Horse wakeboarding is not your usual, everyday sport, but it's being done right on our own Kiwi shores.
Adrenaline-seekers Hamish Bourke, Sophie Schollum, Daniel Thomas and Ekke Elle recently headed to Northland to seek out some horse riders who could tow a wakeboarder.
They found Nikita Osborne and Chloe Phillips-Harris, who train wild Kaimanawa horses and are old hands at horse wakeboarding.
The woman got the idea from YouTube video and thought they would try it out. A wheelbarrow was used in the first few test runs, before quickly being replaced by a wakeboard.
"[It's] something pretty epic and an experience I will never forget," Mr Bourke says.
The horses get up to 35km/h, Mr Bourke predicts, and can gallop for as long as the beach allows.
"The hardest thing was getting used to the pull of the horses in comparison to a boat. They would just rip your arms off."
(Hamish Bourke)
The wakeboarding is for Mr Bourke and his team's next episode of short film web series Zones, which showcases some of the best and most unique places to wakeboard on our own doorstep.
"We're pretty lucky here in New Zealand that we've got such a vast array of landscapes…[and] can ride in the most unique locations we can."
Ms Osborne's Grand Prix dressage horse Alfie does the pulling on Tokerau Beach. She's owned Alfie since he was two years old, and there's still no slowing him down at 14.
"The horses seem to love it," she says.
"I think the wakeboarding is awesome, because it shows the diverse range of things a horse can do," Ms Phillips-Harris says.
Ms Schollum is one of the wakeboarders behind the horses, who is also a national champion of the sport.
"She's pretty handy at what she does," Mr Bourke says.
"The big thing for us is trying to step outside that wakeboarding industry and make it more mainstream."
He says it's hard to make something stand out in the digital world where there is a constant stream of content.
"I knew [horses and wakeboarding] would be a perfect fit," he says.
(Hamish Bourke)
Newshub.
