Crankworx Rotorua

Aotearoa – “Land of the long white cloud” or maybe more aptly “Land of the long dark cloud” over the week of Crankworx Rotorua.

Rotorua is base to some amazing riding, namely its trail riding, but it is also base to New Zealand’s Wide Open Distributors who distribute brands such as Intense, Enve, FSA, Marzocchi, Chris King and ODI along with a bunch of other high quality brands, throughout Aotearoa (New Zealand). Matt Whittaker, the head honcho at Wide Open, first made a name for himself over in the states wrenching for the Foes DH team before heading back to NZ where he started Wide Open Distributors, first of all distributing ODI, as a part time gig whilst working as a builder. Wide Open Distributors has a pretty good following within New Zealand, partly due to the heavy hitting roster of riders that Matt has supported over the years. Riders such as Brook Macdonald, Sam Blenkinsop, Wyn and Eddie Masters and Kelly Mcgarry, to name a few, have all had support throughout their careers from Wide Open. Not long after I left school Matt picked me up as a young dirt jump kid from the deep south and has helped me get to where I am today! For me, the Wide Open tent in the expo area was home base for the week that was Crankworx Rotorua 2017!



Arriving by plane mid day Friday, with half a day of practice for the EWS gone already I was eager to get on my fresh rig and sample the trails, some of which were soon to turn to peanut butter, that we would be racing on Sunday. Come Sunday it was bucketing it down which for a handful of riders was a welcome sight, and, as the results show, a bunch of Kiwis ended up making the most of the conditions and their local knowledge, coming out with the top three spots! On ya Wyn, Matt and Eddie! Upon finishing the grueling 8 hour day out on course I saw a cluster of who I assumed were random people sheltering under the Wide Open/ Intense tents at the finish area. Wondering over I was soon to discover the Intense factor racing team, mechanic and staff from the HQ. Having never met them before they certainly made a good first impression, food and beer! Shortly after Intense factory racing all round shredder Jack Moir came in to finish an awesome 6th place in his second ever EWS!







The next few days were spent trying to shoot photos for deep summer and Wide Open Distributors, Intense and POC whilst also trying not to get drenched by the ever-persistent rain. Come Thursday the rain had stopped and we were left with ice like conditions, which surprisingly quickly turned to hero dirt! Most events over the week had a change to their schedule so practice was in full effect on almost all the courses with people trying to get what little practice they could before the big shows.






I had a rough time during pump track and Speed and Style, rushing to build up a new Deity hardtail last minute, with the final piece of the puzzle showing up just before the event, and then riding it after not having ridden a hardtail since Crankworx whistler! Needless to say I struggled a little bit, having only ridden trail and DH bikes recently I found it quite short but soon got back in the swing of things.



Come heats I was ready to send it and ended up throwing a flip tuck, my go to flip combo which I had done plenty of times in practice, on the final booter right beside Elmo, I slightly cased the jump and with my weight still over the front slightly I was flung over the bars, outstretched arms, and snap! Having only been back on the bike with all guns swinging for two weeks after 5 months off nursing a broken scaphoid my first worry was that I might re-break it. I did all my rehab right and was feeling pretty strong and had an awesome brace on loan from a mate Phil Mclean (All Sport Dynamics brace, I would highly recommend if you break your scaphoid) so all was good on the wrist front but felt a bunch of pain in my shoulder when I pushed down with my arm to stand up. My first thought being my shoulder as I used to have a lot of issues with it dislocating before I had surgery, thankfully the pain was slightly different and once I felt my shoulder it was pretty obvious that my collarbone was well and truly snapped.


Being off the bike, especially back-to-back injuries, sucks, but I am happy it’s only a broken collarbone and not something worse, like dislocating my shoulder again. As I was in hospital until the following afternoon getting surgery, I missed what I was looking forward to the most, the whip off! The jump was amazing last year and Elevate and Empire of Dirt boys had tweaked it a few days prior and from the sounds of it it was even better again, pretty disappointed to miss that one as it is generally one of the better events during Crankworx but there is always next year!




I also missed the big show, the slopestyle! I didn’t even get to watch it online as surgery happened to be at the same time. I was more than stoked to wake up and see Nicholi crush it with a perfect run and with more in the tank.



Being out of the action there wasn't much else to do other than check out some of the product on show and watch the the DH which was still to come. Having raced the DH last year I knew how much fun everyone would be having up there, one of the better DH tracks I have ridden forsure! The track starts off in open fields with natural jumps, then dives into the forest before getting to the larches, which, in the wet, are like a steep ice skating rink, then down into some rocks and jumps and back out into the open with some rowdy off camber and jumps to please the crowd just before the finish line.







Cheers for the good (not so much the bad) times Crankworx, I'll see you in France for the next stop! Also cheers to Graeme Murray for all the photos!