oooossh somebody [me] has been getting their pano game back on
It has been a minute aye! And unapologetically so, January is holiday month in Aotearoa. I love that you can't get anything done in January, plan for it, roll with it, celebrate it. The gorgeous Ange and I did. After recovering from hosting family Christmas we spent 12 glorious days in the camper, in the Far Far North. Ironically it's with half of Piha, again something to celebrate, far from home but with your mates and neighbours. Normally it's a hard out surf camp, there's always waves in the FFN. Not so much this time, onshores on the east, a few quality days on the west but then a jump in the swell that overpowered the 90 Mile Beachies. It was all alright though, late nights under canvas solving the world's problems, back to back to back midnighters. Good times.
First session with the new rig- went good
But before that, the new water-housing set up had to be tested, sea trials. I'm on to my 12th water-housing spanning 30 years of shooting from the water [farrrk, 30 years. How'd I get here!!! ]. You'd hope by now I'd know what I'm doing. The sea trials were needed, nothing dramatic like springing a leak, but I needed to tweak the ergonomics. Swapping the big and little handle around and then finally pissing the little handle off altogether, and laughing at myself for buying all the bells and whistles, then negating half of them.
Home looking more like the islands
Sammy Keane, by name and nature
You'd be hard pressed to find a more dedicated surfer than Scott Casey, lives and breathes the stuff
Ohhh, maybe this guy though! Mootie Bedford the OG frother
There's a accidental trend here, Brendan Shadbolt, the quiet long player, probably already up to the 5th hour of water time this day
Generation next, Piha grub Rio Bidois, happily helping me figure out the new toy...wait tool, it's a work tool, not having fun, no, all work here
Nigel Hunt... probably not quite realising he was a sea trial at this very point
The 3rd generation of Joyce surfers in the Piha line up- how cool!
Oh yes, Te Troopy in its natural environ
Got two days of this guy with just the lads out
A few banks there to poke a stick at I reckon
And then goodbye to the FFN and down to the Near North for work
The 10th edition of the Logger Heads was on, my first gig for the year and always a firm favourite. The founder and organiser Tony Baker has always strived to make the long boarding weekend about the vibes as much as the contest. I've prattled on about this before, but it really is the case.
Tony Baker, probably stressing about the million details that need attention. But having fun and making a space for catch ups, laughs and endless good banter.
No contest cloistering in cars here! There's too much chat to be had
The sort of turn that saw Matt Newdick win his second Logger Head open title in the weekend, he took out the old mal division too
But not without the Open National Champ, Jack Tyro, keeping him honest. Jack was a busy lad, Finalist in the Old Mal, the Open and the Juniors, he had to settle with a Junior win, it has to be noted that there was less than a point in the Open Final between first and fourth- it was an epic final
Speaking of multiple division entrants; Hawaii's Megan McHale kept busy all weekend running through the Old Mal and Wahine heats, eventually taking out the Wahine Title with long fives
Megan crossing on a 1968 Dunlop
...and deeeeeen ... a wait, a swing and honestly a bit of a miss. Big Mangawhai Bar at the peak of this week's east swell, and probably too big for the swell direction. Always worth a crack though.
It was epic to spend 11 nights in the Troopy, it never missed a beat. We had the heat, we had rain. Home is good, good to plan the next trip!
FROM THE GALLERIES
No surprises for guessing which was the runaway hit for 2023, this guy, Day of Days.... print of prints. Such an incredible swell and sand event to be a part of. You can view it and look at print options HERE