2015 POOR KNIGHTS CROSSING: BOOTH HAMMERS THE FIELD IN TESTY OPEN OCEAN RACE

When Michael Booth snagged his rudder on a rock at the start line, he thought his mission to take out the 2015 Poor Knights Crossing open ocean paddling event had just been sunk.

But the Australian surf ski paddling maestro showed just why he is ranked atop the world series rankings when he surged to the front of a quality field, then left them in his wake as he powered his way through the tempestuous waters of the Tutukaka Coast of Northland, NZ to take the title and become the first paddler to win a completed ‘crossing’.

Booth was one of a handful of Australian paddlers who had made the trip to the Tutukaka village for the 30km blue water paddling race, along with (among others)  seven times Molokai Champion Dean Gardiner and up and coming ocean racer Matt Anderson.

“I thought I had stuffed it up but I managed to get a quick repair and get to the start line just as the flag dropped.  It was an awesome race, and I really enjoyed all of it, especially the last 10km .  I was catching some bombs out there, the runs were great,” Booth said.

"The finish inside a sea cave was just spectacular."

All three paddlers, as well as womans winner Rachel Clarke of Auckand and the first few Kiwis home (Andrew Mowlem, Tim McLaren, Garth Spencer) are all heading to the Surk Ski World Championship race in Tahiti later this month.

By the time the field of ski, waka ama and stand up paddlers had completed the gut busting course from Ngunguru on the mainland to Rikoriko Cave at the world famous Poor Knights marine Reserve, Booth Anderson and Gardiner had made it Aussie sweep of the podium.  Booth hammered home at under four minute kilometre split pace to finish in 2h 4m, five minutes ahead of Anderson who just pipped Gardiner.

The waka field was spearheaded by Kaitaia’s Tupu King, who surprised more than a few highly rated ski paddlers as he charged through the field to finish fifth overall in 2h 27m, underlining his ability in rough waters after showing his class at the recent Tahiti Va’a Aito waka ama festival just seven days before.  He finished 10th in a field of more than 200 paddlers in Tahiti.

King was followed in by brothers Sean and Conan Herbert who were eight and 13 minutes back respectively.

Race organiser Tim Eves had quite a mission staging the event as, in the lead up to the race, the weather had been massively unpredictable to the point where the final call to race the ‘crossing’ was only made 12 hours before the scheduled race start. Even then the entire field had to be stalled at the start and informed of a last minute course change due the conditions.

Originally the course was to ferry paddlers out to the Poor Knights Marine reserve and race back to the Tutukaka Harbour.  A westerly wind shift forced Tim to reverse the track to start in Ngunguru and head out to paddle through massive rock archways before finishing inside Rikoriko Cave, the biggest sea cave in the world.

But the water was simply too rough at the Poor Knights to send competitors through the archways. 

“It was a huge undertaking, especially in those conditions, but this is set to become a regular event on the paddling calendar.  The calibre of paddlers was impressive, and it needed to be as the water was not for the faint hearted,” Tim said.

The race was sponsored by Dive! Tutukaka, who put their entire fleet of craft to sea for the race as safety and ferry boats, Moana Nui, Strongarm Power in the Water, Tawapou Coastal Natives and Yachtbot GPS trackers.

“The sponsors are the only reason the race happened, it was a real community effort to get this race done and dusted,” Tim said.

Race coverage can be viewed at www.yacht-bot.com/races/8127.

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