Southland Sport
The Ultimate Waterman contestants head indoors to Splash Palace today (Saturday, April 8) with an underwater strength run and swim.
Athletes will jump into the pool, grab two 25kg weights and run 25metres along the bottom of the pool to a 1metre wide zone, with the aim not surfacing for air. They will then swim freestyle 25metres back.
Public Relations manager Rikki Swannell encourages spectators to get to Splash Palace about half an hour before the event, which begins at 4pm and is expected to take about an hour, he said.
He also welcomes the public to stay for poolside winner presentations after the event.
Current champion Zane Schweitzer, of Hawaii, is at the top of the leader board with the other seven athletes hot on his heels as the group head into today’s events.
Athlete are scheduled to compete in shortboard, longboard, SUP surfing, big wave paddle in surfing and SUP endurance disciplines during nine days as they chase the best surfing conditions around Southland.
Kiwi hopeful Daniel Kereopa has fought hard to keep himself in contention to grab back the title he won in 2015, currently sitting in fourth place overall, despite battling injury and finishing 7th in yesterday’s (Friday) 16km paddle.
On Sunday (April 9) athletes are expected to head to Riverton where they will compete in the Outrigger Canoe Endurance discipline.