Queenstown Bike Festival 16inch World Bar Championships

Well this is how we do things in New Zealand. We go hard and have fun while we are doing it. One of the most radical and popular events in the Queenstown Bike Festival is the World Bar 16 inch World Championships. Girls and guys alike sign up way in advance to secure a spot on the start ramp. All competitors have to use the same 16inch bike - so your gear ain't gonna make any difference! The tight course is taped on to sticky floor of the pub, with spectators taking a hands on approach to getting involved in the action. Obstacles include beer kegs stacked high, seesaws and excited punters ... there is also a compulsory beer stop as it is in a bar and we are sure that beer contains some electrolytes for re-hydration purposes.

Just to give you an idea of how things go down in New Zealand, here is the recap from last year's Queenstown Bike Festival in 2013 - dress code was varied and go pros definitely allowed! We had some super heroes entered, as Superman comes to the Southern hemisphere for the summer as his suit really doesn't provide much insulation for the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

Structures were negotiated at high speed on an increasingly sticky floor. With the high numbers of onlookers packed into the bar, padding on hard objects was not required as the crowd provided quite a good human buffer for any competitors making their way off course

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

Some moves were made - unseen to the human eye until now. Perhaps this one would have looked better upside down as we are down under and perhaps gravity was different that day, but this was christened the ninja fail move and well, the bike used was highly illegal as per the race rules and the competitor disqualified for not taking it seriously enough

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

Then the atmosphere got edgy and the competition got nasty. By an underhanded move from a corner of the bar, tomato ketchup was seen to be squirted over the course, with a follow up team a few metres down the track having mustard. It got dirty. People smelt funny ... and it got a bit weird

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

Then the action picked up for the best trick competition. Kelly McGarry (who Queenstown are very proud of) did this ...

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

Then Emmerson Wilken did this

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

The crowd went wild. Votes were put to the judging panel by way of volume and the highly technical scoring system pronounced Emmerson the winner. Thanks to the generous local sponsors, Em went home with a bike, which he then donated to a local school.

Photo courtesy of Fallon Photography

This is building up of course to the World Bar 16inch World Championship for 2014, which will need to be in the pop up bar The Find as the World Bar burnt down. Big news for Queenstown as the World Bar was a symbol of fun loving for the local Kiwis and travellers alike. Just goes to show that the end of the World is not .. er .. the end of the World and the Queenstown Bike Festival goes on regardless