The Ultimate Waterman is a New Zealand based global surfing event to find the world’s best all-round waterman across multiple surfing disciplines. The world’s finest watermen will come together in New Zealand in 2017 to compete in eight different surfing disciplines over nine days. The eight disciplines will include:
• Shortboard surfing
• Longboard surfing
• Stand Up Paddle (SUP) surfing
• Stand
Up Paddle (SUP) endurance (16km race)
• Big Wave Paddle in surfing
• Waka-Ama endurance (16km race)
• Prone Paddleboard race (technical short course through waves)
• Underwater strength run and swim race (25m underwater run and 25m swim)
The invitation-only contest will seek out the best conditions Southland has to offer, creating a unique event that will test the competitor’s skill, strength, spirit and endurance on some of the planet’s most-stunning coastline. Nowhere is out of bounds; the whole Southland coastline is the arena. TUW will be a truly mobile event, with locations around Southland selected on the day for optimal weather, wind and swell conditions. The watermen and event crew will drive or fly from the event hub in Invercargill to each selected discipline location to create an event of high intensity, flexibility and manoeuvrability. The resulting TUW webclips will be screened domestically and internationally, attracting significant national and global media coverage. The guerrilla-style nature of the event will make for great content and will promote Southland and New Zealand’s amazing tourism, lifestyle and scenery to a massive international audience. The LIVE site located in the Invercargill CBD will be the high profile epicentre of the event and host daily media activity, athlete appearances and signing sessions, and act as the fan base. The event will also include public participation events for national and international competitors and spectator engagement opportunities that will run alongside the elite athlete Ultimate Waterman competition. An all-comers SUP, waka ama, prone paddleboard and surf ski participation events will be held at the conclusion of the event on the final day. The platform is set again for this event to become a global extreme sports sensation that delivers a unique combination of destination New Zealand tourism outcomes and direct engagement opportunities through the mass participation events, exhibition events and LIVE site, and the media profile created by hosting a unique world event. Event Ambassadors are Laird Hamilton and Titus Kinimaka. The event is also supported by 2012 ASP World Champion Joel Parkinson.
