Surfing NZ...

My first surf was awesome!! The lesson (29th Sept) began in a large hangar and we were told some safety stuff and basic techniques for how to stand up on the board. The one-pop and four step techniques, the four step technique involved leaning heavily on my right knee which was not possible for me so I pretty much only had the option of doing the one-pop technique (which is generally the recommended one anyway). The one pop technique basically involves pushing yourself off the board in a sort of press-up motion (but with your hands further back) and then landing with your feet in the correct position on the board. I was just itching to get into the sea and after about 30 minutes of talking we did just that.

My first couple of attempts were pretty feeble, a lot of flapping around and not a lot of standing up going on. I managed to get wiped out by the world's smallest wave too. But I wasn't for quitting and on my 5th attempt I'd already caught a wave! Admittedly I was assisted (told when to start paddling and when to stand up by an instructor) but I still had to do everything! It took me about another 5 goes and I'd caught my first unassisted wave! Woooo! It was awesome! No one else in the lesson had even caught an assisted one yet so I was pretty pleased with myself although I kept telling myself it wasn't a competition! The power of the waves is immense, sometimes I'd get engulfed by it and for 4 or 5 seconds I'd just get ripped around by the current underwater, having no idea what's going on and just hanging on to the hope that my board wouldn't smack me in the face at any point, luckily it never did! By the end of the 3 hour session I'd caught 10 waves, no one else had caught more than 3 and a fair few hadn't caught any (but it's definitely not a competition...) so I was pretty pleased with myself. It had taken one session and I was already in love with surfing, and this wasn't your ideal tropical weather, wearing nothing but shorts either. This was surfing in freezing cold water with wet-suits and quite often being exposed to the driving rain and at one point hail! I loved it, experiencing just how powerful nature is first hand.

On my return to the hostel I made good friends with Alex from Bristol, He'd been in NZ for a good year now living mainly on the South Island. Him and Tess (an Irish girl) asked me to play them some guitar so I played some of my songs and they loved them. About an hour and a half later I'd played through all my own songs and pretty much every cover I can play (which isn't that many!). Alex said he could relate to all my songs and agreed with all the stuff I was saying so we spent the rest of the night discussing society and other such deep things! Good times!

The next day (30th Sept) I could think of nothing but going for a surf and I was just itching to go so I went to hire the gear and Iain (one of the managers of the hostel) informed me there was a Tsunami warning, an 8.3 Earthquake had just hit Samoa and it was possible that a 1m wave could hit the coast of Raglan at 500mph within the next 2 hours. 'So what? I'll surf the bloody Tsunami' I replied not entirely seriously. Iain informed me this was not advisable and that I should wait until the afternoon! I could handle that, as long as I got to surf at some point!

As it was raining Alex and me decided we'd watch a film, around half way through it and after numerous fire sirens had gone off (they have really loud sirens in most NZ towns for the volunteer fire service) Iain came in and told us that the fire-brigade had just told him the hostel needed to be evacuated and we needed to get to at least 3m higher up than we were. So I grabbed all my essentials (pretty much just my guitar) and we headed uphill. 10 minutes later an elderly couple had invited us into their home and we waited there until we were informed all was safe, nothing had happened luckily.

On our return to the hostel I just wanted to go out and surf but apparently there was now another Tsunami warning so no gear was being hired out. I was just itching for a surf but I had to admit defeat at this point and so Alex and me went for a cycle to Whale Bay (bikes are free to hire at the hostel). It was the most hilly cycle ever. My chain fell off and it took me about 30 minute to figure out why my bike wouldn't change gear but I eventually sorted it out, which made it slightly easier, but it was still very hard work! It took a good hour and 10 minutes to get there and back but the views there were amazing!

On our return I taught Alex some guitar (he played pretty good ukelele) and we were told that there was a 'low tide bridge-jump going on' and asked if we were in. I was like 'yes bring it on' and 5 minutes later we were on a bridge wearing nothing but swim-shorts in the freezing cold and driving rain! We jumped in (it was only about 5m high but the water was pretty shallow) and the water was freezing!! It was good fun though although one of the guys managed to cut his foot pretty badly on the rocks below the surface.

In the evening I met Alex's friend Dan who was a cool guy and we went out to a bar with some other people in the hostel.

Today (1st October) I woke to the news that the surf-van was heading to the beach for 10.30am and I hired all my stuff and was rearing to go. I'd set myself a bit of a challenge by hiring a 7'10 board, substantially smaller than the ones we used in the surf-lesson and therefore much harder to get up on but much more maneuverable. Generally surfers start with big boards as beginners and then gradually get smaller and smaller boards although it also depends on the types of waves being surfed.I knew this was going to be a bit of a challenge but I was ready to give it a go! Upon arriving at the beach it was clear the conditions weren't ideal. The waves were a bit hard to predict and a bit choppy. The smaller board was definitely a lot harder to stand up on but I was gradually getting closer and closer to catching a wave but I never got there. Even the guys who had been surfing for months failed to catch anything decent and so I wasn't too disheartened. I could feel that I was definitely getting better, coming pretty close to catching some decent waves, in better conditions perhaps I would have caught a few! But I still had a fantastic time!

Right at the start I'd decided it would be a good idea to paddle out to the deep water and try and catch a monster wave. While I wasn't looking and just paddling into position an absolute monster wave swallowed me up and I was just being bashed around underwater putting my hand around my head in case my board would smack me, a short while later I re-appeared in a completely different position to the one where I was paddling! It was scary, the power of these waves is immense and very humbling. You realise that there's not a fat lot you can do once the wave has got you! I decided it would be much more sensible to catch the slightly smaller waves in the shallower part as it was only my second go at surfing! I got gradually better and better, but despite managing to stand up a couple of times on the board I failed to really catch a wave as I mentioned earlier, but as I say even the experts were struggling so it's not that surprising I was!! I managed one more spectacular wipe out though, I'd pretty much managed to stand up when another unexpected wave came and smashed my board from under my feet, I did a sort of half backflip and landed head first in the sea before being swallowed up by the wave! That's surfing, it's a sport of patience and I love it. You might be there for hours and not catch anything especially as a beginner but eventually I know it'll come. I've just got to keep plugging away!

Tomorrow I may be hitch hiking all the way to the East coast where Alex has gone (a 2 and a half hour drive) or I may hitch down to New Plymouth or I may stay here! Who knows, I'll decide tomorrow morning but whatever I do it'll most likely involve surfing at some point! :-)

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