A small field of paddlers had little if any impact on the pace of the competition as Aucklanders Gene Prato and Garth Spencer ripped into the action in the opening round of the Darcy Price Oceanski series held in the far north on Saturday. Prato won the first race of the series, the re-named Tawhiti Rahi Coastal Challenge, held after the popular Poor Knights Crossing event was called off this year. It had been a fractured build up to the race usually hosted in Tutukaka but this year forced onto the waters of Te Rerenga Paraoa (Whangarei Harbour) by some feisty conditions on the Tutukaka Coast on race day. Prato and Spencer went at it from the moment the start flag dropped and it wasn’t until the final stretch that Prato squeezed out an impressive winning margin when he crossed the finish line 22km later.

The harbour-based course suited most of the paddlers, with most of the entrants based in Auckland and thus used to harbour wind chop affected training runs. The predicted 20 knot winds provided some nice lifts for the competitors to use, although the strength of the tidal outflow running against the pack took many by surprise.

Prato won in 1h 45m 47s, Spencer came home just under four minutes later with fellow Auckland paddler Danny Morrison nabbing third just ahead of his training buddy Travis Mitchell. The sole female competitor, Jess McDuff, grabbed maximum points in the womens points series as she battled the conditions with a strong performance. The waka ama racers were spearheaded by Johnno Smith who clocked some of the best speeds at times in his craft using some impressive downwinding skills, nudging his speedo close to the 18km/h mark. The field was bolstered by the appearance of three 4-man waka ama boats. The Maroro OC4 is a new addition to the waka ama fleet designed by Jay Lloyd at Moana Nui. The downwind design of the craft was clear to see as the winning crew from the Whangarei based Parihaka club of Gordy McKay, Chris Mitchell, Matt Kensington and Lionel Nel cruised down the harbour.

Race director Tim Eves said, while it was disappointing not to use his home waters off the Tutukaka Coast, the conditions were just too strong to run a safe event.

“A 20kn wind gusting to 30kn running against a 3m nor-east sea swell is not the kind of sea state you play in. Tangaroa wasn’t keen to let us fool around on Saturday. Te Rerenga Paraoa was the best option and provided some very nice surfing conditions,” Eves said. “Prato will be hard to beat this season on Saturday’s evidence,” he said.