Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
This past week has been a whirlwind of events and road tripping. Firstly, I shot a campaign for a commercial client, in the North Island all week, then spoke in the 7x7 opening event of the Wild Dunedin New Zealand Festival of Nature on Friday night. Immediately after that concluded I jumped in The Salty Slug (our new camper) and hit the road with my youngest, Keo, bound for the 2022 Canterbury Men's Surfing Champs at North Beach, Christchurch. We left Dunedin at 9:30pm and arrived at North Beach at 2am, ready for the 7am start.
Thankfully the Christchurch waves turned it on for everyone and we had a fun weekend of surfing. One of the highlights for me was seeing National Champion Daniel Farr imparting his wisdom and helping out the groms and my boy Keo. He along with a bunch of other top North Island surfers including Taylor Hutchison and Caleb Cutmore bring an extra level of competition, stoke and good human quality to the event.
The Open Men's final was completely entertaining with Daniel and Caleb stealing the show from Tyler Perry and Myka Black. The pair went into a series of exchanges that culminated in Daniel landing a clean air reverse and looking like he'd stamped his authority for the win. In the dying moments of the heat Caleb counter-attacked with a beautifully surfed wave that didn't look like it would have the score in it at first glance. But Caleb surfed it like a man possessed and claimed his first big win since leaving the junior ranks. Just amazing to watch.
Next week ... make sure to book in for my talk: Living with Lions from 6-7pm on Wednesday as part of the Wild Dunedin New Zealand Festival of Nature. It's free, or preferably a small koha for the NZ Sea Lion Trust.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS If you missed our features from the 2022 South Island Surfing Championships at St Clair, then you can read the 10 Best Moments here and our special 40 Frames feature here.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: