Monday, 27 October 2008

:: Art Project :: Patio Mosiac

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Its been a mission over winter to get as much done around the outside of the house so summer can be enjoyed fully without the pressures of doing some hard garden work. One mission was to put some more paths in, and lay a small patio area at the front door.

Jay did the hard yakka and dug out the grassed area at the front of the house ready. I got the pavers as seconds from the manufacturer in different colours and textures, and smashed them up into squares and triangles.

I then laid out an area the size of the pato and played with some designs. First i wanted to do the crop circle that featured on the Led Zepplin Album cover, but decided to go with the koru designs.

Below, laying down a 3 inch base of concrete, the pavers are then transferred over and levelled as I went.

Then after a day, the top layer of concrete was poured over, and wiped off the design.
I don't have a pic of it completed yet, will try get one up tomorrow. But I wasnt very happy with the finish, which is probably why I haven't made the effort to get a pic.

Saturday, 25 October 2008

Dropins

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I have caught so many dropins on film, I felt it time to post a few up I wouldn't normally, just in the spirit of true surfing.




Above Baccy and Josh Kronfeld. I know I've posted this before, but below we have baccy holding his ground is just a classic.

Rainfall effect on sewage of concern

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Sat, 25 Oct 2008
By Rebecca Fox on Sat, 25 Oct 2008
News: Dunedin

Having sewage flowing into Dunedin waterway's during heavy rainfall is unsatisfactory, says the Otago Regional Council.

During the July 31-August 1 heavy rainfall, Dunedin City Council's foul sewer systems failed at Marne St, Company Bay and Sawyers Bay pumping stations and untreated effluent was diverted from the Mosgiel Wastewater Treatment Plant directly into the Silverstream.

Regional council resource management director Selva Selvarajah said council staff were investigating the failures and had requested an explanation from the city council as to why it occurred and the source of problems. "It is not satisfactory." A report to the biosecurity and compliance committee meeting recently said the response from the city council was that the discharges were unfortunate, but unavoidable, and the West and East Harbour foul sewer lines had been designed in accordance with best practice.

Information from the city council suggested the primary cause of the discharges was stormwater infiltration into the foul sewer system because of highly saturated soils at the time due to an unusually wet month, the report said. Despite any design precautions, certain weather conditions would cause a system to overload and result in un-treated or partially-treated sewage flowing into a waterway.

Dr Selvarajah said the July event was not an extreme event compared to other high rainfall periods, so it was important to look at the source of the problem to see how and why the water was getting into the system, and remedy the problem. "There may not be an easy solution for it." Enforcement action would not be considered until additional information from the city council was available and the investigation was complete, he said.

City council waste services manager John Mackie said it was not an uncommon problem, and was one which many cities experienced during high flow events. However, the city council was looking at the issues, having just completed the first stage of a project looking at waste, storm and potable water networks in the city. Stage one, costing $1.4 million, included monitoring rainfall during winter, and measuring flows and water quality in both waste and stormwater systems.

"We are profiling the entire water cycle of the urban catchment of Dunedin." A funding request for stage 2 would go to the council's long-term council community plan and include detailed analysis and assessment of the condition of the city's old pipes, he said. In the meantime, work had begun in South Dunedin to re-line some of the old pipes to prevent groundwater getting into the sewerage system, and a close eye was being kept on areas of concern in Mosgiel and South Dunedin.

A strategy covering the future of the three water systems, also taking into consideration climate change issues such as sea level rise, more intense rainfall and storm surge, was expected by October 2009.

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Away to Westport

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Today I leave for Westport with Hayley and Caitlin to attend the Cape Classic.
The first event for this year on the South Island Surfing Circuit.
A few carloads going up from Dunedin, so the region will be well represented.

I have preapred a few blog posts to automatically load while I am away, I hope it all works, so check back every few days.
Below a shot from the night before the Cape Classic started last year.

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Another Lazy Sunday

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Sunday, 19 October 2008

:: VID :: The Lost Tapes

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Dug out some more footage that got lost for a bit and put it together this weekend between doing the concrete mosaic-ing on the new patio and eating.

From when the 13foot hollow core board was staying in Dunedin courtesy of Roy Stewart and the Olo Hikoi.
Also featuring some other locals on the day..
may also contain nuts

Thursday, 16 October 2008

A number of Days

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There were a few sessions last month that I just didn't put on the blog, I've picked a few from each.
13th & 16th September at Blackhead, from 2-3ft to 1ft in a couple of days. The 13th I was filming and aity was on the camera, unfortunately all the settings were wrong, and some great shots she took were unsalvagable.



Then on the 19th of september: I was mostly filming at this spot, but cracked the camera out for a few mins too.




Above and above left Rod Rust back in the groove wielding 14ft with style, and right: Geordi on the 27th September
Below, Hayley Just last week on the 13th of october a sunny arvo at Clair

Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Big Sunday

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Jono Jimi and Nathan drop into some bombs rolling through on Sunday


Friday, 10 October 2008

Readers Waves - Simon and the Sealion

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Hi my name is Simon, whilst out in my car one day i saw some dudes paragliding so i went to get a picture or two it looked cool.
Down on the boat ramp at St kilda life guard station, i came across the seal that had been chasing the suffers off the beach a few days before. In true form the seal took one look at the paparazzi and gave chase, i was getting pics all the way. This seal was one heck of a dude he chased me up onto the footpath, sitting there like he owned the turf so to speak.

He watched the scene, cars, people walking their dogs and others just cruising along. He watched the dog really closely and seemed to think it was fun to sniff cars.

This was a tiring affair for this young seal so he had a bit of a sleep, only thing was it he choose the middle of the road at the back of Kettle park.

Steve Churchill local cop, arrived, stopped in the middle of the road. Our seal friend took acception, to his rest being disturbed and attempted to charge the cop car. So we had a face of The law of the Land vs the law of nature. The match did not make it into the first few seconds the bell rang at it was an immediate KO,

Steve retreating to direct traffic and the seal with his head held high, sat there for a few minutes in the middle of the road, before strutting victoriously back to the sandy shore line of His domain.

The thing for me, is that people may fight over who owns what and who is indigenous to the lands and seas of creation but nature in all its beauty is beyond our control, we cannot ignore it because we are subject to its power, but we can be caretakers respect and value the privilege of what we share.
~ Simon

Monday, 6 October 2008

Rip Curl GromSearch Results

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Concrete poured, path looks great, and asparagus patch dug & planted. Sunday was my sons 22nd Birthday. Cant believe it! Happy Birthday Shane :0)
Above: morning of the Sunday St Clair.
Pics from the finals day of the Rip Curl grom Search!

Above: Left - Peri Matenga. Right - Gabe Marriott.
Below: Left - The esplanade decked out. Right - Tane Wallis


Above: left- Johnny Hicks. Right - the 5 under 12 finalists paddling out. Below: Left - A lull through the Judges tent. Right - Elliot Paerata-Reid.


There is also a slideshow of my images from the weekend at the KIWISURF website here as well as their results & writeup , and while I'm linking the writeup from the SISA website.

Below, a few more free surf pics from the days before the weekend too





 

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