He didn't do any ''sneaky practices'', and put his win down to ''a lot of hot air and the roll of the tongue''.
But Aaron Collins' technique won him his second national cherry stone spitting title in the 2017 Cherry Festival in Cromwell on Sunday, as family members strove to follow in his footsteps.
Mr Collins' daughter, Emma (6), competed for the first time at the event, recording a modest 2m cherry spit but aiming to improve each year and ''be like Dad''.
It was the second win in the event for Mr Collins, who was champion in 2012 with a distance of 12.58m, which remains the record for the event. His distance this year was 12.5m.
Other family connections also turned heads at the annual event, held in the Old Cromwell Historic Precinct alongside a cherry pie-eating competition.
Emily Rowse, of Christchurch, won the open women's title, her daughter Claudia (13) won the junior girls' section and her other daughter Harriett (15) was placed second.
The winner of the open boys' section was Aidan O'Connell (14), of Invercargill.
Competitors employed a variety of strategies, some putting their shoulder into it, others taking a ''bit of a run'', but compere Greg Wilkinson said it was ''all in the curl of the tongue, apparently''.
