Spring garden happenings

Above: Seeds planted in trays a few weeks ago: sugar snap peas, pumpkin, courgette, watermellon, carrots, beetroot, celery, leeks, gourmet lettuce, silverbeet, radishes, basil oregano.
Below: Jay has been working hard clearing the old veges, and re-conditioning the soil by adding more compost and digging over. small potatoes left over from our crop last year which have now seeded and are laying out in the sun ready for planting. Stoked to have a brand new fence down one side of the section courtesy of the new house next door, thanks Ken!

Above: Fruit Trees blossoming. Along the new fence, a logan berry and a black grape which jay will espalier (train to grow in a flat plane against a wall, in a symmetrical pattern). Just got a hold of some raspberry cane cuttings and will get them in today. Amongst the fruit trees my new board a surfline 7'5 freerider and new 8" bamboo dolphin fin.

Building Up

St Clair surfers would have noticed an incredible increase in the volume of sand being deposited at the base of the sea wall, and out into the break its self. I have heard it described at the beginning of the week as pipeline-like. below: a view the new Hotel on the Esplanade with sand build up. And the 6 dogs on the beach where Dogs are prohibited on St Clair Beach.
Pic at Bottom: Harbour dredging's have been deposited on the wharf the last few weeks and trucked to Moana Rua Rd where massive amounts have been dumped off the end to build up the toe of the dunes. This spoil has then immediately been washed into St Clair with the east swells. You can see the scarp at the base of fill.

Concern at Waikouaiti beach erosion

Otago Daily Times By Chris Morris on Fri, 4 Sep 2009

Unusually high tides - including July's king tide - and storms in the past two months had combined to claim 5m of sand dunes, and washed away pine trees and 3500 plantings added over the past three years.

The gap between the beach dunes and nearby Matanaka Dr, running parallel with the coast, had reduced to between 3m and 5m as a result, council parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson said.

The erosion was worst towards the eastern end of the beach, near the Hawkesbury Lagoon, although some sand had returned - in a process known as accretion - in recent weeks, Mr Thompson said.

Upcoming West Coast Surf Comp

Limited entries

For entry forms & event details contact Zane Smith
zane@justsublime.co.nz
Ph: 021 1222707
for more detailed information click the website below
www.justsublime.co.nz

John Wilson Drive Decision

From the Otago Daily Times By Chris Morris on Wed, 2 Sep 2009

The plan
> Gate blocking vehicles from John Wilson Ocean Dr to be retained, unlocked on weekdays one hour after sunrise and locked one hour before sunset.

> Gates to remain locked at weekends, from Friday night until Monday morning.

> Fence at Lawyers Head to proceed to resource consent stage, but not built for up to three months.

> Monitoring of the road's use by walkers on weekends and of Lawyers Head, could see the fence plan abandoned.

> Plan to start once parking issues considered by council staff.

read more here
There is a POLL about this decision running on the ODT website here.. flick over and vote

With the expected limitation of parking at St Clair, the re-opening of John Wilson Drive for parking for surfers would be welcomed. But as the new decision stands, it won't be open in the weekend. AND the gates will close an hour BEFORE sunset, which means a cut-short-surf to get back to your car so you are not locked in.
There is also the issue of the overflowing rubbish bins along the drive.

Stormy Spring Bling

Murphys law, organise a surf fun day, and the weather packs up. The dedicated Big Rock crew arrived at the top domain Brighton at noon to a mush-burgered out Brighton break with strong chilling winds. As I type this i just can't understand how the weather report tonight came up with Dunedin being 14 degrees?
Consensus was to move the event around the corner to back beach.
Only five went out for a surf, and due to the un-fun nature of the weather and surf it was decided to revisit the Sping Bling event in a months time when the weather had settled a bit. We did however hold a mini comp and gave out the second place cards, and will save the trophies for the next event when more people could come and take part.

Above: Rob catches a bomb. Top left: surf conditions on the day. Top right: Lambie tucking in.
Below: Jimi, Jay and Glenn. Bottom: Timmy luingley entertaining with me filming

As all Big Rock events do, things got a bit twisted and the Pre-Surf Rap was held at the end with some entertaining and worrying performances. This morphed into a skate session and a human speed camera test which got some local residents out of their houses and hovering at their gates to watch the show. (short film to come)

Winners:
King ICE - Jay Tzu
Queen ICE - Nic Reeves
Grom ICE - Jimi Crooks, runner up Rob Millburn
Bling Board - Glenn Drinkwater
Bling Gears - Nathan Lungley
Best Bling Rap - Jayin Tzu

SNZ environmental clause 2.2 has been dropped

Voting went 5/1 - 5 for the dropping of the clause to just one against.

Had those five lone club reps who voted in the new rules considered perhaps giving the other 23 affilliated clubs a chance to canvas their members? It could then have been tabled again at the AGM on the 21st November


I believe it is extremely disrespectful to the memory and work of Jonathon McCarthy.

The reason that Bruce Scott gave for the dropping of clause 2.2 was on legal advice, for example the RMA could expose SNZ to cost claims if environmental legal action was taken by members.

Surfing NZ AGM will be held on the 21st November 2009

Surfing New Zealand Environmental Policy

Protection of the environment is the responsibility of everyone. SNZ, as a national body recognizes it’s responsibility and is committed to understanding and minimising the impact of its activities on the environment. Therefore SNZ will look to ensure that the organisation:

Efficiently manages waste and recycles wherever possible

Minimses energy consumption

Ensures that SNZ events are managed on a sustainable basis and that site impact is minimized

Continuously looks to improve it’s environmental performance

Environmental issues outside of SNZ’s own ability to manage can be difficult to analyse and often require the application of considerable resource and expertise. SNZ recognizes that it has limited resource and therefore will only respond to environmental issues where:

The issue has been raised by an affiliated club

Any response has been approved by the Board

The Board is satisfied that any response will not impose immediate or potential material financial obligations upon SNZ

Weed Reef

Looks like in Dunnos we have gale force Noreasters tomorrow which could well put aside any chance of Big Rock's Spring Bling going ahead.
Today it was pretty mushy all down the coast, but for a few spots offshore and clean. One, right on a seaweed coated reef was firing on the sets, but it was a tight takeoff .

Above: Nathan going left on a 100% right, next wave he got barreled and thrown onto the reef and tangled in the weed. Right & below: Jay keeping it clean.

Added 31st August for Matt: Nath in the Weed. And below that, a pic caity took of me (bottom right corner)taking the top photo.

Bling into Spring - Fun Day

Being that Spring is about to sprung
Big Rock Boardriders is throwing a
'Bad Taste Bling'
Fun Surf Day
Sunday August 30th

So bring the family, dust off your gold chains and gangsta gear, get creative and bling up your ugly boards and bring your kook skills.
Prizes for the Best Blinged out Board, Best Bling Costume, Best Kook Wave and Best Pre-Surf Rap.
By request there is even a special heat for over 30 women!
Where: Brighton Top Field Domain
When: August 30th 12 noon
Entries taken on the Day, bring your own lunch.

Beaches Clean Since January 2009

From the Otago Daily Times By David Loughrey on Wed, 26 Aug 2009

Dunedin city beaches have been given a clean bill of health, staying open every day in the seven months since the new outfall pipe was commissioned at Tahuna in January.

The Dunedin City Council is on the verge of deciding what to do with solid waste as part of designing the next phase of its upgrade work, the $74.3 million secondary treatment programme for the Tahuna sewage treatment plant. Council wastewater and stormwater operations team leader Brian Turner said there had been no change since testing started earlier in the year, with the water quality "fine" from St Clair through to Smaills beach.

Even Tomahawk beach, polluted for more than 100 years by the Lawyers Head outfall, had cleaned up quickly, due to the "high energy" coastline. Dr Brian Stewart, of Ryder Consulting, said the water had been tested 128 times since the outfall was commissioned.

Most testing had been done early on, and was now mostly done when weather conditions pushed the plume from the outfall back towards the beaches. The secondary treatment upgrade will including ultraviolet light disinfection, digestion systems and drying techniques at Tahuna.

Mr Turner said the final decision on what to do with about 4.2 tonnes of dried solid waste each day came down to a choice between drying or incineration, a decision he hoped would be made in the next two weeks. "It revolves around what is the most energy efficient. That's the most important thing."

Composting had not worked in Wellington or Rotorua, as councils there had been unable to "get rid of the product". Dried waste could be used on golf courses, where it was mixed with soil and helped trap moisture, while there was the possibility of producing power from burning. Mr Turner said the planned commissioning date for the secondary treatment plant was late 2011.

Southern Right Whales - keep an eye out

call 0800 DOCHOT to report

It is probably true to say that the Southern Right Whale is still the rarest large animal in the world. See here for more details

There was a close sighting at Smaills beach last week, so they are definately running. me and jay saw a few right offshore at brighton beach in the weekend.
Commit the 0800 DOCHOT number to your memory or add it to your cell phone now. Surfers are more likely to have sightings, so keep your eyes peeled while watching the lines roll in.

The Cove - playing this Thursday

Local Dunedin surfer Tony Denley has been campaigning hard to raise awareness of the atrocious and unnecessary slaughter of Dolphins in Japan as exposed in the movie

The Cove

Which is showing at the Rialto in Dunedin on Thursday the 27th of August.

The Cove, an unconventional true-life environmental thriller that brings to light mass killings of dolphins, specifically those exterminated in the Japanese port village of Taiji, south of Osaka.

www.takepart.com/thecove
Article below from "The Star" Dunedin community newspaper 20th August09.

Tony ran a fundraising stall at the Farmers Market on Saturday, canvassing the public to raise awareness of the Dolphin plight, and the work of Sea Shepherd Raffling off a Feestix board

RAFFLE tickets for the board shaped and donated for the cause by Felix Dickson are available at HYDRO surf shop in Dunedin, at a cost of $2 each. The raffle will run until the end of October, where it will be drawn at a music fundraising event at South Coast Boardriders

Above, Julian Temple showing support and performing at the stall at the Farmers Market, with local supporters Steve and Kathryn form the Esplanade Surf School. Tony dressed up in a shark suit (dolphin suit was unavailable).
Tony is asking that as many people as possible go see the film The Cove at the cinema while it is playing.

ODT review Sat, 22 Aug 2009 here
Playing times at The Rialto
Fri 28th August - 12.15pm, 4.10pm, 7.10pm
Sat 29th August - 11am, 1pm, 4.15pm
Sun 30th August - 4.20pm, 6.45pm
Mon 31st Aug - 10.50am, 3.25pm, 6.30pm
Tues 1st Sept - 12.15pm, 4.10pm, 7.10pm
Tues 1st Sept - 12.30pm, 4.25pm, 7.10pm

Offshore Bottom Turns

Around 4-5pm Saturday 22nd August @ blackhead. Strong offshores and glowing light, silhouetted surfers barrels and lots of style.
Trying something new here with a slideshow which enables me to put more photos up than I would otherwise, and you don't have to click on to another page to view the images.
Let me know if it works for you or not, leave a comment.

Painting over old Artworks

Above artwork "Aramoana Pit" just sold last week, but its life began back in April as an abstract work that was tossed on the 'not working' heap for a few months. I picked it up again and attempted to make it a scottish tartan themed wave based on a pic I took at Aramoana. It then sat shamefully for a few months again in the corner until I picked it up again and erased the tartan theme and came up with the final version.

Next two reworked paintings began life back 18 months ago (left)when two canvasses the same size were approached with the concept of sepia coloured waves. Again thrust into the 'lost inspiration/can't be bothered finishing" pile, I dug them out and figured I'd try a abstract bubble theme in the wide panorame one, which I thought looked a bit dicky, so remodelled the foam into something more acceptable (below). the taller portrait wave was just a rework with natural looking foam but stylised wave face, which I think works well. Its now hanging in the living room, and looks great on the wall.

R&R Sport catches Fire

ODT article By Hamish McNeilly on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 read full article here

"R & R Sport staff were left counting the cost from a small fire on Tuesday night which caused $700,000 damage to stock, but could have been "much worse".

A sprinkler located immediately above the first floor area where a fire started behind a vending machine contained the fire, which was extinguished by firefighters within minutes of the alarm being activated."

A "fire sale" of clothing, footwear, jackets, sleeping bags and tents will begin today, Thursday at 9am, with goods discounted between 20% and 70%.