February 2008 - the month that was

Summer Pipe

St Kilda late afternoon, was absolutely packed, as much as I have seen it. Although well spread along the peaks from pipe to the end of JWD. Public submissions (suggestions) close at noon today for Ocean Beach, I just sent mine in.

first free morning

Seems like it was the first free morning that I have had in weeks that I could just do what I wanted, no pressures. What better way to spend it than a surf with friends at my favourite spot in uncrowded fun. A few shots before I went out.

Seaweek 2nd - 9th March

Seaweek - OTAGO Events

ONE OCEAN – IT STARTS WITH ME
KOTAHI MOANA – KA TIMATA MAI I AHAU
Coastal Otago Programme, 2 - 9 March 2008
SUNDAY 2 MARCH (International Children’s Day)

TAKE A KID SURFING SURF’S UP - REGISTRATION
Surfers – take your child surfing! Or register them for an introductory water safety and surfing lesson with the Esplanade Surf School on (03) 455 8655 or 021 484 141. This lesson is open to children 16 and under but children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Spaces are limited! See over for details.

WIPEOUT!
Demonstrations by the South Coast Boardriders Club will take place from 2.30pm.
St. Clair Surf Rescue will be on patrol all afternoon.

PRIZES AND ENTERTAINMENT
There will be heaps of prizes and displays so don’t miss out! Participants will receive an information pack and will go in the draw to win spot prizes throughout the day! Coastal and marine information from the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust, the Department of Conservation, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and other community groups and organisations will be on display.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
You must register your child in order for them to take part in the free introductory surf lesson so they may be given a surf time and placed in the appropriate category for their age/size. Register before the day by telephoning the Esplanade Surf School on 021 484 141.
Children who are not participating in the free introductory surf lesson will need to register on the day to collect their free info pack and enter the prize draw, and must be accompanied by a parent or guardian who will surf with them. Parents, guardians and children who are surfing on their own will be responsible for supplying their own gear. Wetsuits and boards may be hired from the Esplanade Surf School, please enquire on 021 484 141. St. Clair Surf Lifesaving Club will be patrolling on the day.
This event is open to CHILDREN 16 YEARS AND UNDER, however children UNDER 14 YEARS must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Please register or confirm your surf lesson registration at the DOC tent next to the South Coast Boardriders Club and collect your free info pack first so that you may enter the prize draw.
The introductory surf lessons will be dependent on the swell – if unsure please call 021 484 141 or 0272 722 389. All other events will be on rain, hail or shine!

Touch a Shark!
Give your children a different experience on Children's Day. What does it feel like? Come along to the Westpac Aquarium at Portobello on Sunday 2nd March from 2-3pm and find out! You will also be able to see shark eggs and baby sharks! Aquarium entry fee applies.

Join a Seaweek Marine Tour, 2 - 9 March
Take an in-depth look at your local marine environment. Join our Special Seaweek Tour at 10.30am each day of the Westpac Aquarium at Portobello. Guided tour fee applies.

Play the Little Blue Penguin Game, 2 - 9 March
The blue penguin, or korora is the Seaweek 2008 mascot. Find out about the penguins, the threats they face and ways we can help to look after them through an interactive game: Penguin Pathways - Plight of the Little Blue. Play the game when you visit the NZ Marine Studies Centre/Westpac Aquarium during Seaweek and visit our website to download your own copy: www.marine.ac.nz
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NZ Marine Studies Centre & Aquarium, Portobello, Dunedin. Open 12-4.30pm every day - Adult $9, Child $4.50, Family $18.00. Daily Guided Tour at 10.30am - Adult $18, Child $9, Family $42.
Phone 479 5826 to book tours or for further information.
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TUESDAY 4 MARCH Music 4 Maui
The Hector's and Maui dolphins are the world's rarest marine mammal. Hear about an Otago student's creative campaign to save the Maui dolphins from extinction - by involving prominent NZ musicians! Followed by an update by expert Dr Liz Slooten on the management of Hector's and Maui dolphins. Presented by Students for Environmental Action at Evison Lounge, Clubs and Societies Centre,
84 Albany St from 5:30 – 6:30pm.

WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH Help with Fish Feeding
Come and find out what our sea creatures like to eat, and perhaps help to feed a shark or an octopus! Fish Feeding every Wednesday & Saturday from 2-3pm at Westpac Aquarium at Portobello.
Aquarium entry fee applies.

SATURDAY 8 MARCH Extreme Make-over – Penguin Style!
St Kilda Marine Environment Trust is proud to invite you to give the korora (blue penguin) a helping hand by helping erect some sturdy, cosy nest boxes for a local breeding area at Smaills Beach. The trust is providing finance for 15 nest boxes. We need you to help us build them and bury them into the hillside. Meet at Tomahawk Beach Care Nursery (turn right off Southdale Rd, Smaills Beach) at 2pm. Timber for the nest boxes will be pre-cut and the boxes ready to assemble. Once assembled we will carry them a short way to the nesting site and site them securely into the slope. Please bring a spade and/or grubber and a hammer. Afterwards there will be sausage sizzle at the Plant Nursery.


SUNDAY 9 MARCH The Great Dunedin Coastal Cleanup Competition
Be it sandy beach, rocky shore, harbour, saltmarsh or estuary; DOC and DCC invite you to celebrate Seaweek 2008 by giving the Dunedin coast, from Waikouaiti to Taieri Mouth, an autumn cleanup! Free sacks and gloves can be collected from DCC and DOC offices or from the Farmers’ Market prior to Sunday. While searching out inorganic rubbish you might come across some special jetsam – painted with a blue penguin. Bring this and your collected rubbish to Hancock Park, St Kilda, between 12.30 and 2.30pm to receive your reward and go into the draw for the main prize (drawn after 3pm). Special guests will award a heap of prizes, there’ll be a free sausage sizzle, displays, face-painting and More FM on site. Make your coastal cleanup a family affair! Call into DOC or DCC for more information.
SPONSORED BY: St Kilda Marine Environment Trust, Elm Wildlife Tours, Royal Albatross Centre, Rialto Cinema, University Book Shop, Bivouac, Cadburys, Dive Otago, Monarch Wildlife Cruises and Tours, Westpac Aquarium, Nature Discoveries, Whitcoulls, Cerebos Gregg’s, More FM.

Check with your local community group to see who is collecting rubbish near you –
Broad Bay Shore Clean Up
Join your family, friends and neighbours to clean up the shore area from Pineapple Rock to Grassy Point from 9am to 11.30 am. Collect bags and gloves from Broad Bay Community Centre at 9am.
Bring your beach rubbish back to Broad Bay Community Centre for disposal. PRIZES! FREE DRAW! REFRESHMENTS!
Portobello Peninsula Shore Cleanup
Save The Otago Peninsula Trust will be cleaning up the Portobello shoreline from 10am to 12 noon - Meet by the beach behind the Portobello shop. Bring gloves, bags provided.

BOOK A SEAWEEK SCHOOL PROGRAMME
There are a variety of programmes available for primary and secondary schools with core curriculum links. See www.marine.ac.nz/educ.htm for details. Contact our marine educators at marine-studies@otago.ac.nz to organise a visit.
Contact Jenny Upton if you’d like her to visit your school with her Hector’s Dolphin Van to talk about her research into Hector’s dolphins - grimwoods@hotmail.com - ph (03)465 8318 http://dolphinsdownsouth.wikispaces.com

Paige Hareb, currently ranked No2 Junior Women's Pro Surfer in the world keeps a blog on http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/paigehareb. Check it out. Paige is Taranaki-based and the voice for Seaweek 2008

Public Advice for Sea Lions

Above: Luke Murphy avoids a Sea Lion Charging at him at St Clair Beach, Dunedin.

A few articles have appeared in the ODT over the last month about the suggested behaviour of humans around Sea Lions in their environment when we either share the water with them, or encounter them on the beach (left article) and the response from the trust a few days later on the right:

(the pic in the first article below misquotes Luke Murphy as the surfer, it was actually a student called Fin, the ODT took the pic straight off my blog see post here)

Above and below: Sea Lion Dionne, as Named by Rod Rust at St Clair beach a few months back.

Otago Surf Champs Finals Day

The day started with a meet up at Kilda with BP from christchurch down for the weekend, the guys went up to surf the left side of the mole, while me and Caity and Hayley went to the Last few heats, the finals of the Otago Champs, which were to be run at St Clair today.

Just a few pics again from the finals, was busy during a few of them, so missed photographing a couple. Will put some more pics up and also the results as soon as I can get them.

OTAGO SURF CHAMPS 2008
RESULTS
Held at Blackhead/St Clair 23/24 Feb 2008

- Open -
1 Lew Thomas, 2 Joe Kain, 3 Phillip Ballatyne, 4 Danny Carse

- Womans -
1 Hayley Coakes, 2 Caitlin de Bruyn, 3 Kimberly Kearns, 4 Nic Reeves
- Longboard -
1 Warick Grey, 2 Jake Barton, 3 Scott James, 4 Shane Baxter
- Cadets -

1 Ben Bennett, 2 Geordi Dearns, 3 Tom Bracegirdle, 4 Jordan Durst

- Junior -
1 Jimmy Crooks, 2 Andy Sutherland, 3 Tom Bracegirdle, 4 Jordan Durst
- Seniors -
1 Scott James, 2 Lyndon Fairburn, 3 Richard Ayson, 4 James Steiner
- Masters -
1 Richard Ayson, 2 Jason Newton, 3 Justin Summerton, 4 Cutty NS
- Veterans -
1 Kerry McNally, 2 Chris Prentergast, 3 Warick Grey, 4 Mark Richardson

Otago Surf Champs pics

Ok, so here are a few Photos from today of day one of the Otago Surf Champs. Am too tired to do more, its been a full week, and a busy day.. and I am having an early night.

Happy Birthday phoam! + New Blog

Today is the second birthday of this blog, I'm still so stoked to be doing it.. the process just raises my awareness in every moment. Just watching, being aware of my environment, the changes and watching people getting stoked on surfing. thanks everyone!

Oh also today I have launched a new blog 'Save Ocean Beach', I created this with alot of past posts off this blog, plus many more new ones. It will focus on the ongoing issues and processes of 'fixing the beach' from the salt water pool to lawyers head.

Big thing to note the first round of public submissions to the DCC Close on the 29th Of February THIS WEEK. So click through there , have a browse (still heaps to fill in and finish tho) but I had to launch it now.

Easy come, easy go

Easy come, the recent big East swells moved sand back in along Ocean Beach raising the beach profile, even allowing for a period of dry sand at high tide. Easy go, last weekends' southerly storms stripped away a decent footage of the beach, exposing the rubble placed at the end of the sea wall and again lowering the beach profile, allowing the high tide to affect the base of the sea wall.
Above: wave refraction off the rip rap at the base of the wall closer to the Salt Water Pool, assisted in the agitation and suspension of sand, which was carried off to deeper water.

Above: Thursday at low tide, truck loads of sand await placement, with the newly repaired and extended steps in the foreground.
At (I heard) $10,000 a day for sand replenishment, this is going to be a steep ongoing cost for us ratepayers for the next 4 years until the council decides on a long term 'solution'. A yearly 'holding pattern' budget of between $295,000 and $325,000 a year over this time went up for approval in January for the 2008-9 funding round.

Above: Steep dune faces are showing new growth of vegetation, in the distance a digger awaits the return of the T-Rex truck to transport another load of sand to the freshly eroded dunes between the sea wall and and the poles.

Above: Sand replenished over the exposed rocks immediately adjacent to the end of the sea wall after storms over the weekend.

Above: Monday this week, after the weekend storm ate into the replenished sand placed to protect the damaged sand sausages.

Luminous St Clair

Top: Simon Dickie. Above 2, Hayley working the inside & Pete, With Luke Murphy Below:


Above right and 3 below, Ben and Geordi work on their airs on the inside with Jimmy getting vertical on the cleaner sets .

Daisy @ St Clair

Was meeting Caity after school at St Clair and happened upon Daisy Thomas (above) going out at St Clair after a morning surfing the Island with the crew.

Now if you were watching Campbell Live on Tuesday Night, she was interviewed for an item on:

Sexism in the sporting world seems to be rife Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:27p.m. "Daisy Thomas and Mishca Davis are two of the country’s top women surfers, Thomas is ranked number one on the national circuit and Davis is in fourth position."

Check out the rest of the article and link to a video of the news item here at the TV3 website.Certainly a controversial subject, how do you feel about it?

EDIT: just adding in an excerpt from a book about women & sexism in surfing next to the hayley Pic above, click to emlarge and read.

a look at The Island

Yesterday I went for a hike through the dunes at the back of Westwood, a place I have been keen on checking out for ages. Thoroughly enjoyed rambling through the swamps, and along the landrover tracks criss-crossing the reserve, taking short cuts loosing the path, and the joy of finding more gems cutting through the dunes like semi dug out war trenches enveloped with curtains of marram grass. Once I made it to the beach I set up to take some shots of Green Island as the South Swell hit it while at the back of the Island (out of sight) a few Jet-ski crews towed in a full house of local and visiting surfers.

Two above: The view of the westwood dunes with the swamp and vegetation looking across the estuary mouth at Waldronville to blackhead in the distance on the right. Then a shot looking through my tripod legs to Green Island using my 10-22 wide angle - and then below three shots of waves breaking around the island at full 400mm and cropped in heaps with photoshop.. its a long way out there!