Week 2 Of Lockdown:
How are you going, like seriously, hope you're dealing ok with home time.
It was a tough week out here on the west coast. The surf has been pumping. This happened in our first lockdown March 2020, the west coast pumped. I stayed dry docked this last week, it sucked! The waves look so fun, and I feel like I've been in a minority of resident surfers that have stuck to the rules. I'm probably not, but there sure were a lot that flaunted Aunty Cindy's no surfing rule. For that matter quite a few rock fisherman too. Auckland's west coast wasn't exclusive in its rule breakers; Ahipara locals busted a fair few too https://tehiku.nz/te-hiku-radio/taumatahanga/20601/no-time-for-waves
It's a tough debate to be on the right side of. The surf was hardly code black Teahupo'o, it's been a very user friendly 2-3 foot and smaller. There's no doubt everyone that did go surfing felt better after surfing, one could argue that post surf they would've been better bubble partners. Their mental health curated. On the other hand, there were definitely non residents surfing i.e. They had driven a decent distance, over the Waitaks to get to the west coast. That's taking the piss, when not only is surfing s'posed to be off the table, driving for non essential activities from one suburb to another area. You, my friend, are a self absorbed dickhead.
And the Irony...
Instead of risking life and limb surfing, I've been cutting bits of big wood into smaller bits. Which is infinitely more hazardous, playing with an array of very sharp blades moving at 3000 rpm +. You probably don't know this, but I'm a DIY junky. Love me tools. Last year I refitted out the Troopy. Look at that continuous grain running across the cabinet doors! A thing of bewty.
Love learning, solving problems and developing new skills. It's a whole another world...so many YouTube tutorials!
I've had my head firmly in the shed during lockdown. Project 1; build a little router table for doing trim detail. Project 2; need more bench space- smash a table out of scrap wood for the sander to sit on and the shop vac to sit under- done. Project 3; Make a cross cut sled to do safer cuts on the table saw- done. Project 4; make something with the new tools/toys... the humble i-phone stand...cos like, that's something we all need right?
There's Been Work Too
New magazine SubMachine has gone to print and I got a lead feature! The opening spread is Paul Morretti as seen here. The 1000 word piece is about how surfing, once edgy and vilified by mainstream, is now absorbed into the mainstream.
As Seen On TV
Well to be fair you're going to have to have eagle eyes to spot them. But on the new BNZ advert for mobile banking there's the 10 NZ Wave Printset scattered about. Hmmm that would be the aforementioned assimilation of our culture wouldn't it?
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Holy heckers, that went well! Over 100 peeps entered last week's draw to win this A3 print, haven't you got anything else to do :) Every entrant was assigned a number then using Random.org's number generator the number was chosen. Jarrah Cooke took it out. Thanks to everyone that gave it a go, and there'll be another one next week.
The Recreationalists: Intrepid Kiwis And Their Campers
Pre-Sales are now open, and I have to say trucking along real nice- thanks fellas!!! And it's still on schedule. As a bit of an enticement, Postage and Packaging is free. If you want to see the whole book, find out a bit more about it AND maybe just maybe take up the Pre Sale offer check it out HERE
From The Galleries
...and one of the images featuring in the NZ Waves Print set is this one, Piha Peak. You can check it out bigger HERE