June 16th 2015: Churn

I actually feel a bit guilty about how excited I get when I see a weather system twist up in the Southern Ocean and intensify as it skirts Antarctica. These last two lows have been sensational ... as good as it gets as far as swell generators go. They're so far south that the swell gets a long run up and that means the energy in the ground swell is ordered and powerful. That's good news if you are up to surfing these types of waves, but it's not so good for our fragile coastal environment. The beaches of St Clair and St Kilda took an absolute hammering from this last one. Paths were swept away, sand dunes undermined and tonnes of sand redistributed out to sea by the high tides. Wellington beaches copped a flogging, too.

Even the iconic St Clair poles were disfigured in this last frenzy. In between the peaks of fury we were exposed to some beautiful surf and there's more to come. These ground swells benefit everyone from Raglan to Gisborne, but they also send their raw energy into the reefs of Fiji. And this last one just turned the Fiji Pro into one of the finest displays of world surfing you could ever hope for. The lone Kiwi on the WCT, Ricardo Christie, put on one of his greatest heats ever – check it out here. He came so close, but in the end Frenchman Jeremy Flores came away with the highest score. A few heats later and Aussie Owen Wright scored the seventh perfect heat score in World Surf League history. Watch his amazing performance here. Yep, Fiji has turned it on again.

Swell all week ... you know the drill.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Our friends at Dive Otago are holding an event to mark the Inaugural International Women's Dive Day.
Celebrated all over the world on the same day this event is for divers and non-divers alike! 
There is a boat dive scheduled for certified divers and non-certified divers can do a Discover Scuba Dive in the Dive Otago indoor dive pool. Contact Dive Otago to get involved: 03 4664370.