Tyrone Rawlins

The final stop of the 2006 KPWT was Noumea, New Caledonia. For many of the riders, getting there entailed at least a 36 hour mission of plane flights.

New Caledonia is a very small tropical island in the South Pacific. The water is crystal clear and very warm. The air temperature is also extremely warm, nothing more than boardshorts, T-shirts and alot of sunscreen is needed. However, things in paradise cost 2 to 3 times more than Europe.

I arrived a few weeks early, which gave me alot of time to travel around the quaint island as well as visit a surrounding island.

Tennor Island is a 2 hour car trip north of Noumea and then a 40 minute boat trip. We did the trip at night so I miles have been blind folded. Once we had navigated our way round the reef using a torch to guide us, we set up camp on the island. When I woke up, I was struck by the beauty. The colours were all so much brighter and clearer, the sand was untouched. Apart from us and about 4 other people who were staying on the other side of the island, there was nobody else around. The surf was perfect, and once again - nobody except the 3 of us out .

You can never go hungry, the fishing is unbelievable...

Back in Noumea, and everybody started arriving for the event, all the first timers to Noumea had the same reaction - dumbfounded, it truely is a beautiful place. The kiting conditions are perfect, the wind a steady 20knots gusting to 21knots sometimes, and smooth glassy water...

With such good conditions, there was bound to be a high level of riding. There were moves been thrown that had never been seen on the tour before:kiteloop KGB, a combination of different boardoffs, double handlepasses, handlepasses to blind, the barefoot. Everybody was just pushing themselves whilst they had the perfect conditions to do so.

The wave masters was awesome, 2 days of perfect tropical surf in the morning, followed by 25knots of wind in the afternoon. The day of the wave masters, the swell jacked up to a decent 6 - 8 feet, the riding level was also very high. The event was held at Oihno, and the camp site we stayed in, is owned by Patrick Florez - Jeremy Florez's(2006 WQS surfing champ) father. Unfortunately, with it being a reef break you were unable to watch the other heats unless you kited out. The day ended thankfully with no casualties, except one lost board. Greg and myself were both so amped to be surfing a tropical reef break, we stayed in the water surfing and kiting for 8 hours the first day and 5 hours the second day. All the training paid off as we both made it into the finals of the wave masters...

After the event, a break from kiting was needed, so we headed inland to a spot on the river - really peaceful and quiet, a time to relax and reflect back on an awesome year that had just passed... Now just the journey home...

I'm scared of heights, doesn't help that I was pushed off here!!

The event was easily the best of the year - a perfect ending. Greg Thijsse(RSA) had a great event, he got a 9th in the freestyle, 4th in the wave masters and won the speed crossing breaking the record. With all his points accumulated he won best perfomance of the event... Well done Skunk!!

A last look at the beauty of New Caledonia!!!