga's Marc Jacobs, the 2007 Junior Champion and the runner-up in the 2007 Open.
After his second place last year Jacobs signed up with the international North Kiteboarding team and was invited to compete on this year's world tour.
"Last weekend Marc came seventh at the first PKRA World Cup event of the year in Mexico, so he's shown how much he's improved and he'll be a spectacular rider to watch," Kay said.
The pair will also be tested by another Tauranga rider Torrin Bright, who was third last year in the open division and is coming to the event in good form after a solid first place at the Canterbury Championships in January.
The event will be run at three beaches over the long weekend, with the wind direction dictating which of One Tree Point West, Marsden Bay and Mair Road beaches are used.
The event will be signposted daily from State Highway One.
* FLIGHT AND FIGHT
• A kiteboarding competition is run the same as a surfing contest with the two riders in every four-person heat going through to the next round and so on, until the final.
• Each heat is seven minutes long.
• The riders are scored on technical difficulty of their manoeuvres, as well as the power, speed and the height of jumps they exhibit.
• Three judges tally their points for an overall score.
• Competitions require breezes of 12 knots to get under way.