Wild Rock Account Visits
Turtle Bay is a well catered resort set out on a point with an amazing surf break, golf course, and some excellent restaurants like Ola’s and 21 Degrees. I did a Wine Representatives Dinner at 21 Degrees and a wine information night with Ola’s. The staff at Ola’s were really great fun to party with too!
Ola’s loved our Pinot Noir for it’s up front fruit, wild thyme mid palate & dry finish. Our Savy was appreciated for its stand out difference to all other NZ Marlborough Savy’s – a hint of Riesling and Viognier. Ola sold out of our wine while I was there – I arranged an emergency Wild Rock drop off no worries.
Swapped my Jeep Cherokee rental over for a cheaper Mustang convertible!! Check out the deal on Hotwire – only $26 a day!
Had some excellent market visits to existing and potentially new accounts in Honolulu (an hour or so drive over the island from the North Shore). Had a great lunch at Duc’s Vietnamese/French restaurant in Chinatown – yum roast duck breast with ginger – followed by their fab gin cocktail. Duc’s give you a complimentary cocktail with every meal! The meals are really inexpensive and delicious. Checked out all the top hotels in Waikiki too.
Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational Surfing Contest
This competition requires big waves of minimum 30ft wave face for ‘Eddie to be on’ and has only been held nine times (including this event) since it started in 1985. The waves were so big they went over the only road in/out of the North Shore and there were high surf warning signs up like the ones for road traffic in NZ.
An experience of a lifetime – I got to catch some of this craziness in the largest waves I have ever seen. It was excellent to see Billabong’s Greg Long winning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GQF-6RRWz4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE8y4kIgOp4
Billabong Pipeline Masters
If you had to choose between the three events of the Vans Triple Crown my pick would be the Pipeline without a doubt.
An absolutely brilliant event which was well laid out with two main areas;
• the promotional tents (including the dead cool Wild Rock one) and leader/information board elevated up on the grass looking down on the Bozai Pipeline which was about 100m long
• The beach tents had pro surfer tents, photographer tents and thousands of people sitting on the sand, and when it got too hot swimming in the shallow waters.
The surf was consistent and crowd pleasing keeping you on the edge of your seat. Some fantastic rides through the Pipeline and back door barrels too.
My favourites were Joel Parkinson and Taj Burrow – I was gutted to see Joel fall of the of the top of the wave in one of the final heats.
It was great that Taj won and Joel took the WTA (winner takes all) prize.
The Wild Rock Party was awesome – just amazing! We had about 150 people at the Billabong House on the Pipeline with Donavan Frankenreiter playing and Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow, Andy Irons and many other top pro surfers there. The party went to 3-4ish when we went swimming in the sea (after I inadvertently took the 10 ft wall down!). We had a blast and the vibe was really happy – Wild Rock Wine was enjoyed by all. The auction including an action trip to NZ (including - AJ Hackett Auckland Harbour Bungy, Auckland Wakeboarding, Queenstown Kawarau Jet boating and Rafting) as a prize went really well and the money raised for SurfAid doubled what we expected.
We then had another huge party the night after for Billabong – a Lifeguard Charity party with about 1000 people – Wild Rock was the only wine enjoyed by all!
After all of that I headed home to Christmas in NZ. Phew!
Cheers
Ash - The Wild Rock Guy
