B
ack Paddock Lakes are located in
central Hawkes Bay. 10 minutes
south of Waipukurau. If you fancy
near constant torture of seeing how glassy
their lakes seem to be nearly all of the
time, then head to their facebook page, or
their website.
The lakes are operated by Trev Rowlands,
who puts a huge amount of time into the
development of the sport in New Zealand,
as now created this world class waterskiing
and wakeboard environment. It’s a little bit
of a hidden oasis, and some of the locals
might like to see it kept that way! But the
facilities are too good not to share. Make
sure you call ahead of your visit, as the
lakes are opened by appointment only, and
rider numbers are limited!
So these new cable systems have joined
the pre-existing WakePark NZ in Hinds
(South of Ashburton), and Ruakaka’s cable
(now under new ownership). However
putting Wellington’s cable aside we are
still yet to see any further developments
put forward for full 5 tower cables. Whilst
I’m not by any means saying that 5
towers are the be all and end all of cable
wakeboarding, because that’s not true.
But 5 tower cable’s are the only way
that owning and operating a true cable
becomes financially viable as a business
opportunity (excluding targetting tourists).
But as a regular rider, wanting to buy a
season pass, and ride an unlimited amount
each year, for a set (and reasonable)
amount of money, they you are going to
need for someone to put up a 5 tower for
you!
The reason for this is pure economics
(trying to keep it simple). A two tower cable
can comfortably accomodate up to five
people per hour, with one person riding at
any one time. And when somebody falls,
then they are still consuming their space
on the cable whilst the cable is dragged
back to them. Now- with a 5 tower cable,
they can easily handle 6 people riding at
any one given time, and upto (quoted by
Rixen) 100 people per hour. The reason
for this huge jump, is that when somebody
falls on a five tower system, they give up
their place on the cable, and somebody
else can immediately take up their place,
as the rider swims back to shore, and waits
their turn in line again. Most people will
either fall off, or be too tired to hold on after
about 3 laps of the cable, so waiting times
are kept short, and rider turnover is high!
This means that the cable operator can
earn 20-30 times more revenue on a five
tower than on a two tower (based on
similar costs to the rider, which is nor