The region’s fire fighters pitted themselves against each other in a race of determination and strength on Saturday for the Nelson Marlborough Provincial Firefighter Challenge.
However, it was Tākaka Brigade’s 39ers that emerged victorious.
The challenge involved a course of physicality which included running up four-storeys of stairs wearing a full firefighters kit and breathing apparatus, hoisting a 20kg hose pack up the same tower, running a slalom course, running out a charged hose and busting through doors to hit a target with the water beam, before dragging an 80kg dummy 30 metres backwards.
Competitors could enter as a team, individual or tandem. Previous Open Men’s winner, Tākaka volunteer fire Sam Goffriller, says he enjoys the physical and social side of the event.
Although he didn’t have any aspirations of a time he would like to complete the course – “Just to beat Kyle”, was the only goal.
In completely healthy competition with his fellow firefighter Kyle Gardiner, when Kyle was asked the same question, his response was “Just beat Sam”.
There was even word on the street that Kyle shaved his mullet off to help him take out the win.
There can however, be only one winner, and this time was Sam’s turn. He took out the Open Mens Category with a winning time of 1min 13 sec 22.
It was just 1.5 seconds faster than Kyle’s time of 1min 14 seconds.84, although Kyle earned himself a five second penalty taking his second place time to 1min 19 seconds.
Takaka 39ers also took out first place in the relay race with a time of 1min 8 sec.28, six seconds faster than their Blenheim Bandit counterparts, who placed second.
It’s a familiar spot for the Tākaka Brigade who have worked to become the most elite team in the region. A Tākaka name now features on seven of the eight winning plaques on the Open Mens’ trophy.
Entering for the first time, the Wakey Wāhine Toa were representing the Wakefield Volunteer Fire Brigade.
Finishing, challenging themselves, not vomiting in the breathing apparatus mask and having fun were the main aims of the team, who were buoyed by an honorary team member, Stu MacDonald.
The ladies and Stu have been training with the Stoke Brigade to help ready them to enter all three categories.
The event, run by the Nelson Marlborough Provincial Fire Association, is a pre-cursor for more elite events run by the United Fire Brigades Association.
As if to remind the competitors that they were, in fact, competing in a work-related event as an extra-curricular activity, just minutes before the start of the race, a resounding scream of pagers rang out across the car park, as members of the Stoke brigade grabbed their gear to race to a real-life emergency, which turned out to be a false alarm for a smoke system activation at a nearby Monaco business.
Stoke Brigade hosted this year’s event.
Volunteer brigade member Jamie Foskett says the sport has developed into a “real community” with Saturday’s event drawing teams from the Queenstown and Gisborne fire brigades.
“It’s the most supportive environment I’ve ever seen,” he says.
“It is one of those sports with all the top elite people helping all those starting out, there are no egos, which is just incredible.”
Jamie wanted to thank Pic’s Peanut Butter for giving them their car park for the day and their cafe that opened especially for them, Waimea Scaffold and Nayland Scaffold for the tower and all the others that contributed.
