April 2008 - the month that was

Sunday Morning

Sunday Morning a sticky fog hung over the southern hill suburbs down to the sea. The sun is becoming very low in the sky, the days are getting shorter, Autumn is truly upon us. I fully felt the promise of the winter chill today as I tucked myself under a cliff in the shade for these photos. Hands back in the pockets after each set came through to warm them up again, as the surfers basked in the sun. 40 mins was my max and I left with a vow to dig out my thermals in preparation for the next 4 months of shooting in bone chilling freeze.

Great to see Jimmy out on the water again, a few feature shots here as he was the only one working the rights.

The last of the Olo in Dunedin

Today was the last session on the '13ft of wood', and the remnants of the big south swell greeted us in the morning with a light offshore grooming some solid 4ft peelers.
A collection of classic boards lay across the beach, and the session turned into a morning of board swapping amongst the crew.
Below- Local stylemaster Homer, instantly dialed into the Olo and undeniably stamped his style.

Jay then took the Olo reins back (above) swapping his fav board with Homer(two below)

Below- Jay formed some solid lines on Homers wood veneer longboard by Dunedin shaper Skep.

Below, Hayley on the Olo, and Pete finding a fast line.


Above- Sophia blew everyone away dropping into this 4ft peeler, and drawing a nice long line, and further along past the section, below left. Right- her mate Mike



Above Steev and a resident observer

mates and good waves

The big messy storm swell has mostly passed by, the faces are cleaning up and the size is still holding. Apart from a smothering blanket of grey cloud, which was not good at all for photos, today was about mates and good waves.

Above Nat slots into one of his many barrels of the day. Below- Tom makes the drop with mutant lip. Nathan carves the face on his old board after snapping his good one at this spot earlier in the day.

Above- Andy left and Jono right, who also snapped a board. Below- Jimmy got a couple of good barrels before he got wasted in the one below and ended up in the emergency room.
Update: Injury was his head split open by his board, in the end his mum cleaned it up and put a sticky plaster on it, and 2 days later he's back in the water!

Below Simon Dickie tucks in

ODT- Public Submission reporting

Yesterday I attended the public submission hearings at the City Council. I gave my 15 minutes worth of verbal input into the Ocean Beach management Plan issues.

A few submissions both baffled and suprised me, so I feel quite sympathetic to the members of the Emergency Response team, and how they will deal and process the extremely differering opinions from the public about the management of Ocean Beach, and understand why they wouldn't listen to members of the public over the Sea Wall renewall issue.

A few more empties

A few more empties from yesterday..

High Tide City Beach

Late this afternoon, high tide at the city beach, some large sets coming through just before the front rolled through.

Ocean Beach - Public hearings begin

Today and tomorrow, the members of the public who made submissions to the Ocean Beach Management Plan will have their 15 minutes each to speak to a panel about their submissions made.
The tree that was sent out with the copies of each submission was interesting reading, with suggestions ranging from letting the beach engulf South Dunedin and relocate the residents and businesses permanently, to a sea wall right along to Lawyers Head with a railway line/boardwalk on top of it, a series of offshore reefs, realigning the sea wall in the pool carpark corner, sand pumping and replenishment, getting rid of the sportsfields and creating a natural dune system again. And of course soft shore protection installed by Holmberg.

Personally I favour the one submitted by the Otago Judo Alliance, who have kindly volunteered to offer their members as sandbags.

a good size

Somewhere was pumping this morning.

Digging In

Progress on the excavation of the basement of the Hotel on the Esplanade at St Clair

Readers Waves - Tash & Regan @ Mundaka

Just received an email from Tash- "me an regan just had a short trip over to mundaka in spain so thought we would share some of our photos with you.. all the surf shots are at mundaka...the right hander starts pumping when the tide gets real high...heaps of barells! not that i got any but still awesome to be out there." ~ Tash
Below: Mundaka

Above: left- the sign, right- chilly in san sebastain
Below: left- inside Mundaka, right- Mundaka

Above: Inside Mundaka, Below: Regan getting out there


Above: Mundaka and right- Regan ripping