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