Viking Invitational 2013... what an event! fantastic people, great location and the weather turned out "mint"! With over 68 Viking owners in attendance and the Anglers Loge fully booked out, with the overflow camping up at Papa Aroha and surrounds.

Before you scroll through the many great pics below, taken on the day we want to mention a big thank you to Dave & Donelle, owners of the ANGLERS LODGE, for the amaizing hospitality and great facilities, the Viking staff who made sure we all rehydrated (Jason & Lenny), Navico for the Spot prize of a Lowrance Elite sounder and of course a huge thanks to everyone who turned up to make this another great Viking Invitational!

Photos & Video

We took many great images of you all out there on the water, too many to put up here so we have shared the best of a great bunch for you to scroll through, If you find anything in there that you want for your own files or to share around send a request to jasonm@vikingkayaks.co.nz and ask for the pics in high res. Likewise if you have some images from the day that we can ad to the galleries send them through to the same email.

Below is a preview from the days filming on the boat, we will be putting together a full version of this which will include on board footage from the many cameras on kayaks... if you have some footage we can add to the video please let me know, would be great to have some more footage of you out enjoying the day.. 

The best layed plans

As mentioned above we could not have planned the weather better, the shotgun start at 8am went off without a hitch seing all 68 Viking kayaks launching off for the day (lots of photos below to showcase this). Anglers pretty much scattered all over with the majority heading for the Islands. As we skipped around in the boat taking pics there were lots of reports of 35-40cm fish (good for a feed) but the big ones were elusive until we snuck up on a crew stalking a small island.

At that moment someone hooked up a 16lb snapper then over his shoulder Sharky (Rob Wright) went on a slay ride after a kingfish...sharky later on manged to get a Kahawai but it took him all day to the last hour to land at least 1 snapper...we then headed wide to find Stuart & Shelley out the back of Happy Jacks fishing fishing among Dolphins and the occassional whale!

Many other great stories came out around the BBQ table over a few beers with mates, below is a round up of the prizes given out by Grant & Stephen with a particular mention of a last minute spot prize which was for one lucky person to trade in their kayak for the new Profish Reload when we launch it... of all the names to come out of the hat (yes everyone was in there) Kevin Pilcher was the chosen one..Kevin has been lucky enough to win 3 kayaks  in this way at other events...when asked whats the secret, Kevin announced that you need to have a real crap day fishing, come in empty handed, feel like it was all hard work with no reward, sink down a beer then Boom...go figure, some people are just lucky :-)

Prize Giving results

• 1st - Rob Wright $1000
• 2nd - Lyndon Cox $500
• 3rd - Dave Leatherby $300
• 4th - Matthew Holwill $250
• 5th - Gerhadt Van der Westhuizen $200
• 6th - Paul Bailey $100
• 7th - Michael Parkin $100
• 8th - Glyn Reid $100
• 9th Shane Kelley $100
• 10th - Martin Barnard $100
• Free Upgrade to new Profish Reload - Kevin Pilcher
• Lowrance Elite 5 HDI -  Jeremy Hopson

GALLERY 1 - *Friday Morning at Anglers Lodge* Click the images to see more

GALLERY 2 - *Waitete Beach Sotgun Start* Click the images to see more

GALLERY 3 - *On the water* Click the images to see more

GALLERY 4 - *Weigh In* Click the images to see more

GALLERY 5 - *Prize Giving* Click the images to see more