bliss fest

Blissfest 07

On the last weekend of our holidays the call came out that there was a crew heading to Blissfest (a kayaking competition) down in Dunedin. Peer pressure was applied heavily by Jamie and as usual Sanga obeyed the first rule and gave in. Somehow the 'crew' ended up being Jamie and Sanga with a boat between them, and Jared who was already down there.

Sometime on Friday afternoon Jamies phone had stopped working and somewhere around Ashburton Sanga got a txt from Garry "You keen for Blissfest? me and Jdog are going" Awkward times.......This did not deter Garry though and at nine the next day he rolled into Dunners with no sleep having hitched all through the night. What a start to the weekend!

The big air ramp - "bro its way bigger than Bullerfest"

Saturday dawned clear and sunny but with a savage southerly wind keeping everyone wrapped up. The big air was the event for the day and it was nervous times when we saw the ramp. It had a drop of about 2-3 metres into the water and was pretty high (gulp). Nevertheless the boys stepped up and threw down. Jdog was busting the airscrew 180 (a barrel role and then a 180), Garry was doing his big super clean airscrews and Jared threw an airscrew on his first attempt on a big air ramp. There were a couple of times during the day where the early nervousness seemed warranted - two back injuries, one eardrum malfunction and a shoulder (to other competitors) but the excitment returned every time the ambulance left. All three made the semis where Garry got punished (by the water) for trying a double airscrew. Jamie made it through to the final and ended up third which was an awesome result for him.

Jdog throwing it

Sam Sutton (NZ freestlye team)

Saturday night turned out to be a blow out, we went out to the campsite which was miles away to watch the premiere of the bliss stick (kayak company) movie but their projector wasn't up to the task and broke just as we arrived. Needless to say drunk otago polytech students weren't the best company after that.

On Sunday the surf comp was being held at St Claires beach so after watching some rugby where a blue team beat a black team (that memory has been erased) we rocked on out there. The surf was fairly average by dunedin standards (but cranking by christchurch ones) and was messy however there were still some big moves being thrown - pistol flips, helixes and kick flips (way to hard to explain). The boys didnt go so well in this and the dirty southerly rain didnt help much. The surf comp was won by Sam Sutton who was freakish and definately deserved it. A quick prizegiving and it was back into the car for some very happy boys on the long drive back to chch.

Prizegiving at the St Claire surf club.

All in all a great weekend and well worth it, there will definately be a campaign for next year to get a bigger contingent to represent the Christchurch crew. Peace