Louisa Redward (far right) with her Triple Threat team mates Laura Grant (left) and Xanthe Sando.

Footage of Taupō woman Louisa Redward’s spectacular, unplanned dismount from a rope swing, that saw her land 50 metres down a bank has gone viral on social media.

Luckily, the keen obstacle course racer can shrug off the mishap – thanking first responders who came to her aid and a bike helmet that saved her from more than bruises and a slight wrist fracture.

“It’s pretty rough,” she laughed about her Tarzan moment.

“I’m not a great advocate for obstacle course racing right now.”

In her defence, the rope which she has swung out on several times before used to be longer and have a seat on it – and she hasn’t put on a growth spurt lately.

“It’s been cut off… and I’m just not quite tall enough to land it properly.”

Of a little more concern than any dings in her obstacle course racing (OCR) reputation is that she’s not entirely sure yet about the prospective recovery time for her left wrist – but she and her fellow training and racing partners, Laura Grant and Xanthe Sando have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2025 Obstacle Course Racing World Championships in Sweden in September.

This follows on from their successes in 2024 in Costa Rica as part of a 19 strong NZ team.

“In the initial x-rays there was nothing obviously broken, I actually only found out it was fractured on Thursday last week.”

The cast was due to be removed this week for another inspection and for a physiotherapist to give her some idea of how long the hand might take to heal.

“I was going to be resting my upper body until June anyway and then start training because of my shoulder, so I’m definitely resting it at the moment… but from how the accident looked and felt at the time, I have come off relatively unscathed.”

At the time she and Grant were on a “recovery bike ride” on April 13 after taking part with Sando in the Ultimate Athlete obstacle course race the day before in Mount Maunganui.

“We went from hero to zero, we got a gold medal and trophy and then the next day not so happy but that’s fine.”

The three (dubbed Taupō Triple Threat) only started entering competitions in 2023 but were really enjoying obstacle racing, said Redward – both as individuals and as a team, even if selection for an OCR team event can be pretty last-minute.

The Triple threat team in action at Mt Maunganui the day before Louisa’s spectacular accident.

“When you race as a team for New Zealand it depends on how your (individual) races go. You do all those and then the top people… get selected on the weekend for the team if you want to compete.”

Sando and Redward raced together last year while Laura Grant saved herself for her 100m sprint event in which she won a bronze medal.

“Mostly it will be individual racing,” said Redward. Though it paid not to forget about team selection.

“In Costa Rica last year I thought I had finished all my races so had a margarita the night before and then I was eyeing up the champagne buffet at breakfast. Then I got the call up to say I needed to not do that because I would be racing that day. The team races are really fun, I think they are probably my favourite now.”

Even if it meant that she and Grant, both in their 40s were trying to keep up with Sando (25).

“That’s not easy. She is getting a bit faster than us now.”

Also getting harder was fundraising, Redward admitted.

It’s always a struggle… We raised quite a bit of money last year, I think we almost made our $15,000 dollar target which was amazing, but we haven’t done a lot this year yet. We have got a few things in the pipeline. We don’t want to be hounding people, but if a sponsor would like to support us that would be amazing.”

To contact Taupō Triple Threat, go to https://www.taupoocr.com

Obstacle course races can be anything from sprints to long-distance and involve obstacles that can take any form, from over-and-under walls to concrete-filled tyres to flip and rope traverses.

Some courses even involve laser target-shooting.

Individual races are: a 100m race with 12 obstacles, 3km with 20 obstacles and 15km with 50 obstacles.