Birthday week...not so bad
When you're a grom, and even well into your twenties...hell, thirties... birthdays are all about the party. There's landmarks, your 16th, your 21st, your 30th, your 40th. But there comes a time, or age where the celebrations get replaced with a realisation that there's a tipping point. You're not making landmarks, the bloody clock is ticking. And the parties become social obligations. There's nothing wrong with social obligations, and quite frankly there is gratitude that friends and family what to celebrate your day of birth. But shouldn't a birthday be a time to do what you want to do? I bail, last year it was Gizzy, the year before it was Napier, before that Samoa.
T Bay and the start of the new swell
The objective is to be surfing, to get surfed out, to camp. There's a range, anywhere that's going to be good within a 5 hour drive/flight from Piha. This year the Far North was looking the goods, the long range forecast was good for both coasts. The gorgeous Ange couldn't come, but she happily gave me the pass, so me and the lil' bro Kent went on a boy's roadie.
The Troopy in its correct habitat
Surf, eat, sleep... repeat. Engage the front diff; an added bonus. We got really good waves, we surfed twice a day. I'd like to claim I was ripping, that I got barrelled every surf, but I wasn't and didn't. We sure had a lot of fun though. Road food, asleep by 8pm, soundtracks from the 80's and 90's... in part to annoy young Kent. Tales of former triumphs and disasters. Making new memories.
Ahipara goodness
Rarawa...not quite this time, but man the Troopy looks good!
Sorry, not sorry hashtag Troopylyfe, Ahipara camp
Super fun rollers around the reef
Stuck around the reef by the tide, oh no, what will we do
