Waiouru tussock buster trail ride

What a amazing day riding 140km around some of the most scenic tracks ive ever been on with a great bunch of mates. This was the 13th year the tussock buster was run and it was just a great well run event.

Friday things kicked off at 1pm for just a few short 45km laps to learn how to ride again,  after only the first 5 minutes found out that i really needed my goggles because the dust was just crazy but lucky for me we couldnt see and took the wronge turn and were back in the car park after only 10minutes of riding. so grab the goggles and off again.

Dan having a rest and taking in the view on friday

We had a sweet set up for camping with shanes hourse truck having all the gears in it. we had a few beers after riding on friday and im pretty sure that out of about a 1000 people in the camp ground we were the lasy ones to get to sleep and got told off by security for being to loud.

 We had a great little team, Phill mulet shane danny dan tam and me. this was only about 25 km into the huge 90km loop on saturday, we took lots of warm cloths as the dark clouds to the north didnt look good.

 Phill having a few issues on the biggest hill of the ride but it made for a good laugh!

Me and Dan had a few close calls each going down the tank tracks in top gear wide open trying not to hit our feet on the edge of the ruts, i did clip my foot once and thought it was all over but managed to hold it together and keep it pinned.

 The rain clouds rolling in

 The A team less mulet as he had a little spill and riped the radiator off his bike so we left him to make his own way home.

 As the rain set in the tracks turned to mud and it was like trying to ride on ice, but the high ridge and beautiful beech tree forest made up for it.

Thanks every one for a sick few days riding and see you all there next time !

New Zealand Drift Film - How We Do - D1NZ Round 5 2011

Check this video out from the last round of drifting it is amazing, really shows how it all works and is just super sick!!! none of me but cool

d1nz round 5 follow up

"Brad Lauder also will be looking at a move up to D1NZ next season with his impressive season in D1Rookie - some sure stars coming up for the future of NZ drifting." from d1nz website

Rookie Top 8 finishers:

1	- Nico Reid
2	- Dave Steedman
3	- Bradley Lauder
4	- Brandon Rogerson
5	- Mark Burling
6	- Karl Sturmfels
7	- Darren Benjamin
8	- Phil Otene

Ive been getting some great exposure on big websites around the net, check out this link for write up from d1nz website D1NZ CLICK HERE

D1NZ round 5

After leaving hoki on Wednesday i drove back to picton jumped on the ferry, with a good sailing got back to otaki about 11pm. After a good nights sleep got up early and started driving back to Rotorua i got in around 1pm packed up the car and headed for Auckland. so after 2 days of driving me and rach got to the camp ground on the bombays.

Friday morning was going good with beautiful blue sky and the fastest corner for drifting in the world ready to be attacked by some 60 drivers. The corner really plays with your head as you need to be doing at least 180km to get around with good angle, i did afew good runs but when i got into the pits got told off for my car being to loud along with half of the feild. I strugled through the day by trying to kill the noise becouse everytime i tryed to quieten it i lost a huge amount of power which made it hard to drift the section. I got it sorted and had a few good qualifing runs which put me in 4th place for qualifing.

The top 16 battle went well i didnt push to hard so i didnt make any mistakes and was through to the next day for the top 8.

Simon from garage h wanted me to take him for a ride at the end of the day but as we left the pits changed 1 gear then the engine started to mis fire BUGGER!! after trying to find out what it was we had to pack up and get out of the track so headed down to E H motors and pulled the rocker cover off to find 2 smashed rockers BUGGER BUGGER! I fished all the broken bits out and Carl Ruitiman got me some spare rockers and thanks to Josh Coote (Aussie) for the motivation to fix it as i was very tyred and wasnt really felling it.

Getting it all back together i gad a little misshap by braking a bolt off for the camshaft bearing cap, a bid thanks to E H motors for helping me and i got it out and all back together.

Saturday was another beaut day and got some good practice runs in. Top 8 battles went well taking out Carl Sturmfles, to make top 4 but after a rerun lost so battled Brendon Rogerson for 3rd and 4th and had 2 good runs taking him out for 3rd place which i was super stoked about after a huge effort to get there and the troubles on friday.

The last 3 weekends ive made the podium 3 different times at 3 of New Zealands biggest

extreme sports events!

2nd round 4 D1NZ rookies

2nd 2011 bullerfest Boater X

3rd round 5 D1NZ rookies

So big thanks to all those people who help me out in getting here!!!!

The busy life!

What a crazy few weeks its been, On the 6th me and ryan lucas drove down to the buller fest in Murchison for a weekend of racing and drinking, and that we did. The boater x is one of the biggest feilds in the country with more then 70 mens competitors, after a long day we had the final set and ready to go with myself Sam Sutton  Mike Dawson and another young slalom paddler.It was a great race with me hot on mikes tail but couldnt make a pass and Mike ended up taking the win with myself in 2nd and sam 3rd.

After a few good nights of partying and a sweet day hucking off Mururia Falls it was time to head to the wild west coast to do somw heli boating with Bruce Dando and his awsome little hughs 300 chopper.

Monday we went up the Kokatahi river for a sick days boating on one of my top 3 runs ive done in the world.

Photo. mike dawson. Paddler Wills marton

The river had changed alot after alot of flooding this year which opened up rapids like this sick drop, but
also changed rapids for the worst the couldnt be paddled any more



I flew up with Isaac the American, Fabian the Argentinean, Sam, Ryan, Wills and mike. Making a pretty stout team. The action started pretty early on, with Ryan missing a boof and getting beat down in one of the numerous holes. I bagged him out to the side. Next up was Fabian getting slotted into a little seive... Super dodge. I pulled him out with some help from the U.S. The last of the action saw Isaac getting stuck in a little surprise hole before getting bagged by Sam and pulled out. No swims, but a bit of action.

Photo mike dawson

Day 2 was a chill day up the hoki river with a massive crew of 12 paddlers which dose take a bit longer but everyone had a sick day with the 2 girls on the trip lou jull and martina doing awsome and sticking there lines.

after a good night sleep in the back of the trusty van with my room mate Ryan i headed off back to the north island for round 5 of the D1NZ in Auckland.

round 4 vid

D1NZ round 4 Taupo video I put together.