February 2007 - the month that was

SWELL LINES OUT NOW

Swell Lines Magazine - the voice of the Mainland.

This issue features - The last big swell of 2006, mission to Fiordland gone wrong, Hayley Coakes interview, Travel to Mexico, Epic photos from Dunedin, Kaikoura, Christchurch and the West Coast and much more. FREE at most surf stores throughout the country.

www.swelllines.co.nz

This issue I got the cover shot and quite a few pages of pics inside including two articles, one on Hayley Coakes and about sand mining at Tomahawk

hueys washing machine

big sw swell moving through.. Huey got a bit wild and frothed up our spots.
Took a shot out my car window at St Kilda (with Floyd on the dash, where he sits when we go driving occasionally).. then a shot across St Clair towards Lawyers Head.. then a few of some Body Boarders who were being tossed about on the shoreys at St Clair.

the 2007 Otago Womens Champ is....

TASH CIVIL

Congratulations to all who competed.. the conditions were pretty challenging making it hard to stamp your mark on a wave. So placings in the final heat came down to:
1st - Tash Civil
2nd - Liz Hodgson
3rd - Hayley Coakes
4th - Aliesha Drinkwater








An interference call against Hayley in the last minute of the final left a bit of a nail biting finish.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

the
phoam surf blog
' nic's southern surf n art '
is
One
Year Old
today

7pm ish St Clair

looked like there was potential for a bit of a sunset, but the clouds came over a bit too thick near the end, so shot some surfers at St Clair instead.
best of luck to the girls surfing at the Otago Champs tomorrow morning.

:: VID :: a ditch somewhere

finally after 3 months, a new phoam Mini Surf Vid, filmed one Saturday morning .. somewhere .. mid February. I trust no one will be offended by its content, being a true reflection of a bunch of friendly locals doing their thing as it was...

an evening glow

A few shots from the 19th at St Clair.. forgot to put them up.
nice warm evening with a cloudless sky.

and ... later in the arvo

and out came the sun

St Clair in the am, a ladder event for South Coast Boardriders.

an imposter under a grey blanket.

the imposter is the 'new' second hand E300 I picked up this week while my original darling is away being serviced/diagnosed .. the grey blanket is of course the thick cloud overhead at around 5pm when I took the imposter out for a test drive. Couldn't really tell much of its performance due to the low light, and lack of focal distance with the 50-200 lens . but snapped a heap of shitty photos and a few okay ones.



And CONGRATULATIONS to Hayley Coakes (above) for her second place in the Canterbury Roxy Womens champs over the weekend, and to Aliesha Drinkwater for gaining fourth place in her age group.
And again sorry about the low quality pics.. but.. true skill

Sand Mining Given Go Ahead!

With all the focus on the Tomahawk and Middle beach sand mining and recontouring resource consents recently, the DCC managed to sneak through and approve the mining and removal of up to 1500 cubic metres of sand from Kuri Beach per year.
The resource consent application was made by Blackhead Quarries, which was to continue extracting sand from Kuri Beach for the next ten years. 13 submissions were attracted, all opposing the application, but of course it was approved anyway.

Most of the submissions were concerned with the ongoing sustainability of taking sand from the beach. Funny though, that 'evidence' was provided by council staff to push consent approval indicating that sand replenishment on coastal otago beaches was a natural process. If thats the case, then why are they pushing for the extraction and replenishment of sand from Tomahawk for St Clair beach (an unnatural act) if they are so sure that sand replenishment is a natural cycle? or is the unnatural loss of sand at St clair due to the re-design of the sea wall... just as there is a need for replenishment at Middles, including major dune restoration, which in turn is due to reclamation of major tracts of land for Playing fields which were previously large areas of natural dune formations.
According to saddle Hill Community Board chairman Dave McPhee the beach has already lost 50m of beach and that the offshores sandbanks would not be maintained forever. I can surely agree with that, especially as over the last few decades there is scientifically recorded a markedly reduced amount of sand and silt flowing from the Clutha mouth due to the trapping of these materials behind the hydro dams on the Clutha River.

This resource consent was granted on the 5th of december 2006, and the appeal period closed on January the 19th. no appeals were received.

Concrete Nightmare

OSH save us from the DCC
what a way to bring awareness to the situation the DCC has created with the New Sea Wall and the methods of construction and maintenance.
Tops to the instigators of these plaquards over the weekend.

There are innumerable hazards both around the sea wall, and the sea wall its self.
1. old farm gate sticking out over pathway.
2. Continually slimy and slippery steps.
3. Exposed steel rods and other objects littering the beach.
4. What appears to be a exact replacement of stairs which have already been proven to be destructable.
5. Rickety Handrails.

pic below added 13 feb .. re: comments below