End of Winter Festival

Don't Miss it


one of my photos of Lyndon Hutton for the poster.

Nat Parsons

Air at St Clair
The morning of the first day of the South Island Champs

:: VID :: Retro into Spring

New Otago boardriders club 'Big Rock' held their celebration of spring surf with an op-shop retro surf on Sunday. Thankfully the weather held out for a great afternoon. Congrats to Rob (below) who caught the best wave, and kept his red polka-dot dress on the longest.

Too many photos.. video to come once it finishes loading to youtube

A few waves on Saturday.

KIWISURF 106

Kiwisurf mag 106: Supplied the photos for the 'Random Questions' feature on Lyndon Hutton.
Below is a larger version of the sequence 9because it ran so small)

and the one they didn't run...

9.3 degrees

starting to warm up now

In the News

Three recent items in the newspapers that relates to local surfing and ocean stuff.
First the ODT article covering the whale beaching in the weekend:

And front page of the Star Midweek, four talented Kings High students set off to conquer Raglan. Good luck!

Then, self explanatory.. surf lifesavers in Otago celebrate 75 years!!
Thank you to all past and present surf lifesavers for making our beaches safe.

Swell Cafe on the Esplanade

Source: LINK ODT
St Clair cafe scene set to swell, By Simon Hartley on Fri, 1 Aug 2008

Development of the fourth of six potential licensed premises at the St Clair Esplanade is under way, with an estimated $400,000 conversion of a $1.3 million house into a bar and cafe making good progress.

The modest raised beachfront home, owned for decades by the Thomas family, was recently purchased for $1.3 million.

All but its front facade has been demolished for a bar and restaurant development which will eventually seat up to 130 patrons.

Local developer Stephen Chittock has in recent years purchased nine of the 11 residential properties within the Esplanade block and owns the beachfront motels and Mansions apartment block.

Mr Chittock is also in a joint venture development with Calder Stewart and the construction of a 26-room hotel at the southern end of St Clair Esplanade, estimated to be worth $8 million to $9 million by the time it opens in April next year, is well under way.

Tentatively named Swell Cafe, it will be operated by the Chittock family and should be open by October.It will have seating for 80 indoors, 30 in a courtyard and 20 on a deck with a conservatory area in front of the existing facade."Where else are you right there, with views like this of the surf and beach only metres away," Mr Chittock said.

He believes tourism trends indicate more domestic and Australian visitors and St Clair, with its proliferation of bars and restaurants, as well as a spa business, is developing well to capture and share that market."We want to see the [Esplanade] block live, and not tied up with flash apartments only for the wealthiest," Mr Chittock said yesterday.

Current licensed premises within the Esplanade block are the Salt bar, Starfish and Esplanade, with a long-standing proposal by a Dunedin restaurateur to build on a vacant block and a bar in Mr Chittock's hotel development set to add to the list.He said while there were some competing businesses, the wider Esplanade block was developing as a social hub, not only for the community but for visitors to the suburb.

SURFFEST 08 SCREENING FOR DUNEDIN

Dunedin Surfers and Dunedin film buffs alike pay attention.

- FRIDAY 22nd AUGUST

Dont miss out on a chance to see this years films on the big screen !
More to the point see if you feature on any of this years entries from Dunedin.

195 Larnach Rd Dunedin FRIDAY 22nd AUGUST
BBQ @ 6.30 Bring something to put on it !
SCREENING Films will roll @ 8

Whale disposal

The DOC team left yesterday at around 4.30pm, the plan to come again today at 9.30am at low tide so the team could perform the tests and take the samples they needed to determine the cause of death. The head, flippers and stomach were to be sent to TePapa in Wellington for analysis.
Caitlin and I arrived at 9am to find that overnight the Whale had been butchered for some prime strips of meat, and its tail.

About half an hour later some of the DOC team arrived along with a digger to move the carcass to a burial site 30 metres back in the established dunes which the digger driver expertly created.

After a long wait a sling was placed around the whale to move next to the hole for the removal of the 'samples'.

The first attempt led to the whale slipping out, but a second try kept the weight better balanced, and the whale was carted up to the dunes.

after almost 4 hours of me and Caity standing in the rain, (the weather was horrendously cold and raining hard) although the pics dont show that, we reluctantly left before the stomach was opened.
Article in mondays ODT:

beached beaked whale

Beaked whales are rarely observed, since they mostly remain in deep water and appear to avoid ships.

A quickie at Blackhead

A quickie at Blackhead yesterday, but not for long as all my batteries were almost flat.

Above, in the background behind the curl is 'Big Rock' jutting out, this small land prominence divides Ocean View from Brighton. The newly reformed surf club, Big Rock Boardriders was named after this check out their website here new members welcome.
went home, charged the batteries for an hour and popped back for a few more shots.

full moon was rising

The almost full moon was rising, and can be seen just behind the top of the blackhead headland.

Took a walk along the beach so I could get a better view of the profile of Blackhead headland. The diggers are working back towards the wedge that was cut in April, I assume it will join up sometime soon.

Cold but clean

Thursday morning below, Kaikorai estuary, took a quick walk down there while everyone else was sleeping in. Said goodbye to my sister this morn, she's off back to the Gold Coast. I have vowed to save some money and go see her winter next year.

Friday lunch, after buying half a dozen fruit trees for our orchard, I dropped he trailor back to town and swung by St Clair for a few photos.