Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
There are some waves around this coastline that teeter on that knife edge between mythical and legendary. They're the ones you hear stories about. Tales told with widened eyes and hand gestures to add animation to something so great that it deserves everything the story teller can throw at it. And you'd quickly discard their tale as myth if it wasn't for the light in their eyes, the residue of coffee and dust from the road twisted into their beard and their unwashed straggly hair that hints they've put surf discovery ahead of everything else in their life. These people you trust and you listen and you hope that one day you might stumble across this remarkable wave in all its glory – that once in a blue moon moment it all comes together.
That once in a blue moon moment came in spades this weekend at a break near Dunedin that I've checked many times in the past 10 years and never paddled out once. It was a fleeting visit of a day or two, but for those who got a chance to race its endless wall and skirt around its heaving sections, it will have chiselled a whole section of memories into their brain. They'll be on constant replay – retold with eyes wide and full animation with comparisons to the Superbank and Jeffreys Bay.
These are the blue moons that create legends with the rarity to render them myths.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS We've joined forces with Surfing New Zealand and Skinnies to take four of the most promising young Kiwi surf athletes to Fiji for 10 days of reefbreaks and high performance on boarding. This will be the first trip of its kind and hopefully the first of many. This first one will see Elliott Brown, Kehu Butler, Caleb Cutmore and Jonas Tawharu immersed in some seriously photogenic Fijian waves. Roll on July ...
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: