No Losers At Cape Classic

Tauranga Bay Westport didnt dissapoint over the weekend but its not often it does.

 Friday saw the first of the heats for everyone that went down.... Adan Soroka did well for his first comp but came up against some strong competition. Both Josh Sheridan, and Raul Venture got threw there heats easily. With Mark Nichols doing the same. 

Saturday saw a change of venue where Nine mile beach was doing its thing while T bay lay still for most of the day. First up for the morning was Emma Pegg in open womens followed by Raef Murray in...The Grandmasters..... where he was the last of the Nelson crew standing. 

By mid morning all the crew were free surfing and most of the support crew were in the water giving it a go. Sunday saw T Bay doing what it does best with The Grom series taking place. Emma Pegg placed 4th against some top talent for the day and the boys all getting threw to the finals.

(above): Emma Pegg surfing and  recieving 4th place in the Junior Comp on Sunday

 All in all it was an amazing weekend of good company, good waves and crazy good NBR surfers. Nelson Boardriders defiantly can step up and say we have some top surfs in our neck of the woods. So if your keen to join and want to give it a go it would be great to fill the bus on our next trip to paradise.....

On that note we'd like to thank Toby Wild for saucing the van from NMIT for us it was greatly apreciated. Thanks heaps to James Fairbrass for supplying us with meat all weekend. He is one of our top sponsors and we are very greatful for his support. (now all we need is to get him back on a board) And thanks to John at Hogeys for the wax. Also a big thank you to Rui Venture for the best photos taken. (love what you do) Also a big thanks to the Nelson peeps who came and checked out how everyone was going. Great to have your interest and support. (thanks Craig and Rebecca Leth, Toby and Bridget for your support and interest. Last but not least Ray at Bazils backpackers in Westport, always giving us a good deal on accomodation and looking out for us. Without these guys our trips and competitions would be that much harder to get up and running. So if you can support them in anyway please do so (what comes around goes around, right) Now we have a few more comps coming up. 

First off Emma Pegg has decided to go for it and enter the Womens Champs in Christchurch this weekend. so big ups to her for getting into it. If there is any other women keen to take it on entry closes this Thursday (message me if your keen and I'll give you contact details) Also The Duke Festival in New Brighton at the end of the month. Word has it our talented Artist Geoff Noble has got some seriously good art work on display over the time it runs from 16th-25th March. So if your down that way go take a look. Also word was Graham Clark, Geoff Noble and Ben Winpipe could be heading down to compete. Good to see Nelson guys taking part in what sounds like a great week/weekend. 

On another note if you know of any businesses that would be keen to help sponsor our next grom trip in April (date to come) we would greatly appreciate a helping hand. Without sponsors we are flying solo to get these kids/teenages/big kids to comps and while it can be done and is mainly done by parents or individuals, it would be great to see a surfing club in Nelson be acknowledged as a sport organisation where local businesses help support and help grow this crazy cool sport.

Trudie Pegg.

Secretary/Treasurer and all round Surf Mum to all  !!!

Cry-Time Part 1: The Awakening

So, the Cape Classic surf event is on at the end of next week and unfortunately 3 or so of our boys cant make it due to Dazz's wedding but thats all good ( and big congrats to you Dazz hope it all goes off !!) . 

The point I wanna get across to people out there is that these events and there is only 4 of them a year are a congregation of  south island surfers meeting in one point and sharing the love of surfing. Its not about being a good surfer and winning.. its all about participating and enjoying sharing the lifestyle that we all embrace, hanging at the beach all day.

If it could be cross referenced it is exactly like a provincial rugby meet or a mountainbike event. Except... its surfing.

Now obviously Im not going to advertise a "free surf trip" to everyone because the catch is that you have to actually enter the event. The earlier the commitment to the event the more easier it is to raise funds and make it much , much easier on the pocket.

Im especially proud for Adan Saroka and Raef Murray both relative newbies to these events but a special pat on the back for putting their unforced hand up and saying "hey I will give this a go".

No.... it is not the only thing the club is about.... but its all part of it.

The forecast is for small clean and sunny west coast and we've even got free meat for the bbq all weekend thanks to James Fairbrass at Meat Solutions its just a shame that so many of you wont be joining us and I chose that word wisely.

Like..... a semi-free 3 day surf trip away (little bit of time off school/work) with awesome people from all over the South Island and likewise amazing surfing and waves. 

....No way man pass me my tin-foil hat

Remove the Hype: Actually Find the Break

Post quake rumours of "new surf breaks" were abundant just after the Kaikoura earthquake(s).
Little did myself and Russell Bruce know that a failed mission to a hard to access surf location just north of Kaikoura would turn into a discovery of something very new and exciting on the way home.
Curiosity is a cat killer and Russ and I had both gone through the bi-polar frothing emotions the day before our trip on whether or not it was actually worth the drive down and in hindsight for our actual intended mission it wasnt.

(above): Original mission failed, the boys head home deflated.

This was just the first rise and fall in our roller coaster of emotion filled day with a block of land for sale and a quick tip-off from a former local from the area we stumbled across a gem just as we were about to leave the eastern shore for our journey home. A decent drive up a pea-metal/shingle river bed and track led us to an amazing sight,  A lone peak breaking in the middle of nowhere with consistency only a solid piece of reef could offer it wasnt long before we were in our wetsuits and paddling out. The massive oversight was that the whole journey up the beach the rather expensive four wheel drive we were travelling in was on the verge of bogging the whole way and during the elation of surfing a new break I couldnt help but keep looking back at the precarious vehicle on the shoreline and thinking to myself "we are....f....d"..

We surfed the wave until we could surf no more, exchanging sets and priority but when the surf was over and it was time to head off our poor new school land rover had other ideas.

First we went back 6 metres and sunk. Then we went forward 6 metres and sunk. Then we revved the motor out of pure desperation and we dropped faster than a russian submarine retrieving Harold Holt. Buried a metre into the shingle with an incoming tide, dead cellphones  and half an hour before sunset we knew we had to make a decision fast.

This involved a 5km run to a nearby farmstead where the farmer named Bruce greeted us on his 4wheeler and angry sheep dogs. He told us he would go get his tractor and humourisly made us run back to the car the way we came rather than give us a cruisy tractor ride. Russ and I did a really great impersonation of Ethiopian marathon runners as we hurdled gorse and thistle and broken down electric fences. We were towed out on sundown showering the farmer with cash and white wine he was stoked and we were stoked and we arrived safely home at 1130 that evening right in time for an earthquake out in cook strait as a gentle reminder of how mortal we all are.

The moral of the story and the rumours are still abundant. There are some interesting new happening over on that coast and the places you least expect may actually be the biggest surprises yet.

It was dead flat in Kaikoura this day and we most likely lucked the whole scene but just remember..

The Search is never over......