Around Cape Naturaliste.
It’s business as usual down south, with a good month of typical Autumn filth. These pics were taken by Andrew Dykstra on the 15th of May. Unfortunately these conditions must come to an end, and the first big cold front of winter is about to blast across the coast, which means waves in Perth.
More New Zealand.
Some really nice waves. Sunday 3rd May 2009, somewhere in New Zealand. Photos by Hamish. Out.
Finding Tom Curren.
Like so many thirty-something surfers, I grew up watching Tom Curren surf. I was a massive fan, and would study his style and technique whenever I could. You can imagine the stoke I got a couple of years back when I got the chance to watch him surf first-hand.
It was October 2007 I think, and I was staying with a mate in Hossegor. As you do. Driving to his place from the train station he told me that Curren was staying next door.
Over the next three weeks or so I saw him surf several times. The low centre of gravity on take off, the double pump bottom turns, the exaggerated style driving down the line, the casual tube riding - it was all there, in the testing beachbreaks of Les Landes. A joy to watch.
Dane.
My friend took this photo of Dane Reynolds during the Quiksilver Pro at Hossegor a couple of years ago. It doesn’t get much more intimate for a spectator. As far as I know, there are only two stops on the world tour that allow for a photo like this. Pipe, and Hossegor’s La Graviere.
Not much to choose from.
There’s usually a lot of swell hitting the Western Australian coast in July. But in 2008 there was a really odd three week period with very little swell over the two metre mark.
I had a road trip north of Perth planned well in advance, assuming there would be more than enough swell to go round at that time of year. But it was basically a 1.5 metre swell the whole time.
Luckily there is a small swell spot near where we stayed - one of those spots that gets ANY available swell. You know - the type that keeps you baffled trying to work out why everywhere else is flat but it’s still head high plus. Anyway - we surfed it almost every day, surprisingly with little or no crowd. It’s a little triangle of reef, with a super hollow left (shown above) and a short fun right. The only option for a whole week, but more than enough to keep us satisfied!
Raglan in early autumn.
I think there’s no better topic to start blogging about than the last surf trip I went on. Well it was more of a general holiday which happened to coincide with a really nice swell in the Tasman Sea. A couple of friends were getting married on the point at Raglan, on the west coast of New Zealand’s north island, in March 2008. As you probably know, Raglan is home to a group of superb left-hand point breaks.
I’ve surfed a few point breaks before, but I’ve never surfed anything like this. A check of the swell charts the day before leaving showed us that a new swell was due in a few days. Sure enough, as reliable as ever, the swell jacked up on the afternoon of the wedding, and by the following morning it was a full 6 foot plus and absolutely reeling.
There are 4 different waves - we surfed the top two, which I think are called Indicators and Whale Bay, shown above. We surfed our brains out for a few days, and then made our way to the South Island. We got waves there too, but I’ll post about that soon.
Taking some time to reflect.
Hello and welcome to Surfing Bits. This is my first post on this site. I’ve had, or tried to have, a blog or two in the past, but to be honest, I got pretty lazy and stopped keeping them updated. I think this has mainly been due to a lack of satisfaction with the format of the blog and its ability to convey and carry the type of message I want to deliver.
However I think I’ve got it right this time. Basically I want to voice opinion, keep a record of surfing and related experiences, and generally wax lyrical about surfing and what it has meant to me over the last 20 or so years.
If you’ve stumbled on to this site from somewhere, welcome. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy it, and maybe come back!