High-tech horses for courses

Steve Wozniak (left) shows his strokes to "Pole Blacks" Rod Drury (centre) and Rodney Prescott. Picture / Brett Phibbs

It's not quite an Olympic sport, but it could be if some powerful people in technology have their way.

Apple Computer co-founder and techno-celebrity Steve Wozniak - known by many as "The Woz" - is leading his United States team into Auckland this weekend to take on New Zealand in a polo tournament.

The only thing is, this tourney doesn't involve horses. Instead, it is played on funny-looking, two-wheeled Segway scooters.

The game - SegPolo - is a "lot like horse polo but nothing to shovel", according to the official website.

Wozniak, a legend in the computer industry, is a big enthusiast and proponent of the emerging sport.

"I was the first consumer to buy one," he said. "As soon as you get one it is such a pleasure to ride, so the first thing you think of is is there a little game or competition we can come up with?"

And so the game was born. Wozniak is a member of the San Francisco-based Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts, a group devoted to increasing the scooter's profile.

His passion for the game is well known and he is rumoured to have once pushed a 12-year-old girl off her scooter while chasing the ball.

"Actually, it was an 11-year-old girl who threw me off and I broke my pinky finger," he said. "I was back playing the next week though."

Wozniak's four-man "Aftershocks" are taking on the local "Pole Blacks", led by Segway New Zealand director Phillip Bendall. Games are being played today at the quarry at Western Springs Park and tomorrow at van den Brink Estate in Karaka.

Today's matches are free to the public, while tickets to tomorrow's final day - which also includes the NZ Polo Open finals on horses - are $175.

Steve Simms, sales and marketing manager of local wireless company Natcom, organised the tournament as a means of gaining some US exposure through "non-traditional means".

"It's a nice way to form an international friendship with some serious people from Silicon Valley."

In New Zealand, Segways range in price from $7495 to $11,495.