hile boat riding is definitely a great
winching on the
Wlikes ofseems to provide moreand thatexperience,successfully takingother
hand
of
off the beaten track appeal. With
the
Lasewer, Dirty South
Shred Town all
this concept and creating an evolving sub group within both wakeskating
and wakeboarding. The idea of these guys loading up the four wheel drive
with a winch plus a few bare necessities and heading off in search of both
natural and man made ‘water parks’ is well documented. For these trips
to have been successful all that was needed is a small waterway or pond
and some type of feature such as a concrete ledge or an overflow dam.
New Zealand is an untapped haven for winching, think of all our rivers and
waterways.
With the introduction of the winch a movement towards purpose built
DIY water parks is underway. Great times ahead as the opportunity has
arisen to build personalised water parks while keeping to a very modest
budget. The set up only need be a few feet wide and long enough to allow
the rider to plane up onto the top of the water to perform the intended
trick. With a winch strategically placed at one end of a purpose dug pool
tailored specifically for all day riding only a few meters from the kitchen
fridge!
These backyard type arrangements may even start to align winching closer
to the part of skateboarding we all love to see, that impromptu style of
a few attempts of that oversized stair set down at the local school. Only
problem is finding a ‘friend’ who is willing to transform their beloved
garden into a winch park. I believe New Zealand to be the prefect
location for DIY winch parks and I think we should all start the push in this
direction.
First step maybe is to find a plot of land which can be converted into two
separate ‘ponds’, lets say about hip deep, one pond would lay about six
feet higher than the other. What separates the two you may ask? Well this
is where is gets exciting, my suggestion would be a stair set with hand rails
either side of the stairs and a kicker separating the two ponds allowing
the rider to come from either direction. Be creative, lets show our kiwi
ingenuity off to the rest of the wake world. Even start small leaving room
for future progression, all that is needed is a winch and some water.
So we are left with a few directions which all have their advantages but
inevitably there are short falls for each, maybe more so is the expensive
outlays for such activities. Me perso