January 9th 2024: Missions

Staying in Dunedin for the summer holiday period is pretty amazing. For some reason everyone leaves town and heads to the mountains to hang out on the lakes and to bathe in the exceptionally reliable and warm sunshine up there. So, the coast is almost deserted and that suits me just fine. We kick into motion with a series of strike missions into the Catlins and the North Coast – depending on which way the wind is blowing.

This summer, Keo's good buddy, Felix, came over from the Gold Coast. His Dad, Gibby, used to be a local around here and so loves to surf and visit all the out of the way spots around the coast. That suits us, too. Nothing beats a good adventure in search of waves.

We took a few missions south and around the peninsula and, apart from the odd sea lion, pretty much had the beaches to ourselves. It must have been an eye-opener for Felix whose homebreaks are packed to the brim from dawn to dusk every single day.

Here's to plenty more missions this summer ...

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS The 2024 Surfing Nationals are on this week at St Clair and young female sea lion Faith has been stealing the show. She's a really good surfer and has spent the week prior to the contest surfing The Channel and St Clair Point. We saw her get barreled one morning at the point. Most sea lions surf inside the wave, but she pokes her head out and surfs on her chest like a bodysurfer. She's quite calm around the surfers, while there is also an older female who tries her best to spook surfers into a game of chase. If you're not sure how to surf alongside sea lions then this cheat sheet video will help you.