February 8 2010

Waterskiers were greeted with great conditions at Lake Hood for the annual Aqua Fest three event tournament this weekend.

The event attracted skiers from Christchurch, Rangiora and Nelson who joined the locals to contest the Lake Hood Slalom titles.

 It was former NZ record holder Gavin Green, who has recently shifted to Lake Hood from Timaru, who won the men’s Slalom Trophy ahead of the current New Zealand champion Andrew James, with Chris Cruhlak taking out third.

 Green skied consistently with both of his rounds scoring on the very short 12 metre line.

 He had the best score of the day with 3 buoys on the 12 in the first round, and 1.5 in the second round.

 The current NZ record is 5 on the 12m line at 58k.

 Local Reilly Casey came in fourth after   equal- ling his previous best of 5 at 16m at 58k in the second round.

 The women’s slalom title went to Lana Donaldson who beat out her sister Rachel who claimed second, and third place was taken by Hilary Munro.

 Lana skied well with 2 at 13m line in the first round.

 The under 14 years juniors title went to Hannah Wright who skied a best of 1 at 52k on the 14m line. Henly Wayne came second and George Donaldson equalled his best with 1 at 49k on the 16m line for third.

 Novice skier Fenella Casey skied well, gaining 4 buoys at 37k in the half course.

 It was a long day with 11 hours of skiing in great conditions on an overcast day with only a light wind around lunch time.

 The north easterly gave a light tail wind for the jumping event, though skiers would always prefer a light head wind to give the extra lift, especially with the Clearwater Aquatic jump titles at stake in this event.

 Green also managed to win the men’s jump with 25.1m, and Lana Donaldson also scored the double crown when she won the women’s title with a 25m jump.

 Reilly Casey won the CAC boys Cup with a jump of 29.5m and Rachel Donaldson won girls jump with 29.3m.

 There were also two rounds of tricking completed on the day with results still pending.

Pictured: Gavin Green rounds a buoy during one of his slalom rounds that earned him the men’s trophy.