January 11th 2022: Wanderlust

It's surprisingly hard to return to normality once the scent of smoky campfires and minimal obligations set in. I could definitely live the life of a nomad ... as long as there is some surf, diving and ocean time along the way.

There has been some controversy at St Clair this week after a local bodyboarder was filmed being chased out of the water by a young male sea lion who I believe was Huna. The footage shows the surfer trying to retreat and swinging his bodyboard to deter the sea lion. The surfer in question is actually a very nice chap who surfs nearly everyday down there and I'm sure the last thing he'd have wanted was to be the focal point in this situation.

The reality is sea lions can be very intimidating, but we are learning how to handle ourselves around them ... and we need to – their population is on the rise along our coast. Once you learn to read their behaviour you'll actually enjoy those encounters in the surf a heap more. Here's the NZ Herald story and TV Three story on the incident (with a slightly awkward cameo from me).

We recently put together this film with Doc's sea lion expert Jim Fyfe to help surfers learn to deal with sea lion encounters in the line up. The advice is solid and easy to follow.

This time of year I often get asked about my work and how I got into photography. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed in December by Richard at Silent Peak Photo. You can read that full interview here at Silent Peak Photo.

Stay safe, be nice to sea lions and plan your next adventure ...

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS This week I'll be at the NZ Surf Nationals at Westport. It's one of my favourite towns to visit and with more than 300 surfers vying for national superiorty this week is sure to be spectacular. You can follow progress over at NZ Surf Journal. See ya there! If you haven't already you can read about Billy Stairmand's wild year there and we have a feature on rising star Kehu Butler.