The neck at Lower Manorburn dam

A demonstration of why you should always be careful of skating through the neck in the Lower Manoburn dam in Central Otago, New Zealand. We had good ice across the entirety of the rest of the dam, over 100 mm in the middle basin in fact, but the thickness at the neck was estimated at only 15 mm.

I was the initial skater and i did notice some serious cracking and one hell of a wave formed in front me, but it wasn't until David Patchett skated through that the danger became more apparent as the ice cracked in concentric circles around him.

For future reference ... clamber over the rock to get between the top and middle basins unless you are darn sure the neck itself has sufficient ice to hold you.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• skating
• new zealand
• ice
• manorburn
• dam

[zl3uxb]

Dam that's scary! I bet its deep there too! Nice slomo stuff. We are in Queenstown this weekend filming.

[ryanhellyer]

@zl3uxb Yep, not something we'll be trying again any time soon :)

We are heading back up to Central Otago on Saturday if you would like to meet up some place. We're aiming to skate on Poolburn if possible, but it'll depend on ice conditions.

[broadcastmedianz]

Ok look up this usename on google nz and send me a message to liase Youll find a relevant dot tv website Cheers Joe