Around The World In 80 Waves

After a night spent on one of the vans’s seats I am not in the freshest state the following morning, but am correctly told by Apollo that a board for the bed will be delivered later in the day. Once that is sorted my first order of business is sourcing a surfboard.

Sarah and Roddy’s brother-in-law, who is universally known as Flash, actually works in the local surf shop (www.raglansurf.com ) and helps me sort out a great hire deal on one of the locally made Hughes surfboards. Once that is collected Anna (who has the day off work) and I head off to the beach as soon as possible because there is a great swell breaking on the coast.

The waves today are fantastic at all the local breaks: Indicators, Whale Bay, Manu Bay and Wainui Beach. We opt for the less crowded break at Whale Bay that you see here and once more I climb into my wetsuit because the water is considerably colder than Tahiti where I last got wet.

Anna hasn’t surfed here before so the two of us figure out a way to scamper across the rocks lining the shore and then jump onto the back of one of the waves, before paddling madly to get out to the side and around the breaking section of the next ones.

Conditions seem to be perfect for the overhead waves, even if the winds are quite strong blowing off shore, and I paddle straight into the line up, while Anna takes a more tentative approach. Not sure which was the better option but for some reason I am all over the place today and as well as taking a beating from a significant number of waves am really struggling to catch anything, but am having a good time in the water regardless because there is a friendly atmosphere.

We can see people getting 5 second barrel rides along the coast at Indicators and I’m dying for a piece of the action in the waves breaking over the rocks lining the shore. Anna catches a few and I’m feeling a tad embarrassed by my lack of waves until I bag an absolute beauty which I ride all the way in snaking up and down the face. That us until two huge rocks (known as The Pinnacles) appear right in front of me in the break and I have to bail off the back of the board before a few nervy moments getting clear of trouble.

It is good to break my duck but after the rough night’s sleep, travel and taking a beating from the ocean for a few hours I’m shattered and am relieved that Anna feels the same way, so we paddle in.

I later discover that the bay is named after the whales that regularly appear in the line up. Orcas or Killer Whales are particularly common and I have to say I am quite glad that they left me alone while I was in the water. There have been no recorded attacks on humans by orcas in the wild, but even so I think the shock of something sixteen times the size of me, twice the size of an adult Great White Shark and with teeth the same size as my feet appearing suddenly out of the water next to me might literally frighten the life out of me!