October 28th 2014: Live like this

The crew from Damaged Goods Zine have been chasing waves on the South Coast this week. On board with this travelling mediahouse are surfers Asher Pacey, Jesse Steelman and Rangi Ormond. Capturing the moments are DGZ design guy Skip James and DGZ photographer Jereme Aubertin. The South Coast gets a lot of surf media crews and they love to travel under the radar and with as little impact on the locals as possible. We respect that. This DGZ team was super sensitive as always, but they wondered where everyone had gone.

We caught up with them at Blackhead Beach on their last evening in town. They'd had three surfs and the peak framed by the window of their campervan was empty, brushed beautifully by an offshore wind and bathed in sunlight. I had to smile. For surfers of their calibre it must have seemed as if the whole world had taken the day off surfing. Hailing from the Gold Coast, Asher said they'd had great waves everyday of their trip, but hadn't quite had that standout magic session this time. It was his first time on the south coast and he said the extra layers of rubber took some adjusting to. Judging by some of the shots Jerry showed me, they found some gold.

Check these guys out with their links above ... they are a bunch of truly amazing surfers – travelling the world living the dream to explore amazing waves, but also to connect with the nature of it all and to thrive through these experiences. That's my kind of living and I take my hat off to people who find a way to relinquish the bounds of society to live like this.

Check out the story from this trip in DGZ's tenth issue (on shelves early December) or jump on the DGZ website here.

We also had the privilege this week to follow St Clair Surf Life Saving Club's 46th White Island Race. This is one of our favourite watermen events and it was pretty amazing to see local rocker and surfer Chris Prendergast (aka Shakes) take on the epic 5km ocean swim with a 3m swell running. He got pulled out after suffering hypothermia, but he was a third of the way back from the island at that point. What a great swim in tough conditions. St Kilda swimmer Ant Jackson was the only swimmer to complete the race in a time of 1 hour 36 minutes. Big respect for Hamish Taylor who won the race – just seven minutes shy of the record.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Make sure you check out the release of Warren Hawke's new book: NZ Surf - Captured By A Surf Lens. Check out where you can meet this legend here. They're in Dunedin on Wednesday night at South Coast Boardriders Clubrooms at St Clair Beach.