Hawke’s Bay And East Coast Operators Compete For Digger Operators’ Hole-y Grail

13 October 2024

The three best digger operators in Hawke’s Bay and East Coast have been found after an intense day of competition at the Civil Contractors New Zealand CablePrice Hawke’s Bay East Coast Regional Excavator Operator Competition on Saturday.

The event, held at the Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds in conjunction with the popular Ride in a Truck Day fundraiser, saw 12 of the region’s top operators executing some of the most outrageous challenges ever undertaken from an excavator cab.

Tanya Claxton, Shaun Truman and Connor Edwards finished with the highest scores on the day but will have to wait until an awards ceremony next month to find out who earned top spot and the right to represent the region at the national final in Feilding next year.

“It was a stunning day up here, 23 or 24 degrees, and I think operators had one of the smoothest runs we’ve ever seen,” said competition organising committee chair Mike Rogers.

“We’ve found our top three and one of the other highlights was Sean Bainbridge, in his early 20s and on his first outing on the competition. He was first on the course, didn’t get phased at all, and he one of only two to complete the egg on cone challenge which required competitors to pick up an egg using their excavators and place it on top of a road cone.”

Among the many other crowd-pleasing tests of operators’ precision at this year’s competition were challenges requiring competitors to paint, stack rocks, dunk basketballs and pour beverages using their excavators. There was a quirky golf-inspired task too, requiring operators to ‘drive’ a ball into an upturned apple bin by striking it with their 13-tonne machines.

The Hawke’s Bay regional competition also included more serious theory-based tests, requiring operators to demonstrate health and safety and first aid knowledge, proper use of personal protective equipment, hazard identification, and startup and shutdown protocols.

Excavator operator and top three finisher Tanya Claxton was competing in the event for the third time, with her last appearance 19 years ago.

“I was a bit nervous but it’s always good to challenge yourself and do something that scares you.”

The ‘egg on cone’ challenge was a “little bit different” from her day job working as a foreperson for Higgins and was the “most challenging and dinkiest” task on the day, she said.

Fellow top three finishers Shaun Truman, of Truman Earthworks, and Connor Edwards, from Galbraith Earthmovers, agreed, saying the large crowd watching the event added an extra layer of pressure.

Truman has won the Hawke’s Bay East Coast regionals twice before, in 2004 and 2002, but hasn’t competed for two decades until this year.

“It’s pretty similar to what it was last time I competed, a lot of it comes down to how well you can navigate the public eye and everyone watching.”

Rogers said as well as providing a fun day out, the competition aimed to raise awareness of the skill involved in excavator operation and inspire other people to consider joining the civil construction industry.

“It’s organised chaos but we got a good crowd, a great spectacle, and it all went smoothly – a really fun day out.”

The sponsors for this year’s CCNZ CablePrice Hawke’s Bay East Cape Regional Excavator Operator Competition were CablePrice, Hirepool, Attach2 Equipment, Connexis, Firstgas, Humes Pipeline Systems, Pro Arbore, Steelgal NZ, Galbraith Earthmovers, Hi Viz, AMC, and Fulton Hogan.

The winners of the 11 regional excavator operator competitions across New Zealand qualify for the national finals, which will be held in Feilding in March 2025, during the Central Districts Field Days.

Top 3: CCNZ CablePrice Hawke’s Bay East Coast Regional Excavator Operator Competition (in no particular order)

• Tanya Claxton – Waipukurau – Higgins
• Shaun Truman – Hastings – Truman Earthworks
• Connor Edwards – Napier – Galbraith Earthmovers

© Scoop Media