Full Moon Tonight

Tested out a Canon 1Ds tonight, the pohutakawa pics taken at about7pm, the top one is a closeup of the same photo below it, amazing resolution, the lens I used was my 100-400 4.5-5.6, so not that sharp
The surfing at about 8pm, light was failing by then.

Growing out of Control

Above: garden is growing out of control especially the mizuni lettuce, courgettes and the sugar snap peas. In the foreground are Nasturtian flowers for the salads, with a selection iof herbs in front in the orange pots. Below, a closer look at the garden.

Above: last week, one of the brocolli held in front of my green pepper growing on the kitchen windowsill with Basil. This week the brocolli is twice the size, along with the cauliflower.

So good to walk out the back door and pick all the fresh salad leaves and herbs right there.

:: VID :: Seven Sessions

The Story behind this Video
A debate on a New Zealand surf forum late 2007 led to the creation of the 'Olo Hikoi'. At the centre of the Hikoi (Journey) was a 13foot hollow core wooden surfboard shaped by Roy Stewart. The forum debate was over previous claims in another surf forum by the board's shaper that it would outperform other longboards at Pipeline.

The nine month Hikoi covered the length and breadth of New Zealand and was shared, surfed and delivered between members of the surf forum.

This video covers the 5 week Dunedin leg of the NZ Hikoi. Although there were 14 sessions in total, only seven were visually documented. Dunedin surfers were Jay, Beano, Shayne, Caity, Nic, Homa, Jono, Jimi & Hayley. Images and editing by Nic Reeves of phoam.blogspot.com - Thanks to Junk Shop Star for the use of their track Aria for Aria. myspace.com/junkshopstar

All of the NZ Hikoi sessions and most of the Hawaii sessions were blogged at 13footofwood.blogspot.com - Each surfer sent in words, photographs and videos sharing the stoke with their travels, experiences surfing the board and board reviews.

The board is now (Jan 2010) in Hawaii in the possession of Garrett Mcnamara and has indeed been surfed at 2nd reef pipeline.
Thank you to Roy Stewart for making this Hikoi possible by allowing your board to tour.
Unfortunately due to communication issues, the UK tour has been canceled.

:: Boart Art :: The Joker

Above: Caity with her Joker board art, and behind her on the street her new car ( she sold the 4WD she bought, chewed too much gas)

Caitlins scuzzy old fish, which had a revamp last year during a party at home (left) was getting a bit manky because we didn't seal the design on properly ( just used a clear enamel spray from a can).
So she decided to remove the previous work.. and asked me to help her put on a spanking new design. One of her favourite symbolic images.. The Joker, from the deck of cards.
Why The Joker? She likes the Joker because of its dual use. In card play it can either be the trump card & highly regarded, or it is of no use at all and discarded from the pack. This to her represents her feelings of her own duality and usefulness of her place in life depending on outer rules and circumstances.
How we did it
We started off by scanning the playing card, and then printed it out to A4, Caitlin then drew a grid over it, and scaled the grid up by 2x to a large piece of tracing paper. I then transferred the design over to the tracing paper using the block grid method. Next Caitlin hung it against a window, and reverse traced it with charcoal. After that she laid it over her board charcoal side downwards taped it into place, and rub transferred the image on to the board. I then freehand drew with black Poscas over the charcoal. Caitlin then took the board to Carsey at Quarry Beach, who clear spray coated the design.

Below Left: a closer look at the boart art, and Right: a real cool painting that I picked up at the tip shop last week. Its an original oil, probably an old chinese production line artwork. I loved it not only because of its composition and colour, but because it was the day I decided to start Chinese acupuncture to help me get back on board with life. Weirdly too, that that night on TV, every programme or movie we watched had a tiger in it.

Big Rock New Year Comp & 2009 Prizegiving

POSTPONED TILL NEXT WEEKEND DUE TO WEATHER AND PREDICTED SWELL
From the Big Rock blogsite
http://bigrock-boardriders.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-comp-2009-prizegiving.html

Yeah we've been lazy, but it's summer there's been waves around and Andy sends his love to everyone!


First Comp of the 'Summer' series is to be held on Saturday 16 January 2009, with Sunday 17th as a backup in case of poor conditions.
Planning to kick off at 8:30am sharp!

Meeting at the top car park at Ocean View, if no parking is available, there is a car park at the bottom of the hill.
We will be taking entries for open shortboard, open longboard and possibly woman's as well - depending on numbers.

Fees are also now due and it would be helpful if these were paid at the comp, as follows:
Student/Retired $5
Adult $10
Family $20
Following the Comp, there we will also be a prizegiving for the 2008/2009 season.

Dipping Out - New Website Launch

In September I spent a few weeks building a new webblogsite, with the aim of restarting the group "Friends of Blackhead". The original group was responsible for negotiations between the quarry owners and DOC resulting the placement of the Covenant on the Roman baths and Dock headland rock formations in 1991. The aim for the reform was to ensure the conditions of the 1991 covenant were upheld, and protected.
I haven't got the energy to do all this myself, so if anyone is interested to have an informal meeting, and do some work, then please leave a comment and discuss here or at the forum on the Friends of Blackhead website.


The Blackhead headland "Dipping Out" on New years Day 2010, view from Ocean View Beach.
Profile is getting closer to my prediction last year, Below

I think C may even occur easily by 2030 not 2060.
Below, original photo used for the top frame above, courtesy of Lloyd Godman.

And even more startling... What Blackhead REALLY used to look like in 1908, looking across Waldronville (pre development) from Saddle Hill. With my photoshopped comparison of what the headland profile was like September 2009.

more on the website http://friendsofblackhead.wordpress.com/

Christmas Break

Abvoe: Caitlin yesterday, taking my board out.
And below on Jays Electroglide on New Years Day.


Above: My other two kids, Amber and Shane on New years day, we had a lovely afternoon at the beach with the family.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year
Empty from 8am 1st January 2010