Thursday, April 23, 2009   7 Comments

I was fortunate to attend the ‘Rip Curl Girls Go Surfing Day’ this past Saturday held at South Piha. There’s a couple of reasons I use the word fortunate…oh yes it’s most certainly the correct turn of phrase… firstly I was fortunate ‘cos I was paid by Rip Curl to be there to photograph it- hey I’m just being honest- but I’ve also have been curious about these learn to surf programmes for ages.

When I was a grom there was no such thing as surf schools and learn to surf programmes, you just got out there and muddled your way through the whitewash. This is how the majority of us learnt, and, I have to write, I reckon we are all the poorer for it.




Being a Piha resident I’ve also witnessed the growth of the surf school phenomena, at present there are at least 4 different companies using Piha as their main resource. Most of the local surfing community are wary of these enterprises, mainly ‘cos Piha is a dangerous beach. There’s probably a little scepticism, even a shade of elitism thrown in for good measure, and of course the infamous Piha anti-commercialism vein that runs deep and broadly.



I remember as a grom, the older surfers were very anti women surfing, I also remember reading an old Herald article that reflected this attitude and resonated; it claimed that the NZ surfing culture was the last bastion of male chauvinism. And I’ve never figured out why the ol’ boys didn’t want women in the water. For starters they are far nicer to look at and in my experience they have a mellowing effect on any overly testosterone laden line-up. 



In Aussie the Rip Curl Girls Go Surfing Days have been running for 18 years. In NZ Rip Curl have been doing them for the last 3. Saturday’s was held in conjunction with the ever professional New Zealand Surf’n’Snow Tours crew. Exactly 50 fremlins [now there’s a term that hasn’t been thrown down for a while] attended. Their ages ranged from 5 to 35. And here’s one of the other reasons why I was fortunate to attend; surf stoke is most certainly infectious. To witness these newbies get their first stoke-on rubbed off.

It’s easy for us to grumble and moan about the waves being a bit wobbly, the sections shutting down or whatever. But I’m pretty sure you’ll still remember that very first time a wall of white-wash picked you up, shot you forwards towards the shore at breakneck speed, you struggled to your feet, and then there you were- you were doing it, and you realised you had to do it again. I got to see this 50 different times on that Saturday- it was choice.

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