End of Season 2024/25 Wrap Up

2025 New Zealand Paragliding Cross-Country Championships

April 1st 2024 to March 31st 2025

End of Season Wrap Up

Here’s the wrap up of the 2025 competition! Weather-wise, Nov, Dec and Feb had less activity compared to previous seasons making January by far the best month for high scoring. January had 49 out of the 80 50+ km North Island flights; and 63 out of the 94 75+ km South Island flights.

Record FAI triangles! Sure, it’s much harder to achieve a nice FAI triangle shape, but with that course type scoring two points for every kilometre, Otago pilots have known for several seasons that, if you can manage them, then flying nice-shaped FAI triangle courses is certainly the way to go to finish top-ranked. So South of Mt Cook, Otago pilots have upped the bar with NZ’s first 200+ km FAI triangle courses! (Details below). North of Mt Cook, season 2025 stands out as a season where several pilots of other regions have taken on the FAI triangle challenge too: regional best distance FAI triangle flights have been flown in Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Nelson and in Canterbury north of Lake Ohau. Without exception, those same flights have been the highest scoring XC Champs flights ever recorded for those areas of NZ!

Here are some season highlights:

• NZ’s first four FAI triangles over 200 km (Thomas Rold, Louis Tapper, Leo Chelle and Tapper, flying 208, 213, 211 and 208 km respectively, in time completed order, one scratched from the scoring, all from Coronet Peak)
• NZ’s best and 2nd best FAI triangles by a female pilot (Clemence Cadario, 153 km and 143 km, the longer one also a best as an out-and-back, 93 km)
• NZ’s 7th best open distance (Rold, 188 km, Mt Fox)
• The longest FAI triangle flown north of Mt Cook (Ondrej Wieden, 97.5 km, Long Spur, Canterbury)
• The North Island’s longest FAI triangle (Greg Ellis, 81.8 km, Kaimai, Waikato)
• A new regional FAI triangle record for Bay of Plenty (Aaron Chesterman, 70.1 km, Paeroa)
• A new regional out-and-back record for Wairarapa (James Cato, 64.5 km, Dalefield Road)
• A new regional FAI triangle record for Nelson (Ramon Lavia, 82.9 km, Mt Murchison)
• The Kaimai, Waikato open distance site record matched (Elliot Revell-Nash, 98.4 km)
• The long standing (Jan 1995) open distance record for Takaka Hill, Nelson, bettered (Stew Karstens, 52.6 km)
• 8 FAI triangles over 150 km, and a further 10 more FAI or Flat Triangles over 100 km
• 7 flights over NZ 100 km open distance
• In total, 45 NZ 100 km flights of various course types.

(Hard luck award). Outside of the XC Champs, Louis Tapper flew an epic FAI triangle course from Coronet Peak on Jan 13; but unfortunately for Louis, his instruments failed to record the flight take off, a point very close to controlled airspace. That meant Louis’ flight was deemed ineligible for both a NZ PG XC Champs entry and a NZ XC record claim. Given the flight was declared as compliant, I have noted the flight for statistical purposes: it has a current ranking of 1 for NZ FAI triangle distance (213 km), 2 for NZ out-and-back distance (168 km), and 2 for NZ free flight (3 turn-point) distance (237 km).

2025 NZ XC Champions and Category Winners

* 1st place and 2025 NZ XC Champion
Pilot: Leo Chelle
After flying some of the longest open distance flights in the previous two seasons, Leo has secured his first XC Champs title by focussing on FAI Triangle courses - long ones! Leo’s best was a 211.9 km FAI Triangle course from Coronet Peak on Jan 20 which further extended the NZ National FAI Triangle record beyond 200 km, a flight that remained the highest scoring of the season.

* 1st Runner Up
Pilot: Bradley Franks
Just 30 points behind Chelle, Bradley’s highest scoring flights were also from Coronet Peak: three excellent FAI Triangles of distances 151, 129 and 161 km.

* 2nd Runner Up and 2025 Women’s XC Champion
Pilot: Clemence Cadario
130 points ahead of fourth place, remarkably Clem’s only Champs’ entries, three long triangles, were flown in just an eight day window in January! It was sufficient time for Clem to be the first woman to fly a 150 km FAI Triangle course in NZ by paraglider (Coronet Peak, Jan 13), and defend her NZ Women’s XC Champs title.

* Best Rookie (first-time PG2 competitor)
Pilot: David Gerner
Placed 46th overall, David’s flights included a 41 km FAI Triangle course from Treble Cone, Otago; and a 64 km free flight course Treble Cone to Lake Hawea (the best scoring flight of the day, Mar 25).

* North Island Champion
Pilot: Greg Ellis
Greg kick-started his North Island scoring on Dec 7 with a 64 km flat triangle course, and jumped to the top of the North Island ranking on Feb 13 by bagging the best ever FAI Triangle course flown in the North Island, 81.8 km from Kaimai!

* North Island Best Open Distance
Pilot: Elliot Revell-Nash
98.4 km from Kaimai, Waikato.

* South Island Best Open Distance
Pilot: Thomas Rold
188 km from Mt Fox, West Coast.

Well done all of the above! (Especially Leo) :) Thank you to all who submitted flights so we could see where there was good flying to be had.

2025 NZ PG XC Champs Overall and North Island Final Standings

Click on these links to go to full report for the 2025 New Zealand Paragliding Cross-Country Championships, including the table of the top 50 places overall, the North Island table (top 25), and season’s site best flights.

XC Champs Table - Final Standings
North Island Table
Open Distance Table
North Island Open Distance Table
2025 Season Site Best Flights
Season 2025 Milestone Flights