Josh
>>16
Cable ski is nothing new,
infact Bruno Rixen built the
first cable-ski proto-type in
early 60’s. The Number
of cable’s grew slowly
througout the world over
the past 45 years or so,
however over the last 5
years the amount of new
cable parks worldwide has
exploded.
The y
the c ear of
able
??
2’s riding,
or you can pay
about $1500 for a years
NZ’s
pass giving you a year of first cable opened
unlimited cable riding, or to the public early in 2010.
between $30-45 for an
The cable itself is a 2 tower
hours solid riding. Of-coursesystem, designed and built
this isn’t the only reason
by the team that run it! The
people ride cable, but its cable is located just south of
definitely a factor. It makes Ashburton, about an hour
wakeboarding accessible south of Christchurch. At
About 5 years ago there
to people that can’t afford the moment there is a small
were in the region of 100
to buy a boat, a truck to
kicker and a short rail,
cable parks world-wide,
tow the boat, and then the however a new ‘epic’ rail
there are now verging on
gas to put in the boat! And is pretty near completion....
190 cable parks world-wide that’s a good thing.
stay tuned.
excluding the new 2 point
cable systems! So love it or The surge in cable’s hasn’t Another ‘home built’ 2
hate it, cable wakeboarding skipped NZ as you may
tower cable has opened
looks like it is here to stay.
have noticed. There are cur- up in Ruakaka (about
You might want to know
rently 2 active cable parks 25min south on SH1 from
why, but come on... think
and a third full cable system Whangarei, or 1.5hrs north
about it. You can spend the due for completion in Dec of Auckland). Lakeside
best part of $500 filling
2011.
Cable isn’t officially open...
Lakeside Cable
Photo Cre
dit: Natali
e Lorenz
...yet, but has been
open to willing ‘cable testers’ since
September, and it sounds like things are going pretty
well, with plans in the pipeline for floodlit night riding and some new
obstacles.
The third cable park isn’t exactly built yet. But we’ve got it on pretty good
authority that its 90% off the way there, infact as I write this they have just
had their DOC approved, which is a huge step forward. This is a full 5 point
Rixen cable due to be installed at Porirua’s Aotea Lagoon in Wellington
as early as the end of winter this year, opening to the public in December.
Unfortunately the wake park has come across a few objections at the planning stage from locals un-educated in the way of ‘ski boarding’. So lets
get behind it and make it happen. There’s also a few more rumours floating around of more full cable’s going forward to the planning permissions
stage, it’s about time NZ gained a few more cable monkeys.
By Luke Thomas