"I haven't spat a cherry pip all year - I'm fresh off the couch," the 27-year-old builder said.
The national championships at Cromwell on Saturday attracted 47 competitors, including the Australian and Australia-New Zealand champions.
Mr Bassett set a national record with his longest spit of 11.42m, winning a trip to Perth to represent New Zealand in the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival next weekend.
He had never competed before and broke the record on his first try.
There was no limit to how many times a competitor could enter.
They paid $2 each time for three cherries and had to eat the flesh off the fruit before spitting the stone on the 2m wide marked "track".
Styles of delivering the stone were mixed.
Some people took a run up to the starting line before spitting, a couple managed to bounce their pips on the roof of a nearby shop but missed the track and one unfortunate competitor inhaled too deeply and swallowed the stone.
Sam Paardekooper, of Cromwell, finished second, and Australian champion Mark Vitler, of Western Australia, was third.
To be good at the sport, you had to like cherries and have big lungs, Mr Vitler said.
"But there is no secret as such; it's just luck.
"You can have 20 bad spits to every good one."
Reigning Australia-New Zealand champion Michael Robinson, of Cromwell,was fifth.
The women's winner was Heike Reintjes, of Cromwell, with an 8m spit.
The top junior female was Ruby Gibson, of Cromwell (4.9m), while the top junior male was Reuben Matheson-Watts, of Cromwell (4.46m).
