Part One: The Black-Blue Abyss
I'm not sure if the world is shifting off its axis, but this last southern swell was a welcome shot directly out of the deep blue of the Southern Ocean. This time of year we're hardly expecting to see a swell so large or with the intensity of a 17-second period, but we'll take it. The winter has been a bit lean as far as big swells go – the last really big one was way back in May ... and that was the first of the season.
This swell was unusual in that it had a really westerly fetch and the mass of the swell energy made a direct hit on the southwestern corner of the South Island with swell pushing up the Tasman and the west coast and, luckily enough, finding its way around to us on the east coast. Tow teams were on the case up and down the country and I managed to jump on with a session at a remote reef with Doug Young, Dan Smith, Dave Lyons, Sam Hawke, Nathan O'Brien and Dave Wild.
We got to the reef at dawn and it was disappointingly near flat. Then a set. Then a 15-minute gap. Then another set. This was the name of the game today and so we patiently waited and pounced every 15 minutes on whatever came our way. Slowly the swell seemed to build and build until the onshore swung into place and turned the reef to soup.
We retreated with a handful of memories, stoked that all survived without injury and some great images to contemplate until the next time. Enjoy.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS Part Two: Unruly Caverns will be showcased in next week's edition. Make sure you don't miss it ... some of the most messed up surfing I have ever seen at one of the scariest waves on the planet.
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