The 2007 World Waveski Titles were held at Makarori beach in Gisborne on the east coast of New Zealand from March 24-31. The event included more than 80 waveski surfers from Australia, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Peru, Fiji, USA, New Zealand and South Africa, who surfed in eight different age/gender categories. A tag team event was also held on the final day. The Australian contingent who attended the event consisted of 33 surfers from NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS and WA including family and spectators.

The surf conditions were predominantly around 2-3 ft throughout the week along with mixed weather from onshore to offshore, sunny to rainy and warm to really cold back to warm again. The break was affected by the tide so the contest directors coordinated the event in such a way that the event ran in the best conditions the break had to offer throughout the week. There were also some gaps in the competiton that allowed keen surfers to check out some other local breaks such as the Island at Sponge Bay, Tolaga Bay and Blacks Reef.

The veterans division was dominated by Australian competitors taking up 6 of the 12 spots. With the new split in the age division creating the Grand Masters, the WA three amigo's travelling together with partners and friends and featured in the local Gisborne Herald were split between divisions. In an all Aussie final, Basil Repa from Wollongong took out the Veterans title with the the WA surfers, Eric Tocock, Richard Croome and Paolo Giampolo closely following.

In the new grand masters division 5 Aussie competitors battled it out amongst the 9 contenders. Graham Roberts surfed consistently well throughout the heats and along with former world champ Kev Marshall, gave NZ local Steve Gibbs a run for his money with Steve coming first and Kev and Gra closely following. Jackie Dillon surfed consistently well through her heats to the qualifying final.

The masters division probably resembled a competition division going back 20 years. From the Aussie team, names such as Neil Decker, Richard Tadday, Steve Farthing, Brett Cronin, Bill Campbell, Cisco Nascimento, Karen Campbell and Steve Hoy have been riding waveski's competitively for over 20 years. Throw in Keiron Davies from the UK and Nick Williams from NZ, you could probably collectively have more years of riding a waveski than the rest of the competitors put together......totally impressive and fantastic to have such a wealth in experience in a sport and if you stopped to think about it, the majority of these people have contributed to the sport hugely in some form or another....thank you. Well it was a competitive division with Neil the reigning champ and former champ Keiron keen to get back the title and then along came a few guys who just turned the big 40 who were chomping at the bit. Down to the final four and again it was down to wave selection. Neil utilising his comp experience over the years got the best waves with Richard Tadday sneaking in a couple at the break a bit further down and Steve finished third with expat Brett and now Gisborne local finishing fourth.

The seniors division is always one of the most hotly contended events with 4 former world champs, Mike Orsmond, Darren Kearns, Rees Duncan and Mattieu Babarit battling it out with other top contenders such as Luke Herman, Lance Milnes, Tony Cherry, Travis Best, Dave Mitchell, Nigel Bryant and the rest of the age division. Great surfing seen with Craig Fouracre from VIC fighting through the reperchage rounds. In the end it was down to Luke, Rees, Tony and Mattieu and Luke who seemed to be a wave magnet throughout the week won the crown with Rees coming second and narrowly missing out on another double whammy with two divisions. Well done also to Tony Cherry and Mattieu for their performances.

The new age division had four nations represented. Fletcher Burton from the US and Ben John were neck and neck throughout the heat with Ben getting a final high scoring wave in the last 5 minutes to allow him to bring home the title. Caroline Angibaud continued surfing well with a third place and Gerry McGlinchey from Ireland fourth.

In the juniors division there were 5 competitors from France and the USA. Lionel Angibaud, brother of Caroline, won his second junior title after a very close battle with Tyler Lausten from Hawaii. Then followed by Coralie Jousett of France, Alexander Stubbs from the US and Hascoet Yoann of France. Most of the regular world contenders think of Tyler as an adopted Aussie son as he tends to tag along with the Aussie team with his fellow US compatriot Fletch.

Unfortunately there were no Australian competitors in the junior division and only one in the new age division and this becomes a ongoing concern for the nations future in the sport with the gap in this age group. If you think back 15 years ago when young Rees Duncan Jnr was winning world titles as a teenager and the number of junior or new age competitors competing then, it becomes a glaringly obvious reminder for all Aussies to stop and think about what we all need to do to contribute to changing the potential future of our sport in this country.

The womens division was one of the most competitive in over 5 years with 9 women and a fantastic postive achievement for everyone trying to help build and maintain numbers in the sport. Five-time world champ Lisa Ryan and former world champ Karen Campbell both from Australia returned to a world title comp after years. There were also other female competitors from France, Australia, South Africa and NZ. With a tough battle just to get to the final, it ended up being an all French and Aussie cast. It was neck and neck between Caroline Angibaud and Lisa throughout the final with Caroline narrowly winning another World title after popping a nice little aerial out the back, Lisa second, Melissa Hardy third and Coralie Jousett fourth. This makes Caroline the only and most successful person in the history of Waveski Surfing to win 7 World titles.

The open division was hotly contested with the small conditions making the event challenging for the majority of the top riders. Rees Duncan Jnr and reigning World Champ, Mattieu Babarit from France raised the bar with some spectacular surfing throughout the week really leaving the rest of the open contenders battle for the remaining two spots in the open final. As the conditions deteriorated on finals day, along with surfing skill, it was really down to wave selection. Rees Duncan Jnr showed his wealth of experience capturing the best waves of the heat and ability to surf well in any conditions to take out his 3rd World Open Title since 1989. Rees is renowned in the history of waveski surfing for winning his first open world title in 1989 at 16 years of age and also being the only surfer to win the open and junior title at the same event. Other Australian stand out performances in the open division were from Wollongong boys Lance Milnes and Dale Randahl who surfed consistently throughout the week and made it to the final. Also Nigel Bryant who represented NZ but lives on the Gold Coast, Neil Decker, Darren Kearns, Ben John, Luke Herman and Steve Farthing. Mention should also be made of Caroline Angibaud from France who made it into the top 16 of the open division. Unsure of the origin of what may become a tradition, guys who were beaten by a girl in a heat were buying cakes for the girls....perhaps it has some French origin from the days of Marie Antoinette....anyway Caroline seemed to be enjoying lots of cake throughout the week!

The tag team event was held on the finals day and as the festivities had started, the event held a light hearted approach with some of the younger male French team members casting aside the wetsuit for just boxer shorts. The teams represented Australia, New Zealand, France, US and the UK . The Aussie team consisted of our top 6 surfers who were keen to surf after all the festivities started. With an all star team of Rees Duncan Jnr, Darren Kearns, Neil Decker, Lance Milnes, Luke Herman and Dale Randahl, the Aussie team took out the division in first place. Thanks to Darren for organising the team at such late notice.

Congratulations to all the winners and place getters of the event. Thanks have to go to the organisers, judges, competitors, families and spectators who attended the event and showed their patriotism; The Australian team members for showing their support for fellow members right through to the finals on the last day; Russell Hudson for allowing everyone to use his fridge to cool beers; the Australian team managers who rotated the responsibility throughout the week - Darren Kearns, Bill Campbell, Rees Duncan, Travis Best, Kevin Marshall, Neil Decker and Melissa Hardy; Karen Campbell for organising our cool Aussie team shirts; The Gisborne Herald for providing such great coverage and photography of the event; The Tsunami Bar who allowed us to play the WSA Waveski Surfing DVD's - Box of Gold, Twenty Seven, From The Archives, Xtreme waveski and the soon to be released "Can't Sit Still" by Travis Best, and finally the clown, Neil Decker for providing entertainment all week long.

Finals Scores (pdf files) - Open, Womens, Juniors, Seniors, Masters, Grand Masters, Veterans

Complete results (Excel file 96.4kb)

More Info on the Waveski Info website.

Also Penny Bedford from Penior Photography was on the beach all week long. Check out her website Penior Photography as there are going to be hundreds of photos of the event.