Surf trip - East Coast

Cyclone Season Nov 2013 - Apr 2014

We are officially entering the cyclone season for the Southwest Pacific, meaning the East Coast of New Zealand will get its most active time of year for good solid groundswells!

On average, New Zealand experiences at least one ex-tropical cyclone passing within 550km of the country every year. For the coming TC season, the risk for New Zealand is slightly higher than normal. If an ex-tropical cyclone comes close to the country, it has a higher probability of passing east rather than west of Auckland city.

Peak cyclone season is usually from January to March. In seasons with similar background climate conditions to present, several tropical cyclones occurred over the Gulf of Carpentaria and countries near the International Date Line. In addition, TCs also occurred near Fiji, Tonga, and Niue while a few affected other areas. On average, nearly half of the tropical cyclones that developed since the 1969-70 season have reached hurricane force with mean wind speeds of at least 64 knots (118 km/h).

Surfshop re-design

We've been kept busy with an order of 8 Surfboard racks last week. The shop owner was re-designing and had a load of new stock for summer.

We will get a picture of the completed shop with our board racks when he's done.

Dawn Cemetery

Surf Trip Checklist

What do I take on a Surf Trip?

So with the Crew's Annual Surf trip coming up in a couple months I thought I would share our checklist with you. Its important

Longboard Downhill - Kloukura

Surfboard Racks - Get 'em at The Ultimate Surf Shop

Get down to The Ultimate Surf Shop and have a look at these nice 5 board stand-alone racks. These racks not only hold surfboards but wakeboards and snowboards too!!
They sit in any room of your house from lounge to bedroom to garage and will even go next to the outdoor shower at your Beach Bach. Talk to Andre down at the shop for Price and Stock availability.



The Ultimate Surf shop display rack

Digging through the archive

There is still one surf session that remains the best that I have had to date, we even dubbed it 'Tawh That Thursday'. The pictures can do the talking...

18th March 2010

The crazy thing is that the surf report was 2-3ft offshore. It was a groundswell so it must have spiked immensely! When we turned up, expecting a fun 2-3ft, we were presented with something more like 6-7ft.



Southern Solitude - 4weeks in the South Island of New Zealand

I created a post a while back about the DIY campervan bed setup we made for one of the boys who was doing a 4week surf trip around the South Island of New Zealand...

Well he has since returned and kindly given me a hand full of pictures from his endeavours, from such places as Aramona Spit to South East Mahia Peninsula.

Enjoy...



 

Dawn Patrol

Rise and shine, it's groundswell time

Sunday 5th of May 4:00am, my alarm clock goes off and its almost the only time im excited to here it at such an hour because it means only one thing – Dawn Patrol up the coast!!

I chuck my gear in the back of my wagon and head to one of the boys house where the rest of the crew is meeting up. We load up all the gear into the ‘Surfari’ van and hit the road.

Two hours later around 6.30am and we are up the coast at our destination, a left hand sand bar 20kms out of Whangarei. Unfortunately it wasn’t completely firing - surfable 2ft but nowhere near what we came for (have surfed this bar at 4ft and that’s when it’s good). Sooooo… we head 15mins up the road to our reliable backup beachie, BAM she is 3-4ft+ and glassy with a beautiful sunrise behind it.

After a 2hour session at Sandy Bay we jump back in the van and head back down to the local food stop and empty their pie and sausage roll rack. After an epic feast we decided to give the sand bar one more look over in case the incoming tide helped it pick up. It did look a little better but still not worth the big paddle. Binoculars tend to be very handy.

By now its about noon and all still keen for one more session on the way home. We eye up a spot in the surf bible thats happy to get NW winds and still exposed to the easing swell. Extra effort to access this right hand river mouth ensured us it would be empty. We get to the peak and its an empty lineup with leftover 2-3ft. Epic way to end the day.

Real Concern over Potential Loss of Southern Surfbreaks

"POL wishes to deposit up to 50,000 cu meters per year in the swell corridors of the Aramoana Surfbreak, and up to 350,000 cu meters per year At Heywards Point in the path of Karitane and murderers (Whareakeake) surfbreaks."

 

Murderer's Bay

The Council Hearing runs from the 6th of May until the 9th of May at the Scenic Hotel Southern Cross in Dunedin.

Check out the full story here Real Concern over Potential Loss of Southern Surfbreaks

Source: surf.co.nz & surfbreak.org.nz



Councils continue to ignore impacts of marina on the Whangamata Bar

Councils continue to ignore impacts of marina on the Whangamata Bar – News – Surf.co.nz



Wave Science


Go to http://www.onebigvoice.com/petition/save-the-whangamata-bar to sign the petition, you can sign using your facebook account.

Cut the crap WRC!!

DIY Campervan bed setup

Howsit everyone,

Going on a road trip? Well one of the boys is taking on New Zealand's South Island, check out what we setup in the back of his L300 for the 4 week trip.

We constructed a snugg frame for the bed with legs to be able to store things underneath. We used 4x2 and 50mm screws and counter-sunk them all.

We then cut plywood (10mm min thickness) to the dimensions of the bed frame and screwed it to the top of the frame to add strength and act as a base for the mattress.

The base was made to suit a standard queen mattress in a long wheel base L300 van.

A couple of hours and around $80 later you can get your road trip on and search for that spot!

Send me an email, heilynbell@live.com if you'd like the plan with measurements we built this one to.

Subscribe to us for more on DIY camper setups.

Photo shoot

Check out the latest products from Shrieking Peanut. T-shirts, Hoodies, Surfboard racks...

A big thanks to Aaron at Franziki Photography. They did a really good job and enjoyable to work with. Check out their Facebook page for the latest projects they are working on. Highly recommended.

Cheers Tiki Tane

Hooked Tiki up with one of our t-shirts and he sent us this snapshot, getting amongst it.