a bit of a tiki tour

Well managed to get out today, we went on a bit of a tiki tour and with a lot of disappointment(and even more gas) managed to find a spot that looked rideable. There wasn’t much in the way of a good bank and when they did peel it was fast, for the most part everything was pretty small but occasionally something in the range of chest to head high would roll in. It was all about the race to keep up with the pocket today with some rides longer than others.

Practiced some more of the ‘swooping’ down the face picking a high line, then once at the top it was ‘swoop’ down again, this was loads of fun feeling the board accelerate as you went down, and with the feet together stance I almost fell over backwards a couple of times when it took off.

This board is just to easy I reckon, id say that its definitely something you’d want in your quiver because its rideable in a wide variation of conditions and on those waves which are just rubbish for most boards you can still get out on this thing and have a blast all the while getting a good workout, much more fun than going to the gym or hitting the roads for a boring road run.

I know you can always take one of the other boards out just for the exercise but if your not having fun, I reckon it can start to get frustrating and makes it harder to get out of the car on these kinds of days.

GRATED

It was back out west again yesterday evening , with a fair few people around i was feeling a little tense but once i got out there it was all good. I'm feeling alot more comfortable with the feet together stance now and actually prefer surfing the big woody in that fashion. Just seems so easy to control and it was nice racing out to the shoulder then dropping one foot back to turn back into the pocket, line it back up to the shoulder feet together and cruise again. Also its a lovely feeling turning the board up to the top off the wave so that you almost hang up in the lip and stall, and then "swoop" back down the face (as roy puts it) and is what i imagine he is meaning.

I can really see the potential to be able to dominate a line up on the board if you are fit enough(and ruthless enough) and are prepared to take off deep. And it is easy to get a bit carried away and become a hog, until you find yourself needing to check yourself and hangback and share the stoke a bit. Almost every ride is all the way into your sandwiches on the beach if you want it to be and with good timing id imagine you could have a set wave in and race back out past everyone just as the next set arrives and then head for your sandwiches again.

Well with a fair amount of ppl out things were getting a tiny bit on the competitive side and i found myself paddling further out and taking off deeper which could get a bit hairy if the wave before you reflected off the rocks back into the one you were on jacking the section you were on up and giving you some air time. I made most of my waves until one, on which I went down like a sack of spuds and had a short amount of intimate time with the rocks. I came up ok but I wasn’t so sure about the board, and it reminded me of the time I crashed my mum’s car when I was a young whipper snapper. That feeling of dread, and seemingly in a time warp where the world slows down, then it was the short sharp shift back to reality, when the realisation kicked in that it was time to get the f____ outta dodge….. before ending back up on the rocks for another grating.
After checking the board, some rail damage and a scratch along the bottom were found…..bugger.
I got in touch with Roy and he advised me to fill any cracks with wax to seal things up, polish the scratch, and to carry on surfing if I feel the urge until the board heads south, back to him for some repair work before carrying on.
Unfortunately everyone wanted to surf so we had no one to take pics, but Jessica volunteered to get out a bit early to get a couple of snaps, but in my quest for the better wave and the longer ride
I had paddled around to the next break (as you do), and by the time she found me it was dark and I was heading in, so no pics of the board in action.
Well I guess my time with the board is almost over, as much as I don’t want to let it go…… we all know that no one likes a hog. So me and ali are planning a surf Monday and Tuesday hopefully, and then I guess I need to start thinking of where the board is going, so it would be nice to know who will be wanting the board next so we can start planning what we will be doing.
Anyhow……same bat time, same bat channel. Till next time, hunty out.

really feeling some of the speed

Took the board out again today, no one to take photos though so no surf pics to send in. Had another nice surf on the board alot smaller today than expected but still plenty fun. Still trying the stance roy does and having more success with it today, also really feeling some of the speed the board can producing keeping lined up in the top two thirds of the breaking section, which really gets it wound up and gets you through some sections that you don't think you will make. Also made it out yesterday but took the shortboard for a change and because of a knock that i got on my knee on the tenth(lucky it wasn't my head) which was still swollen and i didn't want another knock too it.

Feeling alot better today and swelling all gone. Hoping for some east coast action this week so will see how things pan out. ~ hunty

some clean waves on the point

Managed to get some clean waves on the point this morning. Unfortunately there was a fair number of ppl so it was a bit nerve wracking and ali and myself were a little bit concerned about loosing control of the board and clobbering someone.

And to make matters worse everyone was pushing closer and closer to the rocks for their takeoffs in a bid to get the wave so not only did you have the board to worry about if you didn't make it but rocks also, so there were a fair few obsticals to negotiate.
Even so I only came close to colliding with one guy, coming off in front of him and the board getting away from me. But when he surfaced not yelling abuse at me....... or bleeding, I took that as a close call and carried on my merry way.

I tried surfing it the way roy does this morning with parallel feet and body facing straight ahead. It felt kind of odd, and I think helped me wipe out a bit, but near the end I was starting to get the hang of it a little bit better but hadn't quite managed to get the speed skier type crouching stance happening, that I've seen roy doing on his vids.

I think that type of stance definately makes you feel like you have more rail to rail control, but then it made me feel a tiny bit unbalanced front to back.

Any how, had plenty of fun and a few longer rides. Not a bad morning I'd say.

Editors words: just thought I'd share a bit of the process of the blog creation.. hope this is okay with you hunty.. some photos I receive (and take myself) are not that good technically and a bit of 'work' in photoshop is necessary to dig out the info within them which is there, but obscured by the camera setting at the time of clicking. Different effects also help hide technical defects in images. So below are a couple of before and afters from the pics for this post. .. sorry hunty I just didn't have the time to process the rest you sent ~ Nic


EDIT 12th Jan08: Hunty has been tutoring himself up in photoshop and sent through this sequence of Ali, I reakon its a great job!

A map of the journey

a double whammy

After having an afternoon kip, thompson, ali and myself decided to head back out to the beach for a double whammy making the most of what was left of a dwindling swell. Again Jessica(Ali's wife) piloted the camera giving up yet another surf, for which we were most grateful.
Arriving at the beach we were greeted by what looked like a new puegeot coupe sports car buried to the floor pan in sand on the beach on an incoming tide. The initial thought going through everyones head(although no one actually said it) was 'jafas', and everyone could see the potential for the situation to hamper the surfing expedition. We did the right thing and obliged the gentleman when he asked for assistance backing 'ol bessy' into the fray and throwing a tow rope around her tow bar.
Throwing her into 4wd low range, and giving her 3 and half thousand rpm on the ready signal saw no budge on the part of the expensive automobile and got me looking for a different approach(and thinking crap dude, have you got a trunk full of dead bodies or something). Luckily I had a tow rope which we coupled on to the one they had already acquired which gave us enough length to get onto some hard turf, and with 'ol bessy' pulling like a demented school boy we dragged the flashy little number to safety just as the calvery arrived in the form of two more 4wd's with more tow ropes. I took my superman cape off and we parked up and went about unloading and suiting up.

The surf wasn't looking to flash, but that didn't worry us and we were soon into the wet stuff with me being my mcgreedy self and using the woody for the whole session. Things had really died down so there was no pressure and I was just chilling out there enjoying myself. The board didn't have too much more to show me in these conditions and I couldn't help but dream what she would go like on a nice long point break.

I had my poo stance down and was showing all the beach combers the true style of the stance as well as the odd pearl and nose dive. We all tired rather fast and it didn't turn out to be a super long session with the conditions not really helping matters, when a group call was made to call it a day.

6 am wake up

Well it was a 6 am wake up this morning in preparation of another surf, I didn't even bother to check the report we were out there no matter what. Ali picked me up with his wife jessica(who generously drove the camera for us, giving up a surf) and their dog Tess.

Thompson(not being much of morning person) had sternly advised us not to contact him in the morning, and that if he woke up and was keen he would meet us out there in the shit box.
We arrived, suited up and were just about to walk to the beach when the shit box came blazing through in all its glory with thompson's long board on the roof, we had a bit of a team meeting before we hit the beach and all agreed thatI could be mcgreedy again getting 13footofwood for the whole session today without to much opposition once we relised we had left the stack hat behind.
We walked down to the beach to conditions that had slackend off some what and were just not as good, but that didn't deter us and even tess was sharing the stoke thoroughly enjoying running around us with our boards as if to say "yeah you guys are gonna have so much fun".
We hit the water and I got out the back with hardly any trouble with impeccable timing scooting out on a lull. Roy had dropped me a tip on how to turn the board easier which worked rather well so I was feeling good. Everything was going well, I caught a few waves and really started to feel the boards vibe.

I was having so much fun I started to forget my surroundings and just cruise on the board enjoying life, when I was snapped back to reality almost running thompson down who had caught a wave before me and was heading back out, I narrowly avoided him seeing the whites in his eyes as I flew past and bailed.

After that I kept my mind on the job and the board started to show me bit by bit little subtleties that it could do, one of which most impressed me. Again I was on a wave heading for thompson flying along the face, immediately taking evasive action crouching down into a rail grab. Before I had even realised it the board was swinging into a nice slow wide arched turn burying the tail into the wave and going a full 180 deg before accelerating along the blue again toward the breaking wave. This I did not expect at all and was very impressed with. I couldn't help but think how much I liked this board, it just has its own special vibe and style. Even just sitting out the back admiring its perfect lines and curves, the craftsmanship is just amazing. I would love to own one, it wouldn't be a board that I surfed exclusively...... but now and again when
I got in that mood, I would take it out and just cruise.

One thing that I was having trouble mastering was trying to keep the board in the pocket, it either raced out to the shoulder or caught the waves far too easiely so that with out even realising it you were not in the critical section of the wave. I think this is just something that will come the more one gets to know the board, and no matter what part of the wave you are on its a heap of fun.
I did take a couple of minor beatings getting caught on the inside, and found that it was rather easy to sit right on the tail of the board facing the beach letting the waves wash over you instead of just ditching the board. As it tended to pull you along after you had just swam under a wave restricting your oxygen intake which I think has the potential to get very scary. I think the best option is to surf it with a 'no leash' mentality keeping a hold of it and trying to read the ocean and try to keep ahead of what it is doing.

Anyway I had a great surf, and the board got some attention on the walk back to the car with one guy even asking me "is that a roy stewart board" having a hold of it and admiring its craftmanship.
Anyway thats it for the moment. peace.

out again this arvo

Okay went out again this arvo, Thompson, Ali and myself. This time we decided to do a little bit more driving and hit the 90 mile again but much further north to a spot that shows a little bit more consistancy with its banks. The report was for eastery winds again and just under a 2 mtr swell with up to nearly 2.5 mtr set wave face height, so we were amping. Unfortunately the local surf shop had no Helmets or calf leashes, luckily ali had a helmet that he had picked up for a good price off trade me and up until now had not used it, so we took that with us.
Upon arrival we were a bit disappointed to see conditions that were not really any bigger than yesterday(or was that relief) and still a fairly high close out factor with small tides not helping matters.

I had organised my father in law 'Rocky' to take some photos so we were set and went about getting amongst it. Due to me being rather Mcgreedy with the board the previous day it was decided that Thompson would take the board out first, i would go seconds and ali 3rds and we would do board swaps.

MY RIDE REPORT

Well today I really felt good on the board, had an absolute ball on it. Again with the close out factor on a few waves I decided to just go for it and straight lined down the face which was a bit nerve wracking on the first one as instinct was telling me I was heading for a spectacular nose dive with 13footof wood coming down on top of me.

But I put my faith in the board and she didn’t let me down in the slightest racing directly down the wave and straight out in front of it letting it explode behind me.

I made a conscious effort to try not to boss the board around to much and went with it and things just went smooth as ever, also I didn’t seem to have as much trouble manouvering the board today, I found that by sitting right on the very end you can spin it just that much easier that its alot more effortless.

And another trick that I cottoned on to was sitting in the line up parallel with the incoming waves so you only had to turn 90 deg to paddell out over a set or go for a wave. Any how we had a blast and its looking like we could be going for a morning session tomorrow.

~ hunty

in Northland with Hunty

HI every one the olo board is now in northland.This is how the days events went down,it was up at 3 am for a 4 am departure from waihi beach.After beating the auckland city traffic my wife and i arrived at jabes's house not long after 6am to pick up the board(sorry for the early morning ambush jabes, cheers for being rather sporting about it) and then we pushed on north.After hitting Whangarei I could contain myself no longer and had to stop at the information centre for a toilet stop and to pull the board out of the bag and admire its beauty, as well as giving my roof racks the once over which had been put through their paces by the board, and had developed a rather disturbing rattle which seemed to get a little bit louder the further north we went.

We carried on north and all went well until the south side of the Mangamuka gorge where old bessy the nissan developed an out of control shudder, pulling us up on the side of the road to find a extremely distorted rear tire with a large bubble in it.

So it was out with the jack and into a bathurst pitstop styled tyre change and away we went again,until I realised my sunnies were on the side of the road still (doooh).
Eventually we arrived home at around 1pm, and i was straight on the blower to two mates(Ali and thompson) who had been anxiously awaiting my arrival in preparation for a surf mission with 13footofwood.They were straight around to check it out and we all took a moment to marvel at its stunningly good looks.We made the plans and set the wheels in motion for a surf on the west coast(90 mile beach) for the high tide, synchronized our watches and went about our daily chores until the time was right.


THE BOARD REPORT.

Okay before I get into the thick of it, unfortunately I must inform you all that I had no one to take any pictures of us in the water (which is probably for the best as the board has a bit of a learning curve) so you will have to wait till next time. I do have a camera that should get some ok shots, but after waking my wife up at 3 am to get away early, spending ages hunting for sunglasses in the gorge and a long trip. asking her to come and be photographer was pushing it a bit I thought.
Also from here on in I wont be directly naming places just generalising in the general area, this is not because I'm all secret squirrel, most of its in the guide, but I don't believe it is my place to advertise places that other ppl who live here use and enjoy, and may or may not want advertised in any way shape or form. I hope people can understand that, and no doubt you will all know most of the places anyhow.

swell map was showing about a 1.5 meter or so swell with just over a two metre set wave face height and easterlies so we were up for it. The only problem was how we were going to share the board amongst ourselves, naturally since I picked it up I was going first and we set a time of around 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour each on it.

Ok, so into my initial experience with the board. By my eye the waves were averaging around chest height with the odd bigger sets coming in, as usual the banks weren't all that crash hot with some waves closing out but picking the correct wave could see you getting an ok ride before it shut down on you. The first things I noticed were how tight it felt paddling out in regards to turning, that big fin holds it in a straight line, and the other thing I noticed initially was how much the board flexed going over the top of a breaking wave on the paddle out and slapping the other side as it dropped over.
I had real trouble finding the correct sweet spot on the board and its looking as if it is a bit further forward than what you think in your mind it should be. I was having my doubts before I caught my first wave about how well it would turn but they were put to rest once I got a wave, once on the move it seems to turn easy enough just not as tight a turning circle as what you might be used to on a short board but easy enough. Once the board jumps into life it seems to accelerate along the wave face and has a nice positive feel, just seems to extract what it needs.... I particularly enjoyed the acceleration of the board as you were coming into a close out section, as the face gets steeper the board seems to get a long set of legs and accelerates. I thought I would be alot more nervous than I was catching the waves but that part of it didn't seem to be a problem. I even took a couple of straight close out waves and it didn't seem to me to be a problem, dropped down the face and straightened out as it shut down behind me. I did come off a couple of times and made the decision that I would go and get a helmet tomorrow, also I was borrowing ali's calf leash and I will get one of those as well, hopefully a quick release I don't think getting dragged behind it in big surf would be the best experience. One thing that did bug me was when you do come off your leg rope tends to wrap around the pin tail and fin sometimes, no biggie just a bit of a pain.

One thing is for sure on a beach break this board shows up where you skills are lacking in regard to reading the ocean and the waves, the board is very hard to turn 180 deg so you have to be able to set your self in the line up and pick the correct wave. A few times I sat out the back hoping to get one of the slightly bigger set waves picking the wrong one which wouldn't pitch and break for me leaving me inside the set wave behind it wearing it on the head..... normally I would just spin the board around and just clear it, with out even thinking about the stuff up I had just made, not with this board though. You wont get it around in time, also paddling out is a bit of a mission, really highlighted my poor long board skills and inability to turtle roll effectively. Really enjoyed it though, I like that it made me realise a few things that I hadn't before. And I think some aspects to surfing it are going to take a little bit more skill than I initially thought, but they are things that I need to improve on no matter what board I ride. I'm not sure how bigger waves I will be able to surf it in but I figure with a helmet I will definitely try to push my boundaries a little bit. Like I said before I'm not very comfortable in much more than head high on a short board so I'll see how I go. Had a great day though, even though it has been a rather long one.

Jabes' experience

Well after a hectic few weeks decided to take the olo out for a blat before handing over to hunty, went for a surf earlier in the day and it was small and soft but peeling for ages so decided would be perfect conditions to take the board out in the evening glass off, left my shortboard at home so as not to be tempted to ride it instead, as i came out of the car park i regretted it when i met a few of the other locals coming back the other way, to hear them calling that the left was getting really sucky and starting to peel like rags eek!

Tho soon this was forgotten as my arm was preparing to fall off from the weight of the board tried it on my head shoulders both arms and still the 2.5km walk seemed to take for ever and my arms were competely dead not looking forward to paddling it out tho from the top of the hill the conditions looked to be ok for the left.


jumped on the board and talked my mate into taking a couple of pics before she hoped in the water, played with paddling the board forwards backwards to save turning it round and also swimming towing the board behind me,

was quite hard to be in the right spot at the right time as the waves come out of deep water barely showing and then hit the shelf and you have to be able to turn and go in seconds,

still took a few waves and a few absolute beatings before i figured out the sweet spot to stand and also the shortboarders curse of being used to boards that respond the moment you put any pressure on the rails had me struggling a bit,

tho once i stoped trying to tell the board what to do i let her run her own way and got a nice long one into the middle of the bay.


my take on the board it went alright i wouldnt choose to ride it over a shortboard in sucky conditions it got into waves early but i just like the drop. handled pretty much the same as a normal mal would ride, So yeah cool to ride it but just not my thing maybe when im too old for a shortboard but yeah definately not my choice of vessel.

ps the walk back was hell too