While ocean ski paddlers love a windy race, unfortunately the weather has been a bit exuberant for the last two events in the Darcy Price NZ Ocean Ski series, resulting in the cancellation of both.
As the Windy City Downwind and the Deep South Downwind were unable to go ahead, a competitor’s series points in this season’s Darcy Price series will now be the total of their best THREE race points (previously it was the total of the best of four races).
Paddlers get allocated points based on their placing in each race, and the male and female paddler with the most points at the end of the series will be the Darcy Price NZ Ocean Racing Series Champion for that season. Each race in this year’s series is worth a maximum of 300 points.
For 2023/24 series only: In the event of tied points at the end of the series at the top of the leaderboard, the winner will be determined by:
If the paddlers tied have gone head to head in a race(s) then the series winner will be the person who won that race, or the most races. (Virtual race not included in head to head)
if they raced twice and won 1 each, then whoever did better in the race with the most participants will be the series winner.
While the cancellation of events is always disappointing, the safety of paddlers and race officials/volunteers is the number one priority, and all events have approved safety plans and permits with set parameters that must be followed.
There are five events remaining in the 2023/24 series, after the Tawhiti Rahi Coastal Challenge kicked off this season’s ocean races in September:
- Paddler Virtual Champs – Aotearoa | Virtual – 1st to 31st January
- James Moore-morial “Bhutty Moore” Race- Tauranga – Saturday 3rd February
- Queen and King of the Bay- Tasman – 17/18 February
- Heads to Harbour-Whakatane – Saturday 9th March
- Auckland King & Queen of the Harbour- Auckland -Saturday 11th May
Get your entries in now so you can get out amongst the waves and get involved in the NZ Ocean ski series in the new year! The summer break is the perfect time to get some miles in your arm to get ready for some iconic events.
