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HISTORY

Taranaki has a long history of being one of the best surf locations in New Zealand. Hardcore surfers have known about it's abundant breaks for over 40 years, and also cursed the place for its strong winds which often ruin their otherwise epic sessions.

Nearly 20 years ago New Zealand windsurfers began to hear rumors of huge waves and consistent cross shore winds, rivaling those of Hawaii along the rural coast line of Taranaki.

A few road trips and national magazine articles later and the secret was out.... Taranaki is officially a wave sailing Mecca.

The first event took place in late September 1988 run by Dave "Biggy" Smithers and was held over 4 days. Run along the same lines as the Merrimbula Wave Classic in Australia, the sailors themselves decided on placings from overall performance over the entire event.
It was a total success.

Over the next few years the region was host to the annual Sirocco Expression Session. The event was sponsored by "Biggy" and his local board manufacturing company Sirocco.
With the popularity of windsurfing at its peak in the mid nineties, Taranaki was also the venue for the Butlers Reef Wavesailing Nationals.
For many years local sailor Dale Muller held the throne in conditions that were sometimes considered extreme!!!

Through the late nineties up until 2001 the annual Taranaki event was run by another local board manufacturer James Dinnis. The Carbon Art Expression Session kept the legendary format and parties, while the hard core kept coming back to compete. And with a brand new custom wave board up for grabs who wouldn't. Thanks to James for keeping the flame alive during the quiet years.

In 2002 Chris Brown from Deepfried Productions, and owner of the windsurfing comminty site www.deepfried.tv came on board to share the load of organising the event and lend his design, web and video skills to the cause. It was time to up-the-ante and lift things to a new level. The event was renamed the Taranaki Wave Classic, a web site was built, videos were produced and the word was sent out.....

In October 2002 it all happened, and the turn out more than could have been hoped for. Over 70 competitors made the trip to Taranaki to sample the goods, everyone was amped. This trend continued for the next 3 years with numbers consistently hitting 70+ and a huge stoke factor that grew bigger every year.

So here we are, its time for that legacy to continue to develop. We want to show you what we've got going on down-under, so let the Taranaki Wave Classic begin........

So why Taranaki?

Some people say Taranaki's got some of the best windsurfing spots in the world. Cross-off shore, double mast high waves, some peel cleanly for hundreds of metres, and no crowds...... what else could you ask for!!!

Maybe some friends to ride with and a few beers afterwards?
Well we might just be able to help you out with that.....

So the facts: Yes, the area does get mast high waves and it can get cold, but nothing a wetsuit won't fix. There are plenty of rocks in some places, we like to call them large lumps of coarse sand, but hey, they're what make up all those perfect reefs.

The Taranaki region was actually made by a giant extinct volcano, a near perfect cone that acts as a wind enhancer jutting out into the Tasman sea.

Surrounding that is 270° of coastline with literally hundreds of beach and point breaks, these pick up swell from almost any direction making it one of New Zealand's best surf locations.

Wind from any direction only needs to be of the slightest breath for it to speed up around the mountain and explode directly onto coast somewhere.
If we're lucky Kina or Pungarehu will be firing as these are the premier Kiwi wavesailing locations.

Be here on October 25-28 and you might just get lucky.

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Historical pics from NZ Windsurfer Magazine.