Friday, January 27, 2006
X-Air 2006
So last weekend we headed down to X-Air, the free "Xtreme" sports event held on the Wellington waterfront. Luckily we had good weather on both days.
Day 1
On arrival at the waterfront we checked out the street skateboarding heats at the Queens wharf events centre. The centre was about 2/3 full. I tried to take some photos but it the camera takes too long to auto focus. You press the button but by the time the shot is taken the skater is gone.
Next we went over to the Michael Fowler Centre for the half-pipe. We waited in line for about half an hour to get in. We watched the skate and inline heats inside. The skaters were doing some cool tricks but the inliners were uninspiring. We walked out and had a fantastic view of the BMX dirt course through the window. There were two riders battling it out and doing some massive tricks.
At the end of the day was the water jump. This is where people ride a BMX or skateboard down a 3 storey high jump and land in the lagoon. A couple of guys pulled off double back flips.
Day 2
Day 2 looked even busier than day 1 so we decided to stay at the Queens wharf events centre for the duration. We saw the street skate, inline and BMX finals.
There were some good American BMX riders doing some big tricks and the crowd was really getting into it. Unfortunately there were also some big crashes and a couple of people had to be carried off by St Johns.
The water jump today was more daring and dangerous too. At one stage four people went down at once. A policeman went down and perforated his eardrum. Another guy landed on his bike and needed waterside attention. It finished with two kayaks going down. The first just made it off the ramp into the water and was fine. The second went of the side and narrowly missed landing on some very sharp rocks.
Check out the photos that came out OK.
Day 1
On arrival at the waterfront we checked out the street skateboarding heats at the Queens wharf events centre. The centre was about 2/3 full. I tried to take some photos but it the camera takes too long to auto focus. You press the button but by the time the shot is taken the skater is gone.
Next we went over to the Michael Fowler Centre for the half-pipe. We waited in line for about half an hour to get in. We watched the skate and inline heats inside. The skaters were doing some cool tricks but the inliners were uninspiring. We walked out and had a fantastic view of the BMX dirt course through the window. There were two riders battling it out and doing some massive tricks.
At the end of the day was the water jump. This is where people ride a BMX or skateboard down a 3 storey high jump and land in the lagoon. A couple of guys pulled off double back flips.
Day 2
Day 2 looked even busier than day 1 so we decided to stay at the Queens wharf events centre for the duration. We saw the street skate, inline and BMX finals.
There were some good American BMX riders doing some big tricks and the crowd was really getting into it. Unfortunately there were also some big crashes and a couple of people had to be carried off by St Johns.
The water jump today was more daring and dangerous too. At one stage four people went down at once. A policeman went down and perforated his eardrum. Another guy landed on his bike and needed waterside attention. It finished with two kayaks going down. The first just made it off the ramp into the water and was fine. The second went of the side and narrowly missed landing on some very sharp rocks.
Check out the photos that came out OK.
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