Shearing events a family affair for the Te Whatas

Wool will fly in a shearing family showdown between a record-breaking father and his novice teenage son at the Golden Shears tonight.
Veteran shears competitor Hamahona 'Samson' Te Whata is to cross clippers with his fourteen-year-old son Tipene in the heats of the contractors' teams shearing event held tonight from 6.45 at the Genesis Recreation Centre in Masterton.
"All the connections go bust when we hit the boards but we will still be arriving and leaving together I hope," said Mr Te Whata.
It will be a day of world-class firsts for Tipene, who was to compete earlier as a singles novice shearer, and for his Te Whata Easi-Shear teammates - shearer Matene Mason (grandson of original Golden Shears kuia and rousie Hinerau Mason) and wool-handlers Shani Graham and Rawinia Edmonds - who are possibly the youngest team ever to compete at the international contest.
The team will literally have their work cut out for them when the timer starts ticking for the open class event, with competing teams judged on speed and quality as they work their way through six second shear cross-bred sheep.
Tipene remains confident but realistic of his chances as he has already taken out a pre-shear novice competition last month despite having shorn his first sheep ever just before Christmas last year.
To qualify for the novice class contest he had to show he could shear no more than 110 sheep in a day.
"I'm just going to go in there and shear," he said.
From 1979 to 1980 his father broke three shearing records and won Golden Shears titles and other championships across the country through to the late 80s. Mr Te Whata has also represented Australia as a shearer.
Over the past two decades Mr Te Whata has designed and delivered shearing and wool handling training programs in central New South Wales, he said, and is picking back up his competitive handpiece " after an almost 20 year break besides having a go last year and finishing way down the list".
He said he is approaching the competition this year with greater aggression and a more work fit physical approach after working pre lamb shearing in Alexandra last August.
"The body seems to forget the finer actions but I am fitter now than I was last year and my mindset is better as well."
Mr Te Whata is part of a Te Whanau o Akura plan to open an academy of shearing in Wairarapa that will focus on training youth keen on entering the industry.
Mr Te Whata said his son will follow quickly in his competitive footsteps with the training and advice available to him, and with his early exposure to the best the shearing world has to offer.
"Some of us have had the opportunity to be in the company of champions. I was surrounded by the world's best when I started out and Tipene is no different.
"I believe he will be shearing at a top competitive level within three years and may even be breaking records himself soon after that."
Wairarapa has thrown many champions into the mix since before the first Golden Shears was held in 1961 including the first world lamb shear record set in 1958 by Jim Morris, followed by early shears champions and Wairarapa shearers Graham Clegg and Len Chamberlain.
"Wairarapa is the heartbeat of shearing in the world and Masterton right now is the centre of it all," Mr Te Whata said.