Thursday, January 13, 2011   1 Comments

Turning your back on pumping waves is always the hard option, Piha has been unseasonably - unreasonably good for the last month or more, but the lure of the Mainland and especially the chance to attend this year’s Nationals in sunny, tropical Dunedin... well, time for a roady!

Once again the kind people at Hyundai have given me a mean-as, spankly brand new Santa Fe for the competitive season...so once again - time to clock up some serious K’s with my travel buddies Bevan ‘Napes’ Wiig, Paul ‘Green Apple’ Greenland and his disproportionately hot Hawaiian girl Lyra Drouin and drive the length of the nation.

As you’ve already probably heard and seen on Surf2surf the waves for the first Hyundai Longboard comp of the year were amazing. The Piha Bar really turned it on for the competitors and large crowd. We had the wagon pre-packed on the Sunday ready to boost down to Taupo that night. The ferry the next afternoon, Kaikoura for a sleep... no waves in the morning, so straight through to Duno’s... with the obligatory roadside stops for free plums and funny place name photos of course.

The outlook for the first half of the Nationals is quite bleak, that deep low sitting just east of Stewart Island has brought Antarctic breezes; well not really - but Piha has been boardie surfs the last week with the blue water right in. I’m the contracted photographer for the Nat’s - I’m chuffed to be so - but I suspect I’m gonna be earning my keep these first few days. I’ll keep ya posted.

Cederman

Dan Procter

Daryn McBride

Kerrazy

NZ Surfing Magazine

Off the lip

Paige Hareb - Chasing the Dream

Photo CPL

S2 Forecaster

The Ricardo Report