Blog Post Catchup

Just made a clean out of my 'to be published posts' folder, and did a big catchup publishing images and events over the last year..

St Kilda Dunes Fixed

Dredging Consultation Begins

Braving the Storm and Surf

From an article in the Otago Daily Times By Tracey Roxburgh on Tue, 20 Jul 2010

Most people avoid storms, but one Queenstown man spent about a month recently actively chasing them with two keen Australian surfers to film their adventures for the Discovery Channel.

35MM Ltd location scout and photographer Daz Caulton said he and a crew of nine others, including Australian director Justin McMillan, spent a month intermittently filming "storm surfers" Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones in action around the West Coast and the southern South Island.

Carroll is a two-time world champion big wave surfer and Clarke-Jones had "won heaps of titles" in the sport.

"They chase storms around the world and they worked out the science behind them. "There's only a limited few that are brave enough to do it and get the skill and the know-how to do it.

"They're hitting their 50s. "They've been surfing since they were little grommits." Storm Surfers examines the phenomenon of big waves, the science behind them, the adventure of chasing them and the surfers who ride them in conditions which could kill.

Storm Surfers - Dangerous Banks premiered in 2008 on the Discovery Channel in Australia and across Asia. It was a huge success and has since gone on to sell into Europe and North America

Mr Caulton said in New Zealand the group headed to Port Craig, on Southland's west coast, where the weather front was so bad the local crayfisherman wouldn't head out.

However, Mr Caulton said the storm did not deter Carroll and Clarke-Jones, who headed out on a jet ski and surfed waves up to 40ft (12m) high. The pair also surfed Barn Bay, near Jackson Bay on the West Coast, which Mr Caulton said had never been done before due to the difficulty accessing it.

"At Barn Bay there were 20 footers ... it was absolutely horrendous. When we opened the helicopter door there was hail coming in, it was 5degC and the wind chill was about -2degC." The group also headed into the back-country ski areas, where they were towed by snowmobiles riding snowboards.

On Lake Wakatipu, they were towed by a helicopter and reached a speed of 41 knots, thought to be a world record. Mr Caulton said they also intended to go to Yates Pt on the West Coast of Fiordland, but were forced to turn back after heavy snow closed the road.

"Hannibal [Hayes] took us on a flight at Milford. "There were diggers in there [clearing the snow], so we filmed that. "We went up with Hannibal and he set off some avalanches in the back-country. "It's going to be one wicked show." The only casualty during filming was a jet ski, which almost sunk at sea. Mr Caulton said the camera rig was "ripped out" and the jet ski began to sink. However, a mad dash to the shore saved the jet ski, which was repaired and sent back out again.

• Storm Surfers screens on Wedesdays at 8.30pm on the Discovery Channel (Sky digital channel 70). It's repeated on Thursdays at 3.30am and 10.30am, Saturdays at 2.30am and 9.30pm and Sundays at 4.30pm.

Swell Guys playing Sat @ SC Boardriders

Dunedin Stadium Progress

Well, the sharks wanted it, and they got it. Personally, although a covered stadium for Dunedin is a great thing, the extent to which it has been rate payer funded is ludicrous. Everywhere you look within council services, prices have gone up. Helping a friend pack stuff to shift yesterday morning she gave another guy helping $4 to take a stationwagon load to the green island landfill, to be told it now cost $27.00

I was on my way back from a trip out to Port Chalmers in the afternoon, and took a few shots of the Stadium building progress on my wee matchbox pentax camera (been leaving the 7D at home lately).

Wondering who would like to comment on their local body elections' voting preferemces? Chin back in? or a complete revamp?

I took a photo today

And then I played in photoshop.. And this is what it was of.

Promenade vision for ocean drive

From the Otago Daily Times By David Loughrey on Thu, 8 Jul 2010

Use of John Wilson Ocean Dr, in Dunedin, by pedestrians, cyclists and schools was increasing, Living Streets Dunedin convener Judy Martin said last night, and the road could become "a promenade that everyone enjoys".

The pedestrian advocacy organisation, and cycling organisation Spokes Dunedin, held a public meeting in St Kilda last night, to allow residents to find out more about issues facing the road, express their opinions, and make submissions to the Dunedin City Council.

The council is undertaking a consultation process on the future of the road, which was originally closed while construction of the Tahuna outfall project was under way.

It was re-opened in October last year, but was closed to traffic two weeks later, following a death at Lawyers Head.

Ms Martin said about 25 people and three city councillors attended the meeting.

Organisers adopted the perspective that while people talked about the road as "closed", it was closed only to traffic, and it had a future as a promenade.

It was decided Living Streets would become an umbrella group to push for the road to be "an open, inviting promenade" with a preference it remain closed to traffic.

Submissions on the road's future close on August 6.

View Submission Form on DCC Website here

RELATED BLOG POSTS

August 7th 2006 March 20th 2009 September 2nd 2009 October 7th 2009

Golden Hours

Been a while since i caught the first or last light of the day.
Above: a glowing sunset the other night just down the road from my house.
Saddle Hill with Flax. Below: And Saddle Hill with Cabbage Trees.

A Short Weekend Drive

Went for a bit of a cruise checking out some surf spots on Saturday with a good friend.

Phoam on trademe - a bunch of $1 reserves!

MORE LISTINGS ADDED 2nd July

Well I'm scratching the bottom of my bank account, and I have to shift some photographic artworks via the trademe game.

I'd be stoked if you could check them out, add to your watchlist, and/or BID AWAY!
Every cent goes towards upgrading my camera gear, and petrol so I can keep working at this surf blog.

CLICK HERE TO BID!

Proposed Harbour Dredging- effects on surfbreaks

The Otago Regional Council has received applications from Port Otago Limited for resource consents to:

1. Deepen, widen and maintain the lower harbour channel, the swinging area and Port Chalmers berths, to allow the passage of larger ships to Port Chalmers,
2. Dispose the dredge spoil to sea, and
3. Extend the multipurpose wharf and to construct a new fisherman's wharf at Port Chalmers.

Click here to view the consent applications by Port Otago
>> Download a submission form
Submissions close at 5pm Friday 13 August 2010

IMPACT ON SURFBREAKS
For the last two+ years members of the Otago surfing community have been regularly attending Meetings for the Next Generation Project (Port Otago Dredging) as part of the Public Consultative Group.

• Graham Carse and Brett Hastie on behalf of South Coast Boardriders,
  
• and myself, Nic Reeves on behalf of the Surfbreak Protection Society.

We have given our input and concerns over the effect the dredging and disposal of dredgings at the proposed sites will have on the quality of the surf breaks on the North Coast.
Affecting all the breaks from: Aramoana up to and including Karitane.
We have been assured through the AEE report that the dumping of spill will not have any adverse affects on the surf breaks. However we believe otherwise, as past disposal of dredgings in much lower volumes than proposed have had ongoing adverse effects on a number of breaks on the north coast, especially aramoana.

We stand on behalf of local surfers, but if you have any concerns or require assistance making a personal submission please contact any of us or leave a comment here.

Above, peaks at Aramoana

BELOW: recent articles in the Otago Daily Times

Dredging plan will cut deep Mon, 21 Jun 2010
Historically, "out of sight, out of mind" has proven an effective policy when it comes to reducing costs, for big and little business alike.

While it may be ethically wrong to muffle, shuffle or even disown damaging behaviour by acts of stealth, the policy's high success rate ensures its long life.

So it is that Port Otago Ltd with its Project Next Generation will next month seek to sneak under the public's nose the largest and most destructive single act of industrial dredging that the Otago coastline has yet seen, notwithstanding our city's proud reputation as the Wildlife Capital of the World. read more here

Channel dredging application lodged By Simon Hartley on Fri, 28 May 2010
Port Otago has lodged a resource consent application with the Otago Regional Council for its proposed "next generation" $100 million channel deepening project.

Port Otago has spent about $1.5 million on various studies so far and, following consultation on the initial draft released publicly in February, says there are only minor changes to the final, approximately 200-page application.

It appears likely the application will be publicly notified and open for submissions. read more here

Fishermen oppose Port Otago's sand, silt proposal By Allison Rudd on Sat, 27 Mar 2010

Otago fishermen have formed a working party to write their formal response to Port Otago's plans to dump more than seven million cubic metres of sand and silt off Taiaroa Head.

Port Otago will soon apply for resource consent to widen the Otago Harbour shipping channel and dump 7.2 million cubic metres of dredge material 6.5km out to sea.

The Port Chalmers Fishermen's Co-operative fears the sand and silt may create a "dead zone" along the coast, threatening fishing stocks and their income.

About half the co-operative's 40 members attended a meeting on Thursday night to discuss the issue. read more here

Three out

Stunning Dunedin winters' day again, Thursday about 9.30am.. I had about 40 minutes before I started work so took a quick spin down the line hoping to catch jay still out. I passed him returning home on his scooter, board on rack and decided to take a look and get some empties anyway. I was rewarded with lines stacking up to the horizon and three out, below.

Walking down the path the shot (two above) was snapped between paces. Below a sik sequence

Above a walk to the nose, and below a 20 frame sequence. which made me realise I had my camera set to shoot jpegs and not Raw images.

first dip in decades -1960's Quane 9'6"

A 1960's 9'6" Quane longboard - purchased with a buy now on trademe, just after it was listed. Apparently it had been stored in the roof of a farm shed up central Otago for the last 20+ years. It was in excellent condition with only a few dings in the nose, which jay fixed. He also inserted a leash plug. So today with some winter sun, a bone chilling offshore breeze, grooming clean 2ft waves rolling through the local we headed out for its' first dip in decades.

Above, freshly waxed up.. ready to go. below, waiting out the back in a bit of a lull with some nice lefts coming through on the inside.

First wave Above. below: early morning light with a direct contrast vantage point gave some arty photo opportunities

After shooting for about half an hour, I was stuffed (still in recovery mode), I ditched the chill and climbed back over the rocks. The tide had moved in pretty fast, as the beach profile was lowered considerably by the storms a few weeks back, so I had o strip off my shoes and socks, hiked up my jeans to my thighs and waded back through the shorey. Jays mate turned up as I was leaving so him and Jay surfed for another hour on the inside while I crashed in the car. Jay said he wasn't too impressed with the board to start with, but after a few rock solid nose rides on the inside he was confident the Quane would become a solid part of his beloved quiver.

Sea Kayak Photo Shoot

Nice to shoot something other than surfing images. I met up with my good friend Trever for a photo shoot down at the Dunedin Harbour last week. The light was rich and warm late in the day, perfect conditions for a paddle.

Above: The Dunedin Stadium progress. Below three: After the paddle trev let his dog Elly out of the car, where she went nuts over the hose.



Above: last light on the water with boat sheds in distance.
Below: The controversial Harbour Mouth Molars by Sculptor Regan Gentry at the Kitchener Street Reserve. $45,000 commission for the Dunedin City Council. Many people were pretty rarked about the subject matter for such a large amount of rate payers' dollars. See ODT article here. I think molars are pretty apt, as I have always seen the Otago Peninsula outline resembling the cookie monster's head.. so the molars are positioned at pretty much the right point.

Getting Well Again

Close family and friends have known whats been happening with me the last 10 months, and why my blog and social life has been so sparse.. The rest of you I guess have no idea.
If you're not interested in a semi detailed catchup involving details of my womens' issues, I suggest you stop reading.

I'm also telling my story here as it may be helpful to someone else who hits google who may be at their wits end like I was.



So my story.
I had been struggling with pelvic pain and chronic fatigue for well over 5 years, all doctors and numerous acute hospital emergency visits and admissions I was always told "Nothing wrong, its in your head or go have a good shit". After the Cold Water Classic June last year things really started to go downhill for me, then in December another acute hospital 2 day admission with yet another fob off I visited my daughters' new Doctor.. who after hearing my history suggested I might have Endometriosis which I had never heard of before.
Well damn me, I was almost text book. After ringing and speaking with the ladies at the NZ 0800 Endo Hotline I arranged to see a private specialist from Christchurch in January this year, who then put me on a waiting list for an operation in Ashburton to 'have a look inside'.
The last 5 months waiting for my op date have been a real struggle trying to keep my head above water, holding on to my day job by the skin of me teeth and keeping sanely focussed. I have only had 5 surfs since Christmas, each one very precious but putting me in bed for a few days afterwards.
Last week on the 24th of May my laporoscopy operation was performed. They removed a few cysts on my ovaries and inserted a Mirena. Upon waking the surgeon told me I have Adenomyosis which is a form of endometriosis but isolated to the uterus wall and muscle. Thank god, because Adeno is curable, whereas the Endo isn't.
So since the op, its been a very painful and sleepless 9 days with yet another acute 2 day admission to Dunedin Hospital on the day of my return to Dunedin.
Now in recovery I have to wait 3-6 months to see if the mirena works in dealing to the pain and other symptoms. If not I have to get my uterus removed, but I'm not thinking about that right now. Fingers crossed.
So no surfing for me for another 6 weeks, and about 4 weeks off work.
That's my story so far. Thanks to my partner Jayin and my family and friends who have supported me so much - I love you all.

The awesome card above: cartoon of me holding my board (love the hair), was handmade for me and signed with good wishes for a speedy recovery by all the people at my workplace :0) thankyous!!!
Looking forward to being fully back on deck soon with new energy and focus for my photography, art and film making, and more frequent blog posts to boot, wish me luck!
Namaste Nic

GIG - Chicks Hotel Friday 4th June