A Mid Winter Christmas

We're always too busy at Christmas time to get away for a break so every year our coaches get together for a mid winter Christmas. Now winter in Christchurch is not the best surfing weather but we know of a secret little micro climate thats warm with pumping waves, no crowds and only a few hours drive from home. This year Aaron, Lana, Ambrose, Toddy, Leathy, Nina, Douglas and Brad all piled up the wagons and headed through the snow off into the sun to paradise.

After a spectacular drive though the mountains we emerged from the cold out onto the coast. A nice three foot swell,reeled off a perfect sand bank. Our first surf was a treat. The river water was freezing but the ocean was warm, no booties required, a rare luxury at this time of year in the South Island.

We then headed up the coast to the Bach to crank up the coal range and enjoy a mid winter christmas dinner. Speeches are always compulsory at our dinners and this year Brad was the winner of the "Rookie of the year" hat, as you'll see from the photos. Great food, bonfires, guitars, some questionable singing and fireworks rolled on through the night.

The next morning was a slow start but we found a secret little bank breaking off a huge limestone Pinacle. The best little right hand wedge made some fun barrells for everyone.

Party wave, rookies show no respect ?!

Doug boosting

Brad cranking

Aaron off the lip

Nina on the nose

After the surf it was back for more food and chilling in the sun. This routine continued for another few days before we had to head back to reality but some nice waves at Sumner when we got back. Looking forward to next winter already.

Merry Mid Winter Christmas From all the crew at 0800 80 SURF

Bayharbour Surfing column Nov 2010

The water is finally starting to warm up properly, with the majority of snow melted the water has jumped about 3 degrees in the last week and is sitting at about 15 -16 c now. Time to ditch the booties and hang up the 4/3 for the summer. Wave wise we’ve had lots of small little east and nor east swells plus Taylors came to life a few weekends ago with a massive north swell funnelling into the bay one Sunday afternoon. As usually when it gets over four foot it was pretty bumpy but it was great to take a few big drops and enjoy a bit of power in a wave for once.

Sumner surfers cleaned up at the first event of the South Island Circuit for the season. Local surfers claimed five titles at the 20th annual Wekastitch Cape Classic in Westport. Tom Entwisle (Sumner) won the Seniors event with the highest scoring wave of the competition an 8.7 point ride (out of 10). Alethea Lock (Sumner) was on top form winning both Open and Junior Womens. Troy Scott (Sumner) surfed powerfully to take the Longboarding title and Neil Robb (Sumner) caught the winning wave in the final minute to win the Grand Masters, also placing second in the Masters.
Micro Christensen (New Brighton) won the Masters event.
The competition was held at the infamous Tauranga Bay, known for its huge challenging surf. This year was no exception with a massive swell on the first day of competition making it a real struggle just to catch a wave, but on the finals day the surf cleaned up to a pumping three to four foot allowing all finalists to carve up the big walls of ‘T Bay’.

In the Longboarding scene, Nick Sargent placed third against a top field at the Del Festival of Longboarding in Taranaki over Labour weekend. This event has a focus on traditional Longboarding styles and the final was held in perfect logging waves at Fitzroy on the Sunday.

The Canterbury Scholastic Surf team surfed to there best result in years at the National Scholastic Surf Champs in Gisborne. Luke O’Neil won the Longboarding title, Alethea Lock took silver in the U16 girls, and Cody McCusker bronze in the U18 Boys.

Internationally the world tour is in Puerto Rico for the Rip Curl Search event. There are still several events left on the tour but we may see both Mens and Womens World champions crowned this week, as Kelly Slater and Stephanie Gilmore only need a certain number of points from this contest to take the crown.
New Zealands Paige Hareb is competing too, continuing her great success from Peru where she won the Silver medal at the ISA World Surfing Games narrowly missing out on the gold medal.

It looks like we should have a bit of East swell this week hopefully with out too many horrible north east winds. See you out there.

Bayharbour Surfing column August 2010

Surfing August 2010

It’s been a fantastic winter of surf so far this year. We’ve had some great east swells more similar to a March, April weather pattern than the middle of winter. For about three weekends in a row we had a solid east or nor’east swells and offshore winds, then good powerful south swells through the week and light westerlies. Everywhere has had it day with good sand banks at Sumner and Taylors and great waves up the coast during the south swells.

The water had been cold. I measured it at 10 C in the weekend which is relatively mild for this time of year but it has been colder at times. We’ve only about six week of frigid water left and then thing will slowly begin to warmup.

The Sumner Longboarders held their mid winter contest a few weeks ago, and scored one of those big east swells. Luke O’Neil snatched victory from Grant Cochrane in the dying minutes. Grant was going well all the way through but Luke managed to find a great wave in the final minute to win.

The South Island Surf Association held their end of season Prizegiving and Tag team event at the end of June. The tag team event was a controversial win by North Side Boardriders just ahead of Tubular Belles.
Local surfers performed well once again on the SI circuit, which is a series of contests held throughout the South Island. Hayden Brain (New Brighton) retained the Open Mens Title. Hayden was also second in the Senior Mens. Kristi Zarfeh (Sumner) won both Open and Junior Womens with Alethea Lock (Sumner)second in both. Nicola Warren (New Brighton) was third in the Open Womens. Neil Robb (Sumner) won the Grand Masters title and was second in the Masters division. Sumner Longboarder, Eve Welsh won the Womens Longboarding title with Nicola Warren second.

The next event on the calendar is the Paparoa Surf Fest, 25/26 September, along the coast road north of Greymouth. Until then enjoy those winter waves and uncrowded conditions because summer is just around the corner.

Welcome

Welcome to the new Surfcoach blog for 0800 80 SURF in Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Through this blog we hope to keep you updated with the latest surf reports and surfing related items of interest.

See you in the soup

Aaron Lock