February 16th 2016: Pulse

There is a small reef on the outskirts of Dunedin that, in the right swell and wind conditions, creates waves that are works of art. Sculptures of glassy water. A slow-moving giant of unrivalled beauty, it's also a wild, hissing beast that pours top to bottom with bone-breaking power.

A small group of surfers has this place wired and pounce on it whenever the stars align. They aligned last week in an Indoesque display of power and beauty for Doug Young, Kenny Kennedy, Andy Eman and about 100 New Zealand fur seals – yep, these guys even surfed the smaller sets.

Taming this beauty is no easy feat. It has a gaping barrel section pock-marked with steps and divots and clamps shut on unsuspecting barrel hunters. I saw one wave where Doug negotiated a step just as the lip threw out and picked him clean up by the ear. On several others Andy and Kenny were tripped up by the below-sea-level reefsuck and sent unceremoniously into the base of the wave, only to then be picked up and churned inside the double overhead caverns like they were flotsam. How they came up smiling and hooting each time is beyond me. But after paying their dues they all managed to thread through the detail in the wave face to claim some unbelievable rides.

One particularly big set rolled in late in the day and Doug was in position, fading deep as the wall grew and grew in front of him. When he finally put the hammer down you could see this look in his eye. He built up speed, threw his arms up to set his projectory and gain height on the wave face and pumped right into the bowels of a giant barrel. As it threw as wide as it was tall, the inside of the tube exploded in a blue-green flash of colour as the light penetrated it. A fitting end to a day of magic on the reef.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Lots of excitement in the ocean right now – track those cyclones and watch those swells arrive here.