
2014 New Zealand Jet Sport Nationals
After four years since the last down-town jet ski event also in Wellington, the Wellington Jet Sports Club put their hand up to bring racing back to the city. Choosing to put in a lot of work to get the ‘2014 Capital City Sea-doo NZ Jet Sports Nationals‘ back in front of a Wellington crowd. If you know Wellington you will know you don’t get a better location to show off to a crowd than Freyberg Beach in Oriental Bay. The benefits of other local and international events on at the same time saw a great crowd pass by and spend some time watching the fast paced action of jetski racing.
After a rough week of weather, the planets aligned and gave us a window of good weather to get out on the water and let the top riders from all over New Zealand take on each other to be crowned the best in New Zealand.
The Canterbury Jet Sports Club came up from the South in strong numbers and managed to take home a very good percentage of the podium spots.
Veteran Runabout (over the age of 35) Saw Cantabrian Kris Mackie spend the weekend battling his old brother Andre with super close racing both on identical 2013 Sea-doo RXP-X’s. Kris just managed to hold off Andre and Aucklander John Wright taking out third.
Expert/Elite Ski Stock (unmodified standup jet skis) Saw 16 year old Tayne Lemon from Auckland on the only Yamaha Superjet entered hold off Cantabrians Trent Brown and Darrell Dermott both on Kawasaki SX-R’s.
Tayne suffered from electronic issues on his 1200cc Superjet in the Expert/Elite Ski Open class letting Jason Donnithorne take the outright win in front of Trent Brown and Glenn Chisholm – all three from Christchurch.
Kris Mackie, mentioned above also managed to take out Expert/Elite Runabout Stock ahead of Nathan Maclure and Hamilton’s Brenton Porter.
Current world champ Veteran Jason Donnithorne rode strong all weekend to take out Expert/Elite Veterans Ski Open in front of Glenn Chisholm and Marshall Brown – again, all three from Christchurch.
Naturally aspirated Runabout class suffered from a couple of people pulling out and the class shrunk to only two jet ski’s by the end of the weekend. Nathan Maclure from Christchurch holding off local Wellington rider Craig Boyd (both on Sea-doo XPL’s) and Andrew Green from Auckland on his immaculately presented Yamaha GPR finishing third.
The big noisy class of the Expert/Elite Runabout Open saw Local rider Carl Lampe Jnr riding his super fast turbo-charged Sea-doo GTX clean up the field in front of Holdan Stockman and Laurence Moulden riding an unmodified 2013 Sea-doo RXP-X
Last but in no means least was the Womans Pole Ski class which is still growing right through-out the country. The NZ Jet Sports Association President Lisa Dermott took out first place in front of Lucy Whale from Tauranga and new comer Bex Pascoe from Christchurch.
The entry numbers were down a little but the weekend was still a great success and because of the central location opened up our sport to a lot of by passers that had never even heard of jet ski racing.
The Canterbury Jet Sports Club have put their hand up to host next years NZ Jet Sports Nationals and the word is they want to bring it to an even higher level! – I personally can’t wait.
Veterans Runabout Open | |
1st | Kris Mackie |
2nd | Andre Mackie |
3rd | John Wright |
4th | Callum Farnell |
5th | Carl Lampe |
Expert/Elite Ski Stock | |
1st | Tayne Lemon |
2nd | Trent Brown |
3rd | Darrell Dermott |
4th | David Price |
5th | Gareth Griffiths |
6th | Levi Sherwin |
7th | Glenn Chisholm |
8th | Quade Brown |
Expert/Elite Runabout Stock | |
1st | Kris Mackie |
2nd | Nathan Maclure |
3rd | Brenton Porter |
4th | Garth Simonsen |
5th | Simon Wheeler |
6th | Andre Mackie |
7th | Nick Magill |
8th | Carl Lampe Jnr |
9th | Laurence Moulden |
Expert/Elite Veterans Ski Open | |
1st | Jason Donnithorne |
2nd | Glenn Chisholm |
3rd | Marshall Brown |
4th | Gareth Griffiths |
5th | Darrell Dermott |
6th | David Price |
Expert/Elite Ski Open | |
1st | Jason Donnithorne |
2nd | Trent Brown |
3rd | Glenn Chisholm |
4th | Marshall Brown |
5th | Tayne Lemon |
Naturally Aspirated Runabout Mod | |
1st | Nathan Maclure |
2nd | Craig Boyd |
3rd | Andrew Green |
4th | Nick Magill |
Womens Ski Stock | |
1st | Lisa Dermott |
2nd | Lucy Whale |
3rd | Bex Pascoe |
4th | Jessica Blackie |
5th | Nikki Kettle |
Expert/Elite Runabout Open | |
1st | Carl Lampe Jnr |
2nd | Holdan Stockman |
3rd | Laurence Moulden |
4th | Brenton Porter |
5th | Craig Boyd |