NZ Raft Teams


NOTE - NEW DATES!!!!

NEW ZEALAND R6 SELECTION RACE FOR WORLD RAFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS
– COSTA RICA 2011

BULLER RIVER – MURCHISON - Sunday 13th – Monday 14th November.

For information and team entry form please contact Raewyn – nzraftingassociation@xtra.co.nz

Entries close 30th October. All team members must be current members of NZRA.

Teams travelling may also wish to participate in the Waka Te Tasman event being held in Kaiteriteri on 11th – 12th November on route to Murchison.


WRC 2009 story - By Tak
Kashmir Race Report


NZ Whitewater Rafting Team
Bosnia
International Raft Federation World Championships
May 17th - 24th 2009

The team of 6 guys are from Okere Falls Rotorua.

Selected as the winners of the NZ Raft Team Selections
held February 7th - 8th 2009 on the Tarawera river.

Tak Matu	Troy Dolman	Nick Chater
Johann Roozenburg	Lance Roozendaal	Paul Roozendaal

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The 2007 IRF World Rafting Championships Korea


The 2007 IRF World Rafting Championships Korea hosted the 2007 IRF World Rafting Championships at the end of June. The location was three hours north east of Seoul, close to a small agricultural town called Inje on the Naerinchon river.

The Naerinchon valley had been savaged by massive floods less than a year ago. Roads up the valley were still under repair, huge landslides scared the forested hills, roofs, cars and wreckage were intermittently wrapped around river rocks. Ironically there was too much water last year and not enough this year. The monsoon season that had arrived on time for the last forty years never showed!

But the championships went on! The New Zealand Women’s Raft Team competed against 33 other countries, 32 Men’s teams and 13 Women’s teams. The river was challenging, narrow, rocky, shallow and it was hot! We had to race three days of competition, with an event for each day. Day 1 was the Head to Head race, day 2 Slalom and day 3 down river. Points were awarded for placings in each event and the combination determined the world titles. This year the Czech Women’s team outclassed us in the Down River run giving them the world title, and relegating us to third overall. The Men’s title was a close and exciting competition to watch and won by the Brazilian men.

After the world championships we were invited with four Men’s teams to travel to Qingyuan, north east China, to compete in a 13km international down river race in the Honghe Valley. At the event were 11 international teams and 20 Chinese teams. This was a simple grade two run, but we were stoked to come fourth overall and forty seconds ahead of the Australian men’s team! There were loads of spectators and enthusiasm to promote rafting and tourism in this area, especially with Beijing hosting the Olympic Games in 2008. We wish the organisers well with their promotion of eco-tourism in the Honghe Valley.

2007 SPONSORS
Teva Bliss Stick Kayaks Friedlander Foundation Earth Sea and Sky Kokatat	Rochfort Paddles Smiths Incept Rafts Waiariki Polytechnic Rotorua

Although our experiences of Korea and China won’t be remembered for spectacular adrenalin rushing water as in previous world competitions what it did consolidate for me were two things. Firstly that, wherever you are in the world, real river people are generous, caring and likeminded people. Secondly, how fortunate we are in New Zealand that we have so many flowing, clean, green and deep rivers! It’s very important that we keep them this way. Thank you to all our sponsors who made this possible. Without you all we could
not be representing our country and our passion.

Results

The New Zealand Rafting Team members currently fund their own flights, transport and competition living expenses for all qualifying and final competitions..

The New Zealand Women’s Rafting Team were the World Rafting Champions in 1999, 2000, 2003. In 2005  ‘Team Teva’ were placed second in the World Rafting Championships on the Amazon River and in 2007 in Korea were unlucky not to take the title back again however finished a creditable 3rd.

Other Previous Achievements:
2003	1st Place – World Rafting Championships	Vlatava River, Czech
2001	1st Place - Camel White Water Challenge	Zambezi River, Zambia
2000	1st Place - World Rafting Championships	Rio Futalefu, Chile
1999	1st Place - World Rafting Championships	Orange River, South Africa

The New Zealand Men’s Rafting Team were in 2001 Australasian Rafting Champions.   In 2005 ‘Team Goodyear’ were placed 7th in the World Rafting Championships on the Amazon River. Unfortunately in 2007 the men could not raise the financial support to attend the World Championships in Korea.

Other Previous Achievements:
2003	5th Place World Rafting Championships	Vlatava River, Czech
2001	3rd Place World Rafting Championships	Gauley River, USA
	1st Place Australasian Rafting Championships,	Tone River, Japan
PRESS RELEASE: Trident ATB win Championship title-The Wonder Wags take out Plate Seriously Social Rafting Comp 20 Feb 2010Waterhouse St. Reserve Kawerau NZ On Saturday 20th February 2010, the TaraweraRiver played host to the inaugural Seriously Social Rafting Comp and it truly lived up to the title of being ‘seriously social’! Hot favourite’s, ‘Fueled with Steine’ (Whakatane Town FC) posted the fastest time trial, whilst the youngest competitors ‘Trident Year 9’s’ were the surprise package; paddling home with a time only 10 seconds slower. However, bigger surprises were ahead when the real racing began in the head 2 head knockouts. The steersmen created exciting banter with the crews consistently attempting to secure their favourite helmsmen. The first head 2 head saw ‘The Wonder Wags’ face ‘Fueled with Steine’ with the men from Whakatane Town FC easily leaving their girlfriends behind. Local crew ‘Metso’ came through their race whilst the four Trident teams all paddled strongly. The real battles began when the various crews were divided into the Championship and PlateQuarter finals. This allowed the losers from the first round a good chance of winning the trip down theKaituna. The massive shock was watching the youngestteam from Trident knock out ‘Fueled with Steine’ in the Championship quarters. The result sent a vigorous sense of confidence through all the participating teams as they realised anyone could win now! ‘Kawerau Beavers’ looked confident in the Plate and the two Council based teams were growing in belief. However, more shocks were in store as ‘Metso’ fell to the ‘Trident Year 9’s’ in the Championship semis, the ‘Trident Year 9’s’ were beginning to be the crowd favourites as there light vessel skimmed across the water. In the Plate semis ‘Chocoholics’ (Putauaki School) lost out to ‘The Wonder Wags’ and ‘Kawerau Beavers’ secured the final showdown against the Wags. In the Plate final ‘The Wonder Wags’ were neck and neck with the ‘Beavers’ but it was the wags that inched the advantage heading through the gate first, once they were ahead they paddled as though a mighty Taniwha was hot on their heels. They held on to their lead and came home just ahead of the Beavers. Then the drama emerged, an official protest came in from the Beavers that the Wags had jumped the start gun. The start official confirmed this to be the case and the intensity hit 1000 degrees Celsius! There were heated exchanges of words from various crews and the judge’s panel went into overdrive attempting to solve the situation. According to the rules outlined for the day, in keeping with the social nature of the competition, any discrepancies were to be solved with paper-scissors-rock! A crew member from each team stood toe to toe and commenced battle. The best of 3 challenge went the whole way with the score leveled at one all, then four draws followed until finally, Fiona Bentley from the Wags secured victory and they won the Kaituna raft trip! The finals in the Championship had the crowd pleasers ‘Trident Year 9’s’ face their older peers ‘Trident ATB’. The pressure was mounting as you could feel the intensity before the race took place. ‘Trident ATB’ crew edged out the younger rivals, but there was no doubt that in years to come those Year 9’s will have a crew to truly get others worried. It was an outstanding achievement by all of the Trident teams and the orgainisers are hopeful that more college teams will enter future competitions. It was ‘Trident ATB’ that won the raft trip down the Kaituna. With the first ever Youth World Champs taking place in Holland this year, there is a strong belief that with good support and further promotion of raft racing’ one day we could see a team from the Eastern Bay competing at the highest level. The entire day left people drained but beaming with smiles from the amazing experience they all had. The orgainisers wish to thank all the steersmen and volunteers for making the day a great success and are looking forward to the next big race.
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