The Nun

Greetings Everyone,

I’m back with another update! We have had a blast the past few weeks and we have also been learning a lot. Since the last update, we have moved on from Muriwai to Piha and United North. We had a lot of fun at Piha and we also got to fool around on the numerous rock formations they have. We got to swim through some more caves, jump off a few more things and we got the experience of sitting in what they call “The Barber’s Chair”. One of the rocks seemed to form a perfect chair that allowed you to sit in it while waves break over you, pretty rad. The waves were thumping the first few days we were there, so we got some quality surfing and body-surfing time in. The beach in Piha is placed directly between two sets of cliffs called Lion and Camel Rock, which in turn makes the currents there insane! I haven’t been tossed around so much in quite awhile. The regional guards there had some fun things planned for us as we went hiking through rivers and canyons, and we experienced what they call “jug night”. I’ll leave it to you to use your imagination for what “jug night” is. The most fun thing at Piha is of course “The Nun,” and they wouldn't let us escape without visiting her. 

One evening after the regional guard patrol finished, they came to Paul and me and asked if “Team America” was ready. Cautiously we asked ready for what, and we were told it was time to do “The Nun”. Paul and I both had theories as to why it was called “The Nun”. I thought it was because you should find religion as you may be visiting your maker very shortly. Paul had the idea it was called “The Nun” because that is how many children you will have after jumping from it. So, a group of us headed out to get religious and pray that we live after this leap of faith. Before “The Nun,” we messed around on a few smaller jumps like “The Washing Machine” and “The Blowhole”. Without too much of a delay, we moved onto “The Nun”. I initially looked up at “The Nun” and thought it was a higher ledge than it ended up being, so I wasn’t tripping out too bad, initially. We started our ascent up the cliff, but we noticed much of the group had just come to be spectators. Naturally curious, I asked why they weren’t jumping. I received two answers from the group. One, they have jumped it once and they’re never doing it again. Two, I am crazy. With those inspirational words, I got up to the top, looked over the cliff and thought about what had gone wrong in life to get me to this ledge. I then decided that if I thought too much about it, things could only go south so I just jumped. I managed to get away unscathed besides some minor bleeding. Unfortunately Paul’s jump didn’t go quite as well as he landed a tad sideways, but he came away breathing so that was satisfactory enough for the Kiwis. After our action-packed week at Piha, we actually went back to Auckland to have a meeting with the higher-ups of Northern Region.

We were fortunate enough to have a casual meeting over lunch with everyone that helped make our exchange possible from the New Zealand end. They were basically just curious about how we lifeguard back home compared to here, what we think of the lifeguarding culture in New Zealand and what we have learned along the way. It was a great opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on to make lifeguarding in the Northern Region possible. As surf lifesaving in Northern Region is a charitable organization and not government-run like it is back home, it was quite a change from what we were used to. Along with that, it really was great to see such a group of dedicated people make lifeguarding happen over so many different beaches. After our meeting, we got a look around at the communication room, the Coast Guard boats and the Westpac rescue helicopter. It was all amazing stuff and it was really cool to see various organizations working together in the same building.

After that, Rob Pidgeon took us out to his club, United North Piha. We had a barbecue the first night and got to patrol a bit before we did some IRB training. It was our most extensive training yet and it was great to have Rob critiquing us while we were driving. We practiced everything from parallel running, pickups and solo driving. It was incredibly helpful and we noticed our skills improving immediately to the point where we may even try to get certified as drivers. We just arrived at Raglan last night and we are both pretty stoked on it. We can’t wait to see what we have in store here and I’ll let you know as soon as I can! That’s it for another update from down unda!

Cheers,

Taylor          

2013!

Hey There,

It’s Taylor again, giving you an update from New Zealand! We are making our way through the surf clubs, and we are now on the west coast at Muriwai. So far we have been to Orewa, Omaha, Whangarei, Mangawhai and now Muriwai. We took a slight detour this past weekend and got the pleasure of watching some IRB races way down the coast in Taranaki. It’s been a little while since the last update, so I’ll do my best to provide an accurate account of what we’ve been doing.

After Omaha we went to Whangarei, perhaps the most “rustic” of the clubs we have stayed at. We had some time to hang out before we were told we would be competing in the club championships. That consisted of four events: beach flags, a 100 meter sprint, a run-swim-run and a paddle race. Paul and I both represented California proudly as he we came in 1^st (Paul) and 2^nd (me) on the run-swim-run and I won the paddle race. I may have also written “USA” on my arm in zinc as well… had to let the Kiwis know who they were behind (just kidding). We were lucky because we scored some good waves the next morning, but then a storm swell hit and the surf got huge! There were some 10-12+ foot waves rolling in and we ended up closing the beach because it was just too hazardous for the public. I was lucky enough to get to do some IRB training in the big surf, and I am happy to report I managed to stay in the whole time. I may just have a blister or two on my hands from holding on so tight. After a few days there, we were off to Mangawhai Heads.

Mangawhai was a great club with fun waves, and most of the clubbies there seemed to be surfers. We spent a lot of time surfing while there were waves, but we also got some training in. The waves had mellowed out the next day, so the regional guards there let Paul and me take out an IRB, on our own. I don’t know if they just had a lack of regard for their equipment or really had that much faith in us to operate an IRB intelligently, but everything turned out alright and the IRB made it back just fine. We were told we would be considered failures if we flipped an IRB that day because it literally was completely flat. Later that day, we took the IRB over to some cliffs where we proceeded to jump off of them. One of them was the highest we have jumped off to date, and the pictures posted give a good idea as to how high it was. We also got rides in their bigger boat, “Surf Rider”. It is a bigger, more powerful boat they have at Mangawhai in case they need to make it through bigger surf or tow bigger boats. We had to hold on pretty tight with Mel Laird driving!

After that, we got a pretty cool opportunity to go deep sea fishing. Tim Gibb, one of the guards from Mangawhai, took us out on his boat to try and catch some kingfish. The wind was howling, which made it really rough to be in a boat out there. Let’s just say wearing wetsuits may have been a better idea than wearing the clothes we had on. However, we did reel in a few kingies and one was big enough to take back with us. Needless to say, we ate very well for the next few days and I think I may have a new favorite white fish. After a few days there, we were taken back to Auckland where we would meet up with the Muriwai crew that was heading down to Taranaki for the IRB races.

We spent the past weekend down in Taranaki watching some IRB races. The races were pretty entertaining, and we saw some sweet IRB carnage! There were good-sized waves, boats flipping and crewmen flying overboard… a pretty standard IRB race from what we’ve been told. We only spent two days down there, but it was well worth it to see how crazy things can get in an IRB! Muriwai finished pretty well amongst the field, and now we are at their club waiting to see what we have up next. This is definitely the biggest beach we’ve come across yet, as it stretches over 50 kilometers. The guards here don’t guard that entire coast, but they have the biggest operation we’ve seen yet. They launch two IRB’s and they have more equipment than the other clubs we’ve seen at their disposal to help cover that huge area. We got a quick tour yesterday, and it looks like they have plenty of cliffs to jump off and caves to crawl in, so we are anxiously awaiting what’s to come! Until next time everyone…

Cheers,

Taylor