Just When you thought it was over someone grabs you by the cucumber 🥒

What’s really going on .....

SNAP OUT OF IT SNAPPERHEADS !!

Wakey Wakey retired surf city civilians I come bearing great news !!! After an incredibly relentless and frustratingly long and if not history making flat spell basically since early December if you don’t count the tease and hoaxe Cyclone Oma..... trust me on this one .... It’s all about to change for the better !!! Stay tuned this weekend as I continue revamping this website breathing life into our dull and flaccid nelson surf lives ..... get ready for the ride

December: The Month The Waves Came.

Hey there guys and long time no update and many apology due to the fact of locking myself out of my own google account which may have been a good thing as well as a bad thing!!
Rightio.... DECEMBER and wow what a start last weekend with just about every break in town pumping with one particular Saturday evening session going down at Snappers in the glassy 6 foot realm some calling "the best in 3 years"... I guess they mean since Cyclone Pam then?
Alas however Snappers was not the only place firing on all cyclinders and the gossip from round town is that Cable Bay was equally as good on the Saturday evening.
Just when you thought it was all over on monday it actually wasnt it was still a good 3foot down at Schnaps and only 5 or 6 crew onto it and then just to add insult to injury yesterday another swell appeared and today well. you guessed it,,,,,, there is still waves ,,,,
So December the 5th and 5 days in a row where it hasnt dropped below 3 feet.,(head high).
Not bad for a town with no waves.

So anybody seen this young lad around the lineup lately?
Dont worry you will.
Nelsonboardriders would like to welcome Tom and Dom to Surf City.
A father and son combo set to rival any Charlie Medina, Gabby mix it is great to have these guys move into town and give the nest a good ruffle, both these guys are incredibly accomplished surfers ,
young Tom finishing second in the under 14 U.K tour last year is no mean feat.
I am personally also a little excited to see this young lad wipe some smirks off some faces of some more prominent South Island Clubs over the next calendar year. No Pressure tho Tommy !!
Also a shout out to Surf Mum Sara who waits patiently on the beach while the boys put on the show.

SO anyways...... its been pumping, it still is kinda pumping by Nelson standards so lets get out there and celebrate the warm water and waves !!

Oh and best of luck to Josh Sheridan and Tom on their strike mission to westport for the first of the SOuth Island Grom Series events this weekend!!!   Smash it up boys !!

Well its been a long time now its time to get your bubble burst.

Well now wait a minute..... What the hell does that title even mean??
What now?, let me tell you what now.
It all begins with complacency.

(above): Graham Clark during the session known as Nicaragua 

Getting lazy in surf city can mean missed oppurtunity and your surfing 'career' can fly right by without you even noticing then next minute you're riding a mountbike or a SUP claiming a higher special relationship with nature. That my friends is the easy way out .
You want to be a surfer in Nelson you have to keep that froth going day in, day out.
Stare at the forecast charts 7 - 10 - 15 days out even, and never ever lose sight of the next approaching swell, ignore surf forecasting sites with convenient bar graphs and worm and use old man of the sea weather map nouse and coincide with coastal marine weather forecasts.
" I dont have a surfing career" I hear you say... ok then Donavan Frankenreiter perhaps 'career' was a poor choice of word but the point is the same.
It is Nelson we live in, dont take your finger off the trigger cos that target in sight may be gone the next time you look.

The water is warming up. What is your excuse..... see you out there.

:note- this article is written for tounge in cheek purpose and by no means should you forfeit any activity you enjoy the same as you enjoy surfing.

Surf City Window Chasers

This week's consistent swell forecast would add weight to the fact that Nelson does infact have a "swell season" and we would largely say mid winter to mid spring whereby system after system of consistent Northwest to Southwest flow comes through the days get longer and the nightime temps not so frosty. A vast array of waves last week including empty Cable Bay and extra large Schnappers made it so that most of us got wet.

So the above forecast looks great on paper, but it will be a case of Johnny on the Spot.
Northwest/Southwest flows are fickle beasts and what might be ugly one hour may be pumping the next. Its all about picking the right window. Im hoping you all get something to smile about !!

So before I gloat and post pictures of my solo session at Cable Bay please be aware that September 5th there is a great surf movie club fundraiser going down at NMIT theatre with award winning feature film "The Way" coming thru town...... tickets are 15 bux and preface drinks and nibbles provided. MORE BIG INFO COMING SOON  !!!

Take it away Cable Bay.

The Truth About Your Local :

Introducing Schnapper Point, Nelson. The most crowded wave in Nelson and how often surfing here ends in frustration, sometimes joy but most of the times,
,,,,, a mixture of both.
Lets take a sit down and have a talk about exactly why.......

Schnappers - as a good friend once put to me - is like the local pub, the local hang, the local skatepark.
Its the place we go to immediately due to the fact that it... lets face it, is ridiculously convenient.
Its an easy paddle out the back, breaks both left and right and it also receives, well, attracts the most rideable swell in Nelson. The only place that perhaps gets more is the blind channel or "brokeback bar" but lets just leave that stuff up to the sup guys and girls as its realistically not surfable on a conventional surfboard.Aaah yes Schnappers or Snappers, however you want to spell it can be a ridiculously good wave on a really good swell and generally its a pretty user friendly kind of break with easy entry from each side and it is also closest break to town depending on where you live.
It can also be a ridiculously crap wave in weak wind swell.

The point of this spill is the fact that time and time again I hear people complaining about altercation and or interactions in the surf regarding dropping in , snaking, wave hogging, angry grumpy surfers and all of the above. Sure, I have even heard people talk about intimate relationships with the wave but lets face it, in short we go there ,,,,, because it is easy .

I guess the point im trying to make is that if you go there to surf, It most likely will be crowded. It is a shifting peak so there will technically always be someone who has "snaked" you. There may be frustrated heated exchanges even... just like the local bar haha,  but you may also... if you have the right attitude, end up having some good yarns and leave with a smile on your dial rather than venomous spite. I see and hear so many "beaten wife syndrome" stories where people complain about surfing at snappers then return there very next surf. If you dont like it, dont surf there. Take Nathan Torvic for example,,, he lives at Cable Bay and has lived in elson for a good 6 years and has never surfed Snappers.... he just surfs Delaware and Cables,,,, likewise for a couple of Glenduan residents I know who just surf the Glen and those random Rabbit Island locals that only seem to be at Rabbit Island.

Another absolute gem is when I myself and the whole Nelson Boardriders club get blamed for the surf being crowded at Snappers.... an amazing feat if it were true but it leaves me in tears, of laughter.

"But I dont have time to go anywhere else", another classic line.  Its a 5-10 minute drive and sometimes 10minute walk to the nearest and most likely better class waves. Leave home earlier or talk less shit in the carpark,

Anyways, dont be a sook, if you go to Snappers it will be crowded and you will most likely get snaked or burned, unless it gets over 4foot then we start to find out the who and the what is really going on. To the beginner, it really isnt the best place to learn to surf, try Rabbit Island, Delaware Beach or Tahunanui, the secret to learning and improving your surfing is catching heaps and heaps of waves and if you turn up to Snappers and there is 15 cars in the carpark, 23 surfers in the water and 2 set waves every ten minutes then its pretty obvious its going to be hard to get a wave whether your a beginner or an elitist.

Change your Attitude and Broaden your Horizons.

Most of all, Have Fun !!!

BONUS BITCH !! :  

 When people turn up and check snappers from the end of the carpark drive with their hands on their hips or heads for 10 or more minutes and look up and down the boulder bank like they have a special affinity with mother nature............. FFS,,,, just get out there !! Beggars Cant be Chosers !!!

Swell Season On !!!

(above) TuaraWhati in all its Glory.

Just like that. The flick of a switch. Four days in a row of waves and at least 2 more systems on the way in the forseeable future, just as the last post predicted. You just never know your luck in Surf City Nelson.!!