It was one of those incidents beyond the control of Hawke's Bay waterski racer Jaaron Fritz and his Wellington partner, Bevin Turksma.
Simon Morrison, the driver and owner of the Tauranga boat they were skiing behind at the weekend's Hauraki Twin Rivers race, was hit in the face by a duck
shortly after the start.
"Fortunately, he managed to recover without losing too much momentum," Fritz told SportToday as he reflected on their win in the Long Race section of one of New Zealand's most challenging races.
It is a combination of two rivers, Waihou and Piako, and the Firth of Thames. The course starts at Ngatea and travels down the Piako and back up the Waihou.
Boats exit the Piako River into the Firth of Thames. From there, they make their way across to the mouth of the Waihou, where they power up river to the finish line.
Fritz is full of praise for the manner in which Morrison recovered from the duck incident as well as a temporary loss of GPS signal in the Firth of Thames, which meant they picked up the turn buoy late before making a quick return into the Waihou.
Turksma and Fritz were skiing behind the twin-engined Warlord, a regular winner of the Hamilton Bridge to Bridge event.
Speeds of 160km/h were reached as Warlord completed the fastest time for their section.
The Hawke's Bay pair of Chris Holman and Paul Mitchell were competing behind the Auckland boat, Force Fed, the 2009 winner of the Hamilton Bridge to Bridge. They were aiming to take out the King of the Rivers title, which takes in the Bridge to Bridge and Twin Rivers events. However a fall from Mitchell resulted in the pair finishing third equal with Warlord.
