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STU JACKSON/Timaru Herald

BIG JUMP: Ezra Murray, 10, learns to jump at the experimental cable wakeboarding park at Ealing. The park was converted from an irrigation pond by three University of Canterbury graduates.

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An irrigation pond near Rangitata is the launching pad for New Zealand's next action attraction.

Three University of Canterbury graduates have used the pond at Ealing to fine-tune their cable wakeboarding park design.

One of the graduates, Nick Morris, 22, hails from the region and organised to use the irrigation pond as the research and design base.

The commerce graduate is in Europe working at another cable park in preparation for the next stage when the trio set up the cable parks in New Zealand.

Meanwhile his colleague and marketing graduate, Josiah Murray, 23, is preparing to move to Auckland to start scouting for a site to launch the cable park commercially.

"We had it [the Ealing cable park] operating over the summer on Fridays and Saturdays to test it out, and we were booked out every time we opened.

"A lot of people came to try it, paying around $20. We wanted to get feedback and get it right and have changed the design quite a bit since," Mr Murray said.

"That was just for research and design. That site probably won't be set up as a commercial one as you can't have a tourist operation like that just off the main road."

A cable runs the length of the pond and pulls wakeboarders along like a powerboat but without the speed fluctuations.

"Cable wakeboarding started in Germany and has been really successful around the world, but there was none in New Zealand so we want to set them up here."

The cable parks are based on the design of the third business partner and Canterbury graduate, engineer Tim Dunn, 22.

"The technology was quite expensive. Our cable design is quite different which makes it a lot more affordable for us to set it up," Mr Murray said.

He predicted sessions would cost around $20 with the cable park operating at three different speeds – beginner, intermediate and advanced.

"A session will include board and helmet hire and on-land lessons. Once they are on the water participants can get live coaching through the helmets which have a speaker in them."

For the advanced wakeboarder, the cable park at Ealing had a jump and rails with staff assessing if riders were up to it.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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