Great News, 701 Industries have been confirmed as a sponsor of the Yamaha New Zealand Festival of Freeride. 701 Industries will be naming sponsors for the Standup, and Sitdown, Biggest Air and Sickest Trick Comps that will be held on the Saturday, and they have put some very hot gear up for grabs.

Dave from 701 Industries will be attending the event to not only showcase his product and give demonstrations on fitment, but get to know the guys and girls of freeride in NZ. “I’m over the moon about being involved with this event, and hopefully it will become an annual fixture on the freeride calendar.” Dave said.

Keep up to date with the event at the official event webpage – www.nzfestivaloffreeride.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nzfestivaloffreeride.

REMINDER

Get your entries in ASAP if you already haven’t. Entries close this weekend and payment must be received as well.

We are extremely happy to announce that AJSP have got in behind the Yamaha New Zealand Festival of Freeride. Australian Jet Ski Parts have been a long time supplier of parts to the New Zealand freeride scene and it is awesome to have their support for this event.

Owner Craig Maudsley, says “It is fantastic that New Zealand is finally getting an event of this kind, and AJSP is proud to be part of what will no doubt be a huge success.”

Keep up to date with the event at the official event webpage – www.nzfestivaloffreeride.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nzfestivaloffreeride.

Yamaha NZ is proud to announce that it will be title sponsors of the Yamaha New Zealand Festival of Freeride that is to be held at Sunset Beach, Port Waikato on the 19th and 20th of April 2013. This is fantastic news for what is New Zealands inaugural surf freeride PWC event.

Yamaha NZ’s Marine Manager Greg Fenwick said “Yamaha is very excited to be title sponsor of the Yamaha New Zealand Festival of Freeride. An event of this kind has been long overdue for New Zealand and shaping up to be a fantastic spectacle.”

Keep up to date with the event at the official event webpage – www.nzfestivaloffreeride.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nzfestivaloffreeride.

Great News Everyone.

We have received written confirmation that the initial council application has been approved by the Harbour Master. This is a huge step forward and, in our experience, we are now all go with just some minor council requirements to complete before receiving the final paperwork. Nothing to worry about! Thus we are ready to begin taking entries – so get them in.

The only way to enter the NZ Festival of Freeride is by clicking on the Entry Form link at the top of the page. Entry is $80pp and not only includes the required license fees to participate over the two days, but also a rider entry pack including event t-shirt and entry into any event prize draws. No entries will be taken through 3rd parties – you must fill out the entry form yourself.

Please complete this as soon as you can as early entry helps immensely with the organisation of the event. Upon submission of your online entry you will receive an email with details for payment. Please review and ensure that pay no later than the 31st March 2013. We will not be accepting late entries and entries close on the 31st March 2013. Once payment is received and the entry period is closed a confirmation letter, detailed plan, and information pack will be sent to you.

We will be posting proposed event information and accommodation options shortly. Please book your accommodation early to ensure you don’t miss out. Remember – it is a 2-day event – Friday April 19th – Sat April 20th (with Sunday 21st being a backup day in case of horrendous conditions).

We look forward to you all being a part of NZ’s first ever event of this kind – the New Zealand Festival of Freeride. For any further information please contact the AJSA at info@ajsa.org.nz

Hi Everyone,

It’s happening. After many requests and ideas floated, NZ’s first freeride event is finally getting off the ground. The Auckland Jet Sport Association (AJSA) is proud to announce the inaugural New Zealand Festival of Freeride. We appreciate the opportunity to first announce this on the home of the freeride scene in NZ – DalusionFWX.

This “Rip’n Ride” style event will be held in late April next year at Sunset Beach, Port Waikato. Specifically, Friday April 19th and Saturday April 20th (with Sunday April 21st as backup day), and is aimed at bringing the freeride community together from around New Zealand for an action packed, and enjoyable, couple of days. Whilst still in the early stages, and the council applications are pending approval (something we don’t envisage any issue with), we invite you all to get this into your dairies early so you don’t miss a fantastic opportunity.

The format of the event is very simple. All riders entered are split into groups, or “sessions”, of smaller numbers. Throughout the day each group of riders is allocated a session time in the schedule for the day. The first group is sent out for their allocated time slot and, when signalled to finish, the following group goes out and so on and so forth. The schedule will repeat throughout the day giving each competitor sufficient riding time to express themselves in the freeride sense. Its a festival atmosphere with everyone enjoying each others riding.
Friday is aimed at being more of a warm up will feature continuos freeride sessions. During Saturdays schedule there will be specific breaks in the freeride sessions to hold the feature sections of the event. These feature classes are an elective option for competitors to enter and have specific requirements. Examples include “Biggest Air” – somewhat self-explanatory, “Sickest Trick” – best and most complicated trick, and the “Cherry-Popper” – first attempt at a back flip.

There is plenty more information to come on this and over the next few months we will release it as soon as it becomes available. Entry, when open, will be available to anyone and everyone. We encourage anyone participating, or interested, in freeride to come along and enjoy riding with others of all experience levels.

We hope this is something that you all will be interested in and keen to get behind. We can’t wait.

The AJSA

Over the past few years the sport of personal watercraft (PWC) “free riding” has exploded and is following the same transition that motocross made to freestyle motocross. PWC free riding can be described as a combination of surfing and freestyle motocross together, where riders perform surfing manoeuvres and tricks jumping off waves in the ocean. The result is a sport that is exciting for both the riders and spectators.

With the observed growth in the sport, the number of freeride or freestyle events has increased as well. There is a world tour that is governed by an international body called the International Freerde Watercraft Association. It has a number of stops from Portgual to Brazil. Along with this there are many standalone freeride events being hosted around the world. Australia alone has events that attract riders from all over Australia and the world (one of the most notable was this years’ Cronulla Rip’n Ride (Syndey) which became full within 8hrs of entries being accepted).

New Zealand has seen its own growth in freeriding. Whilst we do not have the numbers that other countries have, we do have a strong contingent of riders that is constantly increasing. The level of competency in NZ is like anywhere else, we have riders that are just starting out through to riders that can compete on a world stage. The next step for the scene in New Zealand is to host its first Freeride based event.

You can check out some cool videos here that depict the style of event below.