Friday was another Murchison day and the forecast looked
like we’d have better flying than the day before – woohoo! Spoiler alert: meh.
In a light SW, the task sent us to Murchison, with a quick
tag in the Matakitaki Valley (which everyone remembers from Thursday’s task)
then downwind toward St Arnaud.
Conditions looked good with little clouds forming over most
peaks. But it was a bit scratchy to start, as Toni Skerrit found out after he
launched early and didn’t find any lift and decided to go for a slope landing.
It only took a few minutes for things to improve, and soon
the sky was filled with competitors.
Things change pretty quickly and it didn’t take long for ‘Level
2’ calls to start coming in over the radio. Graham Surrey decided to demonstrate
his skills in turbulent conditions, with a few mighty collapses and multiple twists.
It was quite a show and nice to see him recover it.
The task was stopped shortly after. Richard Castro won the
task with his distance of 12km. He scored a whopping 60 points for that effort.
The last day of the comp was called off early, so we reverted
to our second favourite activity – talking sh*t about flying for hours on end. And that means we have reached the end of the event.
Congratulations to our very worthy competition winners:
 |
| No respect! Well done Louis, Mark & Richard |
Overall – Louis Tapper (Enzo 3), with Richard Castro (Enzo
3) & Mark Hardman (UP Meru) tied for second place
Women – Eva Keim (GIN Bonanza 2)
Serial – Mark Hardman (UP Meru)
Sport – Lukas Walton-Keim (GIN Bonanza 2)
Fun – Clancy Pamment (Nova Mentor 4 Light)
All the results can be found here:
We were lucky enough to get three days of flying at stunning
Mt Murchison, and one at Barnicoat. In spite of having four tasks though, the
competition did not get the 2000 points required to be considered valid for
selecting our national champions.
When that happens, we look to NZPRS to determine our
national champion and women’s champion. The other classes are not awarded.
In this case, the NZPRS champs are the same, so congratulations
again to Louis Tapper & Eva Keim.
 |
| Congratulations Louis & Eva |
Other prestigious national awards were awarded as follows:
Jill Borst award for outstanding contribution to the NZ
flying community – Wayne Rohrs
Leo Geary award for a newcomer demonstrating potential in
competition flying – Nicholas Sand
Personal Best trophy – Annett Teichner
Congratulations to you all.
Now for some thank yous!
Thanks to our Task Committee of Rob Boyle, Mark Hardman and
Louis Tapper, for working hard to give us the best tasks the weather would allow.
Thanks to the Safety Committee of Evan Lamberton, Claus Petry
and Chris Connolly for extra special attention to safety in the competition.
Thanks to Rob Boyle for launch directing and not shouting at
us too much.
Huge thanks to our drivers for getting us up, getting us
down and getting us around.
Thanks to the Tasman Club for your support and sharing these
spectacular sites with us.
Last but not least, a very special thanks to Hamish Barker for
putting your hand up and organising another successful PG Open.
So what’s next? Keep an eye on Airtribune & the NZHGPA website competition calendar.
23-24 Feb is the Auckland competition (fully subscribed).
1-3 March is the Canterbury regional competition.
If
you are interested in organising next year’s PG Open, submit a bid to the
Paragliding Competition Committee before the end of May.
