N.Z. exports sport

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34046, 9 January 1976, Page 3

N.Z. exports sport

(From

ALAN GRAHAM.

N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

SYDNEY. New Zealand’s latest export to Australia is a sport: grass ski-ing, and the promoters hope that there will be a follow-up in exports of the New Zealand-made “skis” needed for this new allyear pastime. Mr lan Talbot, a 29-year-old Wellington skier who has been visiting Australia for the last two weeks to promote grass ski-ing, believes there is a market here for both the sport and the short skis with plastic rollers. ‘Tve been to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, talking to skiers, clubs, and sports shops, and the response has been very good," he said yesterday. “There has been only a small amount of unorganised grass ski-ing in Australia, but

they have excellent grass slopes in the cities here, and what I’d like to see is a number of centres set up where the public can hire grass skis and have a go.”

As a snow skier with instructor qualifications from America, Mr Talbot has been promoting grass ski-ing in Wellington for several years. He is president of the Wellington Grass Ski Club which is setting up its own public ski slope, complete with uphill tows and hire equipment, and he has commercial interests in the manufacture of the roller skis.

The club hopes that, with the help of the Wellington City Council, the club hopes to have its slope ready by the end of this year, and later it aims to install plastic matting on which snow skis can be used.

The New Zealand grass skis will sell for about

SNZ72, and skiers use ordinary ski boots and poles. “There is considerable interest in Hamilton, Christchurch, and Methven,” Mr Talbot said. “Dunedin has many perfect sites, and they are looking for a site in Auckland. “Adelaide has perfect sites. Thev are good in Sydney and Melbourne, too, but we have had some trouble on the sandy soil in Perth. We’ll have to look harder there.” Mr Talbot envisages a competition grass ski-ing circuit in both countries, with indi- ■ vidua] and team events for both men and women. He thinks that the skateboard craze has probably hindered his sport. but doubts that it will last as long as grass ski-ing, especially if other centres follow Wellington’s lead and set up clubhouses and permanent : ski hills with tows.