Shaping Land Logs.

Cake day activity # 1.

Best excecuted when the swell is minimal, and the onshores are extreme.



I was feeling like making somthing with my hands, so today with a little help, drew up a pattern of a cruisey sidewalk surf machine.



Trim out the basic shape.



Sand it down and smoothen up the rails.



Choose some wheels..



Some havnt been used since '79 (note the price tag)



Attach them to the board.



now to polish it off and grip it up to put it to the test.

Next week, the shaping shed gets redecorated.

Welcome home.

Flew back in early sunday morning, and was notified by the "radical" b-RAD that brighton was on.. so from the plane went straight to the surf and man i wish i had booties on.. after 3hours i could hardley feel my toes, and even the hardest of men where shivering a little.. maybe ot due to the fact we had some sweet little waves down by the pier.

Due to the massive rip, sucking everyone up north left the south side free for some goodness..

Best hangover cure greggie, where were you?

Down to the North

It was getting a bit chilly in the south, so to extend the summer a little, we took a trip to the far north of NZ.

Despite spending half our budget in the first night at Waiheke, the trip kicked off to an awsome start up the west coast, with about 6-8ft swells, Offshore and i was the only person going out for a surf...? This was too good to be true!!! The whole trip, we were like off shore wind magnets, is this always the case, with the ever changing, unique climate of the far north?

The eastie was a bit slack with minimal swell, but such a beautiful place who can go wrong?

This trip left me feeling like why the hell do we live here in the south, i didnt even get my steamer out at all, its already ball freezingly cold here in chch and the beches dont look like the pages from the travel magazines. (well some of them do)

There is no doubt the north is a special place to be a surfer.

In no particular order:

Northland goodness, empty, clean, sizey and offshore, who needs to work anyway?







This place was crazy massive, desite the crap shots, was no doubt my favorite place..



Its hard to tell from the crappy digi zoom but the little glassy waves in the shorey were about 3 ft.. out back it was subsquently a lot bigger :P


Around every bend was a new break just screaming to be surfed.. empty again.




Cape reinga had a few waves, but you'd have to be insane to paddle out where the tasman sea meets the pacific.




Down the east coast you could see the potential..




The Infamous Taupo Bay.. nice place, but no swell and i was truly gutted.. Check out the shots at the Whangaroa surf blog of a good day..




mini goodness.




hmm to go or not to go?



Give me a sign?



Howling onshores and 8ft swell, about a kilometre paddle through whitewash... maybe not..

Sunday Session

Wow the relentless NW winds decided to turn a light SW in the weekend.. Nursing a slight hangover, we hit scarborough with the rest of chch on sunday morning.


Is it just me, or have people forgotten the PRIORITY rule.. and dropping in? what on earth could that be?

Searching

Could there be some waves down here?

Sneaky Tee bay

Not a bad way to spend a friday afternoon, with no swell in town, we headed off to the otherside and checked out a pretty popular spot first. Was about 30 guys ruling the place, so we flagged it and shot round the corner to be greeted by an empty bay, with hell offshores and what appeared to be a pretty average size swell..

Until we got out there, the sets were bigger than the original estimation of about 2 ft.., the wind eased to light offshore and it was pumping. Even a few 4ft sizey swells rolled on in and worked us. There was lefts and rights and a few second barrels.

One of the best days i've seen it here in a looong time.

Coming to a cinema near you.

This looks like it could be an awsome movie!!!

Tekapo Boat Trip

Brodie is flying out to korea in 2 weeks. We had been talking it up what awsome wakeboarders we are (despite never ever doing it before). So we finally worked our asses into catching up with him and heading down there to put money were our mouth is.
A few dramas hitting the road, but we eventually made it to lake tekapo, to be greeted by a crystal day, no wind and full sunshine all around. Skipper nortz put us to the test and we held our own in amoungst the hardcore ski biscuits, kneeboarders and the occasional extreme lake kyakers.

Heres a few screen shots and clips of the "Southern Gold" times:

Brodie showing us how its done on the single ski.




Gk putting those thighs to use, with his trade mark power carve.





brett doing the usual "Dj styla"




Bret giving it a go in the chop..



Click on this one for sum mental animated GIF action...



Brodie busting



and a little more






Some excellent boat driving by first mate greg and I. massive airs all round.
Big ups to the Norton whanau for letting us use and abuse the family watercraft..

Tubing all day long..

In amongst the endless tunnels of water, B-rad managed to take a bit of time out, to snap a few sweet shots of a nice barrell day at a little bay up the coast..

worth waiting for.

Black and White..

some photo experiments..