Jan. 26, 2009
Makarora Beach
I woke up in the middle of the night to a starry sky, and could tell by the volume of the surf that the swell had picked up. Sure enough, when I peeked out of my tent in the morning, the surf had gone from 1 to 6 feet overnight -- and the local crew was on it. Surf towns are funny, b/c you don't really see that many surfers when it's flat. But when the swell picks up, they come out of the woodwork and are on the waves likes flies on shit.
There are some ripper local kids -- saw one land a 360 aerial this morning, to a barrage of hoots and horns from those of us on shore. After, the kid just stood there on the sandbar inside, looking stunned at his own success. That is an extremely difficult move. I had never actually seen it done before.
The demographics of surfing here are so different than SF, where I am right in the middle of a skewed bell curve -- the average surfer in SF is a 30ish transplant. There are almost no kid surfers in SF. Here, the average surfer is closer to 20. When I see any one else over 30, I get the "hey, you're an old man, too". But I also get respect from the yoots (for my wrinkles, not my surfing!) and that's cool.
I have a new subtitle for my book, "New Zealand: It Ain't Mexico (or Yosemite): Come for the tramping, stay for the waves.”
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