Friday, December 31, 2010

Rabbamoana and Rubanesia....Happy 2011 !!

Happy New Year!!!! Wishing everyone the best and brightest future for 2011.
>Cracking the whip and moving straight into this new decade I thought I would start with a reflection of last tuesday's huge windswell. Heavy rain, massive slips and the biggest floods in 150 years in Golden Bay , this storm also brought with it one of the largest swells we have seen in couple of years although unfortunately it mellowed out quite fast due to a blustery souwest change although it was this combining factor which set Ruby Bay and Rabbit Island on fire with a blaze of offshore cylinders that had everyone rubbing their eyes in disbelief infact I even broke the arm off my sunglasses from taking them on and off so many times and had a sore arm from pointing at the ridiculous non-sensical barrels spitting up and down Rabbit Island. This is no joke. Anyone will tell you this was Rabbit Island on steroids.

(above): Ruby Rights
The swell had peaked earlier at about 11am with (in hindsight) solid 8-10ft waves breaking along The Boulder Bank, then after midday as the souwest came up you could see the spray coming off the back of the waves from the highway between Nelson and the Glen giving you an idea of the size.
Not to be out-done the sleeping beauty Ruby bay awoke with some real size leaving everyone stunned in its wake.
Classic Quotes from "Big Tuesday": "This is just like Aramoana"- Andy Riley reffering to Rabbit Island....."I thought I was in Indonesia"- Rachel Hills reffering to Ruby Bay...

(above): Left hand runners at Rabbit Island.
Not sure about Ruby Bay as it can get amazing during Cyclone swells but everyone I have talked to agrees hands down this was "The Best Day Ever"at Rabbit Island, the quick offshore changing leaving the swell still broken enough to explode onto the sand with spits literally huffing left, right and centre.

(above): Leif Christenson riding a mini-mal and slotting into a Rabid gem.

(above): Ruby Lefts.

* Photos supplied by James Marshall and Rach Hills ANYONE WITH MORE PHOTOS PLEASE SHARE !!

Love it or hate it, you cannot deny that when there is a good swell running in Nelson, you wouldnt want to be anywhere else in the world! You know this!!
Thanks to everyones support for this site/blog over the years (6 years now) The sitemeter quite often averages around 55-65 hits a day believe it or not.
Your only on earth for a short time so why not share the fun instead of being all uptight!! (puns directed!) and wasnt it great how Huey chucked a slip across the road the other day so none of those Blenheim boys could get here!!!! Apart from Richard Norton who was here already and tearing the bags as normal.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year once more!!
now lets see these Cyclones ,yeeewwww -peace!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Seasons Greetings from Ana and Conal!!

We´re still having a great time in Pichilemu but beginning to think of where we might go next - somewhere further south is all we know at the moment.

We had a lovely weekend. On Friday we spent the day at Punto de Lobos; Conal surfing and me lazing on the beach trying not to get sunburnt. On Friday evening we went out with another couple from our hostel (French guy and Mexican lady) for a few beers We sat at a table by the roadside and watched the scenes go by. Then Adriana offered to cook us a mexican dinner back at the hostel so we went to the supermarket to buy supplies.. While there we experienced our first South American earthquake - only a short sharp one, but the earth moved nevertheless and I didn´t like it one bit. Anyway, back at the hostel we had Chilean wine and Mexican quisadillos (tortillas stuffed with cheese and vegies) and Irish salad (in other words, I made a salad). It was a good night and we got to bed at 1.30am. Our new (younger) friends went out to a club but told us the next day that it wasn´t that great.

The night life doesn´t get started until about midnight here. Conal and I are usually tucked up in bed but because our room is directly off the living area, the front door and the outside deck we here all the comings and goings. We usually sleep okay regardless but I´ve been awake at all hours and enjoy listening to the chatting, the laughing and even singing. The place usually gets quiet at about 5am and then we´re the first to rise - at about 9am we make our breakfast and go out to sit on the deck and watch the world go by.

On Saturday night it was La Ola Cultural here (The Cultural Wave Carnival). It started at 6pm with groups of drummers going through the streets. There were 3 different drumming groups, dancers and balloons - very colourful, noisy, happy. The drummers were having a great time and everyone on the streets were tapping their feet, dancing and smiling. It was fantastic. At about 8.30pm a series of bands started playing - I think they were all local bands judging from the way they were talking with their friends in the crowd. They were all good - one sounded contemporary/traditional, one was PUNK!!!, one was heavy metal, the last one to play were a bit jazzy. We really enjoyed ourselves, it was a great atmosphere - and all free entertainment.

We had another small earthquake yesterday. Afer the big quake that hit Chile in January a tsunami hit the coast here and the sea surged up the street as far as our hostel - the locals are still a bit jittery about it and I don´t blame them.

We cook for ourselves most nights. Last night we had a big pile of potatoes and omelette - the potatoes were lovely.. There's a great bakery near our place where we buy amasados (bread rolls) fresh from the oven - fantastic. We've been eating them with honey, nutella, peanut butter, etc - no vegimite:( We have a supermarket nearby too so we pop in there most days to buy stuff for dinner - rice, lentils, cheese. We haven´t eaten out much yet because we don't know what to order and there don't seem to be many vegetarian options but we'll get the hang of it as our grasp on the language improves and our confidence to talk to people! The empanadas are great and at only 1000 pesos each (about $3.50), a good snack.

So - that's all from us for now. We've updated the blog and mangaged to put one photo up. We'll keep working on that - we think that some of the computers we use are pretty ancient, very slow and uploading photos is a bit beyond them.
If you don't hear from us again before the weekend, we wish you all a happy Christmas and send our love from peachey Pichi.
Ana & Conaldo xx

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sh!T Story!!

Have a read of the below article in the link here and check it out good reading to give you a story behind the smell we all love to hate because we all know when its offshore!!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/features/4459766/Behind-the-sewage-plants-big-stink

Here comes Santa!


Congratulations to everyone that sat through what must have truly been one of Nelsons longest flat spells ever! It seems the theory of relativity is about to work in true fashion as every action has an equal and opposite reaction with the weather maps starting to line up almost dreamlike for the festive season. infact, one could almost become suspicious that someone out there is playing a cruel sick joke on us poor Nelson surfers!!!
Now, touching wood and not giving too much else away I decided to flick back through the photo albums and put up some classic photos to wet our apettites.

Just a quick note that Dean and Matt Duncan have opened a new skatehop in Hardy Street near Everyman Records, be sure to pop in and say G'day as the boys have opened right in the heart of Nelsons prime time retail boiling pot~!!

Rumour Mill:
>>Which Delaware Bay local sleeps through the glassy morning session eventually awoken by his brother because the internet told him it was going to be flat the night before despite basically being able to see and hear the surf from his house???!!>>Who is the local surfer/artist who once again leaves town right when the surf begins to pump??!!>>>Which Wakefield surfer likes to surf right in front of the carpark at Snappers just so everyone can see him and he can be closer to the smell of the ponds??...and last but not least, the "hand-board bandit" has been sighted so beware of talking heads!!!,,,




Santa Claus is coming to town and this time he's bringing a surfboard.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Why have a Club??

The question in the title of this post "why have a club?", is quite a simple one really and the answer is currently being perfectly illustrated over the way in good old Blenheim. Agricultural (eg: vineyards, dairy farms) in the greater Blenheim/Marlborough/Awatere Valley areas have successfully won permission to semi-dam the Wairou River to conserve water for livestock and crops thus reducing the outflow of water to the sea. This will have a devastating effect on 2 local surfbreaks in the area but the proposal will steamroll ahead despite protest from Forest and Bird and a couple of minority groups. You see its all about numbers and having a voice as a group of individuals with common interest. Im not saying that a bunch of surfers would have been able to stop this development but a larger group of protesting individuals from different angles may have had a leg to stand on. (above): No More??

How does this relate to Nelson??, there has been a couple of near misses for the local surfbreak over the last couple of decades none of which I will go into now but one thing to watch importantly in the news right now is the problems they are having with the sewerage settlement ponds at Snappers. I was stunned yesterday to see a dfozen or more men in white "nuclear" coveralls patrolling the area and hand releasing buckets of chlorine out of an aluminium dinghy into the ponds.
Without scare-mongering it wouldnt take much to call the whole area major health risk and shut the gate at the main road. Something to think about and as always I welcome your opinions, voices and concerns so please feel free as I will publish nearly anything!!!
Sometimes its not just about flash cars and cool stickers.
Jokes aside,
Many Thanks.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Andy Irons R.I.P

Of course we all know of the tragic and untimely death of Andy Irons but id like to share share this truly moving video piece below.
R.I.P Andy
Andy Irons Tribute by Surfer Magazine

Monday, December 6, 2010

A Change in The Air??

Greetings once again everyone and is it just me or is there something different in the air today?? Sniff Sniff, thats right, its raining!! Looking forward through the isobar charts it looks as though our poor surf-starved souls are about to be replenished not just once but multiple times over the next couple of weeks and pretty soon every King Neptune and his Stand-up Paddle Board will have something to cheer about whilst riding Ruby Bay howlers.

Its definately been a long time between waves for our local shores but thats not to say we havent been getting out and about with local crew spreading far and wide throughout both coasts. Liam Buttner and Joe Thornton have been doing covert West Coast missions along with Ashleigh Trainor and Tali Vidal whilst Joe Leeper, Marco and Jacko were seen hanging out with Boy-Racers along the tip-head strip. Jackson has just bought himself a 20 seater bus so look out for a dodgy tall guy selling icecreams in the Snappers carpark. Keni Duke-Hetet and myself have been keeping the arms in check doing afternoon paddle missions up and down Tahunanui beach and looking like Baywatch stars as we enter and exit the water whilst Bruce Wilson has been doing missions over to the Blenheim area just so he can drive really fast staring into the rows of Grape Vines as they "flicker" by!
Expect to see a strange guy with flippers and a thing stuck to his hand out in the surf now the water as warmed up too....

Last but not least we bid farewell to Karne Harmon who's off to Auckland to drink as much Monster Energy drinks as he can and Conal A.K.A "Con-Dog" and Ana Parkes who embark on a 6 month long "holiday" to South America. To keep us in the loop Conal is trying his luck at Blogging and to follow their mission follow this link here
Adios AMigo's
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