NZ Surf Sessions

Well, as if my list of things I NEED to do hasn't been long enough ... I've found a new addiction. Last summer I started surfing while in NZ. I had forgotten how much fun it is to learn a new sport, and how quick that learning curve is at the begining. Each new ride or different wave was a new personal best, maybe the fastest you've gone, the longest ride or the biggest wave, then before long you are actually in control and starting to turn the board and carve it, which quickly leads into mini sprays and top turns ... everythings new and exciting!

Last Sept/Oct I took my first ever non-kayaking trip to Nicaragua for 6 weeks of surfing (but that is another story, I'll post some pics later).

This NZ summer was fairly average for kayaking, we got a lot of days of rain, but very few rain events that amounted to enough water to hit the creeks. Our saving grace was the fact that the swell was quite good, meaning there was lots of surfing to be done.

Here are a few shots I managed to get from a small surf trip I took during my last couple weeks in NZ. Of course none of the shots are of me ... or for that matter people I was surfing with. It was very interesting coming from kayaking where it is easy to document your adventures, into surfing where because of the consistently changing conditions there is no way you are going to sit on the beach and watch / photo your friends surfing these amazing waves ... you are in the water from the moment you get there till the moment the swell dies down, the tide changes, the wind changes or your ride is pulling out of the parking lot. It is that fear that the waves could die down at any moment or you might miss out on the set of the day ... Classic FOMO!

This sight will get any surfers blood going. Beautiful lines wrapping into Raglans, Manu Bay.