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.