beachlife #5
TRANSCRIPT
Online at www.wainuibeach.co.nz | Free to every home | Extras $5.00
Summer At The Beach • Local News • Wave Rave and more
W a i n u i • M a k o r o r i • T a t a p o u r i • S p o n g e B a y
ISSUE 5/Summer 2010
• Things to do this summer
• Cycleway concept dropped
• Local group up and running
• The Joan Coates story
• Beach Babes
• Beach Parties
Local surfer ridesbiggest ever NZ wave
2 | BeachLife
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BeachLife | 3
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It’s the festive season!Merry Christmas from the team at Bronwyn Kay Agency and
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We have a range of Wainui properties availableFor personalised service over the holiday period
call Bronwyn on 0800 27 66 99
4 | BeachLife 415 Gladstone Road • P. 06 867 9300
Head outdoors this summer
WIN A NEW 2009 SUZUKI SWIFT XE Every $100 spent at Fenns gets an entry into the draw. Spend $500, get five entries. Drawn on Christmas Eve 24th December 2009.
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BeachLife | 5
contentsDelivered free to every home from
Sponge Bay to Makorori.
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PUBLISHED AND PRINTED BY
Design Arts Ltd
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PUBLISHING EDITOR
Gray Clapham
90 Moana Road, Okitu
Wainui Beach, Gisborne
Phone 868 0240 Fax 867 7010
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CONTRIBUTORSKelly Ryan, Tom Grimson, Phoebe Gander, Hayley Dalton, Mike King,
Tess McCormick, Cory Scott
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ALL LETTERS, ARTICLES & CORRESPONDENCE TO
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Phone 868 0240 Fax 867 7010
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Extra copies available at $5.00
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Historical photographs and assistance
courtesy Tairawhiti Museum
M A G A Z I N E
P I L A T E S • M A S S A G E • R E I K I • S T R E T C H
WENDY SHUTT55 Lloyd George Road Wainui BeachPhone 863 [email protected]
110 Gladstone Road • Phone 867 3447G E N E R A L M E N S W E A R& S U I T S P E C I A L I S T S
Collier’s Menswear Ltd
Aertex Shirts Suit Hire
Catering for big sizes.
Collier’s Menswear is a Wainui Beach owned local business.
beach forum & intro5-6 Letters, opinions and editor’s soapbox – the cycleway decision, Tsunami Bar closure
beach news8-15 Tsunami alerts. Cycle track plan shelved. Big wave adventure. Eye-catching new school
library. Local girl models for Fashion Week. Residents association up and running – call for members. Moko makes himself at home. Griffiths head to town. Chalet back to work.
beach babes16-17 More babies – that makes it 32 beach babes since the first issue just over a year ago.
beach life18-27 About kahawai and how to eat them. Tall tales from the Murphy Road ditch. Surf club
summer season gets underway. Photo fun from the Gisborne Herald 1/4 Marathon, parties and celebrations, beach life in general and Wainui School athletics.
beach people28-36 Troy Conole’s love of the beach reflected in novel art creations. Daren Coulston is on a
mission to make a change in the way this country catches fish. The Joan Coates Story – a look back at the colourful life of our former Mrs New Zealand. We celebrate the lives of two Wainui men who made untimely departures this winter – Dean Craig of Douglas Street and Bert Cotterill of Moana Road. Local boy Matt Clarke celebrates gallery success.
beach history40 More on Frederick Ottaway – the man who built the windmills.
surfing43 Wave Rave with Kelly Ryan: Surf stories, results and what the groms are up to.
All BeachLife pages can be viewed online at www.wainuibeach.co.nz
Cover: Wainui girls Sophie Pearce and Laura Quilter epitomize the joy of a summer’s day at Wainui as they set out for a long day at the beach.
BeachLife’s mission is to provide a positive community publication celebrating life at the beaches between Sponge Bay and Pouawa. Contributions in the way of letters to the editor, photographs of events and celebrations and written articles are gratefully received.
6 | BeachLife
BeachLife website helps family researchAFTER DOING A GOOGLE search on an ancestor by the name of Charles William Ferris, I was pleasantly surprised to come across the BeachLife website, where I eagerly read the article about the history of the Wainui area. What a fantastic article!
I have only been to Gisborne once in my life but knew that the Ferris family were from there. I myself am from Northland and in the past it has been difficult and costly to do family research from afar.
Charles William Ferris Jnr, who married Raiha Kamau was the half-brother to my great grandfather who was John Sydney Ferris. It is fantastic to me that people are publishing more history like this and making it available to people on line.
I was also surprised and delighted to see photos of Charles’ family, and this helped me identify an ’unknown’ photograph I had in my possession that I think now is of Charles Ferris.
This website was a wonderful find to me and I think it is great how there are current articles about people in the community, some of whom must be distant relatives. Thanks again to the writers, I will be sharing this with family!
MENA FERRIS
Cycleway decision a big disapointmentAS A WAINUI BEACH resident I am perturbed by the decision to scrap the Wainui Beach to City walkway and cycle track.
I have lived at Wainui Beach most of my life and know how dangerous the Highway from Okitu to Kaiti can be.
To my knowledge there have been many incidents including seven fatal car accidents and four fatal cycle accidents.
In later years a new faster straighter highway has been built allowing the logging and sweetcorn trucks to travel faster causing a vacuum of powerful suction that whips anything from the side of the Highway.
So far we have been lucky that it hasn’t been a cyclist or a walker but it is only a matter of time.
I recently had a narrow escape with a logging truck going over his speed limit and I was fortunate enough to have a car with power steering and had to hit 120kmh to get out of his way.
In the 1940s my father fought for the Wainui School bus route to be altered for its own safety. It took the death of an Okitu child named Biddy Wall to get that route changed.
How many more deaths do the Powers That Be need to see reason? Maybe Wainui residents should challenge them to a bike ride along the said Highway!
A CARING RESIDENT
BACK IN SEPTEMBER – DEVASTATING news, the Wainui cycleway-walkway has been sunk!
Many locals have been waiting with patience since the proposed project was first talked about nearly 20 years ago. In fact this writer was cycling along the highway with his children (then aged 10 and 4) back in 1994 – last century – when Gray Clapham stopped and took our photo to promote the idea of the cycling track in an earlier version of BeachLife Magazine.
It is very unfortunate that our MP is Gisborne based yet she does not support health and safety for her own constituents.
Since the photograph taken by then Beachside in 1994 the volume of traffic has increased, the school’s roll has increased, Sponge Bay subdivision has been developed.
In this carbon footprint driven world we live in more people want to exercise and save fuel.
Sadly not all of us will be able to use John Key’s cycleway developments.
This district wants this to go ahead so our community must not say, "oh well never mind" – we must force the issue.
KEVIN MASTROVICH
This 1994 issue of Beachside (later BeachLife) magazine heralded the news that a cycle track and walking path could soon be built to link Wainui Beach and the city. Fourteen years on we report the news that the plan has now been shelved due to changed roading priorities.
beach forum Please email your thoughts and opinions to [email protected]
BeachLife | 7
Publisher’s Comments | by Gray Claphamintro
NEVER BEFORE HAVE I felt so right about believing something is so wrong. The photograph above – taken just ten minutes after deciding to see if I could take a photograph to illustrate the real need for a cycleway and walking track between Wainui Beach and Gisborne – rams home the argument. The highway between Wainui Beach and Gisborne is dangerous.
Whoever decided that providing a safe pathway for cyclists and pedestrians between the beach and the city was “of low priority” has not done his or her home work.
It’s not about providing a feel-good recreational asset for beach-loving cyclists and get-fit mothers out power-walking. It’s about the protection of lives. It’s a life and death issue.
It was so close – BeachLife spoke to NZTA before the project was canned and a spokesman said there were just a few “consultation issues” to sort out. It was felt that construction would probably have started in 2010.
The Wainui cycle track and walkway concept was put forward over 20 years ago and even then – before the logging trucks took over our country road – the highway between Sponge Bay and Oneroa Road was dangerous in heavy traffic. Now it is a nightmare. It was then – and is now – about road safety.
Today cycling is back in vogue as an environmentally friendly method of transport.
We definitely have too many cars on the road at a time when petrol engine emissions are being part-blamed for the increase in global warming.
There are people in our community who would love to bike to work in town or let their children bike into town for sports events. Families would love to bike to town at the weekend for whatever reason. But they are now just too scared to take on the logging trucks and other traffic.
Somewhere in a desk drawer or on a computer at NZTA there is an amazing, finished design plan for the Wainui-Gisborne cycleway.
Transit New Zealand, the Government, Anne Tolley – whoever you are with the power to move and shake – you have to put this project back on the top of the list.
The reality is that the cycleway won’t be built – with Government funding at least – for many years to come. Unless someone comes up with a really good argument. I guess its over to the newly formed Wainui-Okitu Residents and Ratepayers Association to take up the cause.
It was also a bitter blow to see the Tsunami Bar close its doors. A bar and café at the Oneroa Road end of the beach has been an institution at Wainui since 1994 when it opened as Waves Café and Bar. It later became Off The Wall, then the Sandbar and most lately Tsunami Bar and Brasserie.
Locals Ray and Gail Dalton, with Guy
Rutledge and Maurice Judd, bought the Sandbar and its lease from Brent Mitchell in 2006 to save it from closing back then. They put a lot of money and passion into renovating and reinvigorating the bar in the hope that the citizens of Wainui would respond and give it full support. Unfortunately this never really happened except for patronage from a handful of hardy regulars.
Present owners, Rutledge and Judd, threw an all-you-can-drink-free night for the regulars to thank them for their patronage on Friday November 20 – and then bolted the doors.
Guy Rutledge says firmly: "The bar has closed because the people of Wainui Beach did not see fit to support it."
While BeachLife tends to take a positive view of life here at the beach, it makes us wonder why a seaside settlement of over 700 homes could not make one small café and bar viable.
Even the smallest village anywhere in the world has some sort of local inn, café or bar where locals can socialise on neutral ground, dine out occasionally, take friends for a drink or just get out of the house for a while.
And imagine holidaying at a Mediterranean seaside village without a local taverna or café to relax at with a bottle of wine or to sample the local cuisine at the end of the day.
Once the chattels have been sold it’s unlikely our local bar will open again anytime soon.
No cycleway ... and then the bar closes Stating the project was of low priority Government pulled funding for the Wainui-Gisborne cycle and walkway just as it looked like finally becoming a reality.
8 | BeachLife
TWO RECENT PACIFIC earthquakes have pointed to a general lack of awareness about the reality of the risk from tsunamis at Wainui and Makorori beaches, according to Gisborne Civil Defence officer Richard Steele.
At the time of the Samoa tsunami Gisborne emergency services and civil defence agreed early that while there was no safety risk, or need for evacuations, however it would be prudent to advise people to stay off the beach.
This was done by the police and broadcasting over the local radio stations.
"Unfortunately the national media was painting a different picture of potential mayhem and destruction which muddied the clear instructions that were being delivered locally," says Mr Steele. "This led to some people taking actions that were inappropriate and unnecessarily disrupted their normal daily routines."
Mr Steele says there will never be a situation where a tsunami from the Pacific Islands requires any evacuations from Wainui.
"The sand dunes give protection for events up to about 10 metres high and that’s not going to happen from an earthquake from that region of the Pacific. The only action people need to take is to stay off the beach."
“One issue not widely understood by the
public, which adds to the confusion, is that an alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Station in Hawaii is not information that should be acted upon by the public here in Gisborne, neither is the information released by the national media from Wellington.
“Information from both these organisations is general and not specific to local areas,” he says.
“Local people should only follow the directions issued by the local Civil Defence organisation and the police.
Studies, including one just completed for Gisborne District Council by GNS scientists, show that this region’s real risk comes from major earthquakes in the South American region, especially Peru. But even then they would affect only limited areas, with sand dunes and banks acting as buffers. They would take 12-14 hours to get here.
Richard Steele says in the event of a local tsunami, caused by a major earthquake generated very close to New Zealand, there will be no time for an official warning.
If such a Tsunami is generated it will probably arrive 20-30 minutes after the earthquake.
The earthquake itself will be the warning. See GDC’s tsunami alert information on page 41.
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Pacific generated tsunamis do not require local evacuationWainui surf
club popular event venueTHE WAINUI SURF LIVE Saving Club clubhouse at Okitu is proving very popular for events and celebrations.
Club manager Mike King says the club receives constant enquiries from people wanting to hire the clubhouse and its facilities for functions such as weddings or birthdays.
“Because of its popularity with locals, out-of-towner’s and even international guests – we are almost completely booked out for the summer months of December, January and February for the next two years,” he says.
The rates for hiring the expansive clubrooms with its commercial catering kitchen and stunning views out over Wainui Beach to Tuahine Point are $1000 for a wedding or function that requires the day prior for setting up; $500 for an evening function and $300 for a day corporate function.
Locals and former members, who have an involvement with the club, can enquire about a variation on these rates.
However, if you are planning a summer wedding – with the surf club in mind as the venue – or any large scale celebration in the next few years – it would pay to enquire early to avoid disappointment as the beachside clubhouse may soon become completely booked out – at least through the summer months for some years ahead.
beach news
KIWI CHARITY SUSTAINABLE COASTLINES has set their sights on the East Coast area for a major coastline rubbish clean-up on January 2.
One of the beach areas identified by locals as in need of a clean-up is Sponge Bay which has been used as an illegal dump site for many years. Other targets for the clean-up include the Turanganui, Taruheru and Waimata river beds which are affected by rubbish which flows from the storm drains of Gisborne City.
Sustainable Coastlines is working closely with Rhythm and Vines organisors, who have supported the idea since conception, to offer a special deal on tickets for those who register for the cleanup.
Sustainable Coastlines are working with the Gisborne District Council on a logistical plan for transporting the resulting collected rubbish, separating
recyclables and organising a celebration for volunteers after the cleanup.
“With so many people here who love their coastline – be it for surfing, diving, fishing and generally enjoying the beach – it’s great for everyone to have a chance to give something back and enjoy themselves while they’re at it,” says charity co-founder Sam Judd.
To register your support for the cleanup see the charity website www.sustainablecoastlines.org or contact Sam Judd at [email protected] – phone 021 058 9349.
Call for volunteers for Sponge Bay clean-up
Sam Judd surveys the clean-up required at Sponge Bay.
BeachLife | 9
Cycle and walk track abandoned
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IT WAS THE WORST NEWS possible. Just as it was in the final consultation stages the pin was pulled on the Wainui to Gisborne cycleway. For those in the community who have been lobbying for this project for nearly 20 years there is a feeling of bitter disappointment.
Transit New Zealand had actually given its approval to spend $500,000 for the Wainui cycleway when in early September the National government announced its decision to reprioritise road funding for this district – a decision that put Wainui cycleway project on the backburner after years of planning.
The New Zealand Transport Association had already invested around $40,000 carrying out investigation and preliminary design into the project at the time it was shelved.
Gisborne MP Anne Tolley said while it would have been nice to have a cycleway from Wainui to Gisborne, it was more important for the economic strength of the region that priority be given to sorting out State Highway 35 and ensuring it was in good condition.
“It is disappointing to lose some of our favourite projects but when the cycleways were put in the forecasts, we were in much different times. It has had to be reprioritised.”
Labour MP Moana Mackey said it was “ridiculous” the cycleway project was being canned for economic development reasons.
“The Wainui cycleway is a great initiative for our region — it’s a kick in the guts to all those who have worked so hard for a number of years now to get it going, to have the funding pulled at the last minute,” she said.
The Gisborne District has been “done in the eye” by the change in criteria says regional transport committee chairman Bill Burdett.
Mr Burdett said he and the whole committee were extremely disappointed by the change that had seen the replacement of the one-way Motu Bridge, the Wainui cycleway and the extension of the riverbank walkway to Taruheru taken out of the region’s roading programme.
Gisborne district councillors and staff recently met with Minister of Transport Steven Joyce where he was made aware of local feelings about his Goverment’s about-turn on funding for the Wainui cycleway.
Manager Engineering and Works Peter Higgs told BeachLife that the National-led government has altered the funding criteria to reflect their priority – which is concerned about economic growth and improvements in productivity.
"Consequently funds are being put into those areas. Funds for cycleways are targeted for areas where they will assist in relieving congestion.”
However Mr Higgs says the Minister did agreed to ask the agency to re-look at the project."Mr Higgs says the cycleway is still on the list of works to be done in this region but there is no
funding for it within the next three years at least. The project has dropped to a very low priority and has a long way to go in moving up the list in competition with other projects around the country.
When asked if the Council could "pick up" the project he says the Council is struggling to fund basic infrastructure and to keep rates to a minimum. The Council was not in a position to fund this project. It had to be funded by regional roading funds rather than rates.
He says the cycleway design will be retained by NZTA so that if funding does become available in future the project will be ready to proceed.
The chairperson of the local Ratepayers and Residents Association Norman Weiss says the cycleway issue is high on the "things-to-do" list but no definite strategy has been decided yet.
WAINUI SURFER DAMON GUNNESS has had his share of coverage in surf magazines over the years – but his picture on the latest cover of New Zealand Surfer is once-in-a-lifetime historically stupendous.
Damon is pictured – on the cover and inside the magazine – riding what they are claiming as the biggest waves ever ridden ever in New Zealand. And the waves he and a crew of tow-in adventurers and photographer Cory Scott pioneered are not that far from Wainui, somewhere out in the ocean off our coastline. More about this in Kelly’s Wave Rave on pages 43-46.
Damon is not alone in the latest issue – it may as well be renamed Wainui Surfing magazine. Wainui waves feature throughout with appearances from Bobby Hansen, Dane Simpson, Maz Quinn, Buck Woods, Blair Stewart, James Tanner, Buck again – and photographer Roghey delivers a 9-shot sequence of Craig Jenkins.
Local wave riders conquer new giant
Damon Gunness was one of a crew of surfers who recently took on the biggest waves ever ridden in New Zealand.
beach news
10 | BeachLife
A STUNNING NEW LIBRARY building shaped like a Wainui Beach wave is fast taking shape at Wainui Beach school.
The $186-thousand project certainly has eye appeal and everyone at the school – teachers, students and parents – are totally excited.
The concept is the work of school parent and local Wainui-based architectural designer Chris Shaw of Pacific Modern Architecture.
“The Wainui School library is more than just a place for books,” Chris says. “It’s the centre of technology, research, reading and learning. It’s also a link to the playing fields and the front deck will act as a the focal
point for outdoor gatherings at the school.” The original plan was to build a new classroom for the school but a
concept was put together to turn the old library into a classroom and make use of the 78 square metres freed up in the school’s building area allowance to create the dedicated new library.
Using three curved laminated beams as the basic structure of the building Chris was able to create a wave-like design. The roof area, which covers surrounding decks, makes the building look much bigger than it really is.
Two sides of the building beneath the wave structure will be constructed of glass from floor to ceiling with the library shelves built into the walls so books can be seen from both inside and out.
The roofing iron has been moulded to follow the wave shape and will finish overhanging a landscaped rock garden where rainwater will flow unimpeded by spouting with a waterfall effect.
Chris says the design was inspired by Wainui with the concept that the wave-shaped structure conveys the school’s strong connection with the sea, which is considered part of the wider school learning area.
He says its also a bonus that the children are being exposed to creative architectural design and can observe the building’s construction.
Principal Nolian Andrew says everyone is very pleased with the project with the board seeing the value of the creative design which has been delivered economically thanks to Pacific Modern Architecture and the builders D. Stevens Ltd.
Nolian says the school will be starting off with a role of 202 pupils next year with a ceiling at around 230, so any families in the school’s zoning area with children of school starting age should let the school know as soon as they can.
New school library arrives on the crest of a wave
45 Wairere Road, Wainui Beach Phone 06 868 9381 Fax 06 868 9380
This dynamic coastal landscape inspired our name and inspires our architecture. A modernist response to the South Pacific lifestyle.
pacific modern architecture
Redefining the art of coastal living
Wainui School principal Nolian Andrew and architectural designer Chris Shaw checking progress of the new library in November.
"The wave-shaped structure conveys the school’s strong connection with the sea ..."
beach news
BeachLife | 11
beach news“MODELING WAS NOT really something I was very interested in initially, but when I finished my studies I found myself with a lot more spare time and after some persuasive words from friends I thought I’d give it a whirl,” says Wainui girl Lauren Marriott.
Lauren (23) grew up at Wainui Beach, the daughter of Cliff and Lyn Marriott of Douglas Street.
She is currently living and working in Auckland where with friend Charl Laubscher she runs her own design company called Super Et Cetera.
“Currently we are based, in-house, at TBWA/Tequila, an ad agency in the Wellington CBD. Notable clients include Adidas, Playstation, ASB among others,” she says.
“I was first involved as a model in Fashion Week in 2008. Being my first year I was not expecting to land many shows, if any. In the end I walked for seven designers (World, Sera Lilly, Stitch Ministry, Michael Pattison, Ana Steele, Duechar, Sable and Minx) and was involved over the weekend in all the public shows.
“It was full-on, but a lot of fun. I actually made some great connections for my design work also as the place was crawling with photographers, designers, media etc.
“Fashion week was on a much smaller scale this year with several designers opting for group shows to save on costs. I was only involved in one group show – walking for Barbara Lee, Starfish and Mild Red.
“I was always used to being on the other side of the lens in a more creative or directive role – so to be the object of focus was an interesting and exciting change. In retrospect I haven’t actually been what you would call a hard working or full time model – I tend to just take jobs that engage my interest and will fit around my work.”
Lauren’s younger sister Ana, who recently celebrated her 21st birthday, is back home for summer having graduated with a university degree in dental hygiene and dental therapy.
Designer Lauren moonlights on the fashion runway
Lauren Marriott models for Sera Lilly during Fashion Week 2008. Runway modelling has become an interest, rather than a career, for this local girl.
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12 | BeachLife
15 things to do this summer at Wainui Beach
➊ Get up early and take a photograph of the new day’s sunrise over Wainui Beach.
➍ Go fishing! Try your luck surfcasting off the beach or ring a mate with a boat.
➐ Relax with your morning paper, takeaway coffee and a muffin from the Wainui Store.
➓ Treat yourself to a cool ice cream from the big selection of flavours at the Okitu Store.
➊➊ Enjoy a hamburger, fish and chips or a bacon and egg bap from the Wainui Store.
➊➋ Have a barbecue! Fire up the hot plate for breakfast, lunch or dinner on the deck.
➊➌ Go on a mini bush walk along the shady paths of the Okitu Scenic Bush Reserve.
➊➍ Go surfing! Take out a longboard and hang five anywhere along the beachfront.
➊➎ Spend the day at the beach! Grab your beach gear and head for your favourite spot.
❽ Take a drive to Pouawa and walk out to the marine reserve. Take a snorkel and mask.
➒ Make a picnic lunch and find a quiet spot in the sand dunes along Makorori Beach.
➎ Walk to the end of the headland for a close up view of the old Tuahine Lighthouse.
➏ Walk out on the reef and feed the stingrays at Tatapouri Bay. Phone 868 5153.
➋ Walk over the Wainui Headland walkway for great views of Wainui and Makorori beaches.
➌ Go for a swim between the flags at The Pines – Wainui’s version of Bondi Rescue.
15 Things to do at Wainui Beach this Summerbrought to you by Pak’nSave
BeachLife | 13
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Local couple heading to townAFTER 23 YEARS AT the beach Mike and Lyn Griffiths of 99 Moana Road are moving to town.
Their quaint two-storied "dolls-house" style beachfront property overlooking Whales sold in November – so they can now finally move to the convenience of a town house in Grey Street near Waikanae Beach.
The Griffiths bought their Okitu house in 1986 after they had lived all over New Zealand following Mike's job as an insurance agent for Royal Insurance and later Farmers' Mutual Insurance.
The couple were married in 1970, Lyn originally a Smyth from Ruatoria, and had two children. Mike was well-known as a coach of the HSOB senior rugby team and as a committee member of the Poverty Bay Golf Club.
In town the Griffiths hope to carry on their retirement interest of minding motels for motel owners on vacation.
The Griffiths house sale is indicative of the property roller-coaster of recent years. For the record they bought their beachfront home for $85,000 in 1986. It went on the market at $850,000 just at the end of the property boom – and finally sold in November for $550,000.
Everyone's wondering if Moko the Friendly Dolphin might decide to call Wainui Beach home this summer. He's certainly become settled around the Gisborne coastline since he arrived here during the winter and has been making numerous appearances at Wainui Beach in recent weeks. ABOVE: Moko teases Graham Falloon with a large kingfish. PHOTO BY TOM GRIMSON
Playful dolphin likes the Wainui lifestyle
Chalet back as seaside
accommodationTHE CHALET RENDEZVOUS has reopened for business as a seaside accommodation lodge.
Owner Nicola Watkins has given the former famous local restaurant an interior and exterior makeover and once again the distinctive Swiss-style building is providing "affordable" accommodation to the travelling public.
Backpacker-style accommodation is available as well as more upmarket boutique rooms upstairs, all offering great views of Wainui Beach and the Pacific Ocean.
With deference to the history of the building – which opened as New Zealand's first restaurant with a liquor license in 1957 – the business has been renamed Chalet Rendezvous (Seaside Accommodation) and a new logo reminiscent of the original Chalet Rendezvous signage has been commissioned.
Lyn and Mike Griffiths will soon be saying farewell to their Moana Road beach house.
LEFT: Moko’s latest trick is to gets in on the surfing action along the Wainui beach breaks.
14 | BeachLife
THE WAINUI-OKITU RESIDENTS and Ratepayers Association Incorporated has finally been formed and registered. A committee was selected from the 30 people who attended the inaugural meeting on 13 September 2009.
The community is now invited to join the Association in working for the welfare of the community.
The main purposes of the Association is to promote and represent the views of the Association’s members concerning all issues affecting Wainui Beach and the community of Wainui-Okitu. These issues include the community’s unique characteristics, its wellbeing, the environment, its sustainability and its future development.
The Association aims to protect and enhance the unique nature of the ecological, geographical and social environments of Wainui Beach and Wainui-Okitu and to provide a forum within which the Wainui-Okitu community can identify, discuss and deal with local issues and concerns.
It also hopes to foster a community spirit within Wainui-Okitu by organising and providing community activities open to all residents, ratepayers and visitors.
The Wainui Okitu Residents and Ratepayers Association has its genesis in the community’s interactions with the Gisborne District Council during the Council’s 2008 efforts to reticulate Wainui and Okitu with city water and wastewater when Council received over 400 written submissions opposing reticulation.
When the Council voted “no” to reticulation it’s officers also recommended that Council and our community develop a way to work collaboratively on issues and initiatives involving Wainui and Okitu. A group of residents worked with Council officers on this idea with a final recommendation that Council assist the community in the formation of such a group.
Councillors then did an "about turn" and rejected the concept with the argument that it would be impossible for the community to select a group that would be totally representative.
Out of this rejection was born the idea for
the community to form a community group on its own initiative.
In December 2009 Council called for consultation on the Draft Gisborne City Urban Development Strategy which contained a proposed change to the Gisborne Urban Boundary – moving it from the 100kmh sign at Sponge Bay to the north end of Moana Road.
Council had actively pre-consulted and involved scores of “key stakeholders” but had ignored Wainui-Okitu organisations, businesses, residents and ratepayers.
It was realised that Council did not consider the residents and property owners, nor even the school in our community, to be “key stakeholders” on an issue that – as it turned out – could have significant impact on development in the community.
This provided the final incentive to efforts to form a residents association with or without the Council’s assistance.
A group of about 25 residents met in April 2009. There was wide ranging discussion on the structure and purposes of such a group.
Out of this came a core of about 10 people who volunteered to research and investigate. The group got information from the Companies Office on incorporation and a sample constitution from the Piha Residents Association. A survey was drafted and distributed to residents and property owners. The response from the survey was that most people thought such an organisation was a good idea and supported it.
Over the next several months there were working party meetings to write a constitution and sort out other matters.
With the paper work in order and the constitution looking good a meeting was called for 13 September 2009. About 30 people attended.
The motion to incorporate was put to the group and the group voted “yes”. Officers were elected. The appropriate papers were signed and sent off to the Companies Office.
On 1 October 2009 the Companies Office registered the Wainui-Okitu Residents and Ratepayers Association Incorporated as an incorporated society.
Up and runningCONGRATULATIONS BEACH people. We now have our own Residents and Ratepayers Association. Not only that, the Association is also officially registered with the Companies Office as an incorporated society.
Our name is Wainui-Okitu Residents and Ratepayers Association Incorporated. Yes, it is long. But it is descriptive and inclusive. You can use the acronym, WORRAI, on your subscription cheques.
The Association’s motto is “Beach Voice for Beach People.” This really says it all. The people who love this community and choose to live, work and/or own property here want to have a say in its future and destiny.
The underlying and overriding intention in forming this Association is to provide a positive, unifying and proactive element that will help to bring a greater sense of community to Wainui and Okitu
There will undoubtedly arise contentious issues from time to time, and this new community group will be able to address them. At the same time, there are many opportunities and proactive initiatives that can bring us together as a community to celebrate this beautiful place in which we are so fortunate to live.
We welcome all members of the community to join the Association, regardless of their views on any given issue. The Association relishes the opportunity to represent the views of the community, but can only do so if there is a broad cross section of the community in the membership. Thus, each and every one of you is encouraged to join up.
NORMAN WEISS – CHAIRPERSON
Association provides collective voice for Wainui and Okitu residents
The committeeTHE OFFICERS FOR THE FIRST YEAR ARE: Chairperson: Norman WeissTreasurer: Chris CharringtonSecretary: Katherine ThompsonCommittee Members: Virginia Gunness, Craig Jenkins and Gary Stevenson.
There will also be a co-opted committee member from the school Board of Trustees.
Subscriptions to the Wainui-Okitu Residents and Ratepayers Association are $10 per year and are now being received. Envelopes are available at the 2 Wainui Dairies, or you can pay online to the Assn Bank a/c ANZ 01 0641 0215837 00. If you pay online, please forward an email to the treasurer Chris Charrington at [email protected] with your name, address, noting whether you are a ratepayer or resident and the date of the payment.
Just $10 to show support for your association
beach news
BeachLife | 15
A celebration ...IT WAS DECIDED that a community get-together to celebrate our environment, our community and ourselves would be our first collective activity. It will be a community BBQ in February 2010. Details will be available in the New Year.
A project that has long been in the hearts of many beach residents is the cycle-walkway from Wainui to town. So there will be a raffle at the BBQ to help raise funds for that venture. So bring your family, food, drinks, togs, toys and a little cash to buy a raffle ticket.
Anyone interested to help organise this event please contact Virginia Gunness (867-2634) or Diana Whakapapa (867-2790).
A long list of things to think about ....THE RESIDENTS AND RATEPAYERS Association officers have had two meetings to date.
They looked at the survey about what people want the association to focus on. Here are some of those suggestions:
• Retain the distinctive beach community character of Wainui and Okitu.
• Actively initiate projects and events that support our sense of Community.
• Encourage people to protect and live in harmony with the environment.
• Keep regular communications going within the community.
• Have a community notice board detailing community activities.
• Monitor issues related to quality of life.
• Draw neighbours together around issues of common concern to provide a ’reference point’ for GDC to hear a collective voice and to keep GDC ’in check’.
• Organise community beach social gatherings.
• Organise working-bees (sand dunes protection, beach clean up, composting, tree planting, etc).
• Organize an on-site wastewater monitoring system to ensure they are up to scratch.
• Organise children’s activities and special days.
• Develop the community’s own civil defense plan and warning system.
• Make the ’main road’ and streets safer (decrease speed-limit, increase cycle and walking paths, etc).
• Promote beach sports, a community market, a community garden, electric cars fueling station, bicycle rental station, etc.
• Coordinate a ’community bank’ to facilitate the exchange of skills and talents.
• Help fund raise for the cycle/walkway to town.
EVERY GREAT ORGANISATION needs a striking logo. A logo contest has been suggested to draw more input from the community. There will be a vote at the next general meeting to select the best logo.
Many people have commented on how long and non-catchy the Association’s name is. Yes, it is a real mouthful. So, we will also consider name change suggestions at the next general meeting.
Get your creative thinking caps on, put your logo and name ideas into the computer and email them to [email protected].
The preamble to the Association’s constitution gives a sense of place to where we live and also connects us to its Maori heritage. The preamble is Ko Te Wainui – ’Tis the great expanse of water,
Ko Te Okitu – ’Tis the place of rest, Tihei Mauriora – ’Tis the breath of life.
Competition to make a Wainui logo
Joining Association is importantAT THE TIME OF THIS writing there were over 70 paid memberships of the Association.
Some who have joined have paid one member subscription fee of $10 for their household
Others have paid for two memberships so that each adult in the family can have a vote at meetings
You may join in either way. Each member-ship carries one vote. So if you subscribe to a household membership, you get one vote, and if both adults in the household subscribe, they
get two votes. Of course, the individual memberships are
preferred as that gives greater support to the organization.
It was decided early on that it would be difficult to represent the views of the community as a whole.
Realistically, an Association can only represent the views of its members and other people specifically and actively involved in a particular project or issue.
The Association only represents and speaks on the behalf of the Association’s members.
So again we encourage everyone to join. It is not a political group. You are welcome regardless of your views. But it will deal with political issues if they arise. Being a member gives you a voice. The more members we have the more weight our voice will carry.
Treasurer Chris Charrington, secretary Katherine Thompson, Craig Jenkins, chairperson Norman Weiss, Virginia Gunness and Gary Stevenson with our long-serving community advocate Muriel Jones.
beach news
16 | BeachLife
We can teach your baby to swim from just 9 months old
If you live at the beach, chances are your children will want to surf as soon as they can walk. At Comet Swimming Club we can teach your child to swim before they can walk. We are a Swimming New Zealand Approved quality swim school with Learn To Swim programmes for all ages based at the Elgin School swimming pool which is heated to a comfortable 30 degrees. Babies, pre-schoolers and school aged children all gain water confidence and learn to swim with our highly qualified coaches.
Head coach Greg MeadePhone 867 0698
Teach your baby a core skill that can potentially save their life!
beach babes
RIGHT: Nick and Jo Webb of Douglas Street welcomed baby Finn into the world on 31 July 2009. A brother for 21/2 year old Hannah. Nick is the son of Tammy and Alan Webb of Gisborne and is in fact a great-grandson of Edward Rowley Murphy who subdivided the south end of Wainui and whom Murphy Road is named after.
ABOVE: To celebrate BeachLife Magazine’s second summer we asked some of our first mothers and babies to repose the group photo Phoebe Gander set up for us when the babies were mostly newborn. Here they are again as around-about one-year-olds – Hayley Dalton with Jett (18 months), Jade Gunness with China (15 months), Cathy Morley with Mac (13 months), Gina Robinson with Shea (13 months), Amy Campbell with Charlie (12 months), Phoebe Gander with Sennen (11.5 months), Rachael Williams with Kobe (11 months), Kelly Thorpe with Matai (11 months), Jane Moore with Poppy (11 months). Okay – everybody back again when the kids are 5! PHOTO BY PHOEBE GANDER
RIGHT: The original photo of our inaugural babes ...
BeachLife | 17
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beach babes
ABOVE: MEET Oscar Raniera Gerrard, first born child to Keri and Daniel Gerrard on 17 September 2009. The couple have lived in their own home in Douglas Street since moving to Gisborne four years ago. Daniel is CEO at Sport Gisborne.
LEFT: Cooper Spike Quinn, a son and future pro surfer for Maz Quinn and Hayley Hollander. Born 10 August 2009 in Queen Mary hospital, Dunedin at 4.34pm weighing an incredible 10lbs 7oz! (natural birth – go Hayley!) First grandchild for very proud Gary and Pip.
RIGHT: AJ Hector Kinsella, born 23 April 2009 at 7lb 13oz. A son for Andy and Rebecca Kinsella of Moana Road, a brother for Eva (2), a cousin for Nia (2) and another grandchild for Nigel and Vicki O’Leary.
PHOTOS THIS PAGE BY PHOEBE GANDER
18 | BeachLife
beach life
WAINUI AND MAKORORI beaches during spring and summer are often the scene of one of nature’s most fascinating spectacles. A school of Kahawai on a feeding frenzy.
The common Kahawai (Arripis trutta) are pound for pound – and if fished on appropriate gear – one of the hardest fighting sportfish in any ocean, according to fishing writer Tony Bishop.
“Most kahawai weigh between 1kg (2lb) and 2.5kg (5lb), but they fight well above their weight class.
"There are few sights that stir the fishing blood more than a school of Kahawai in full attack mode. When they are really on the bite, they can be almost too easy to catch.”
Kahawai make lengthy migrations, probably associated with spawning and seasonal changes in the abundance of food. They cover vast distances quickly because of their speed.
Kahawai often school in an iceberg shape. The fish that are showing on the surface may represent only a small percentage of the total school, which is invisible under the water.
Many people have a low regard for the eating qualities of Kahawai. This often reflects
the poor treatment some fishermen inflict on the fish when it is first caught.
Right from the moment you catch Kahawai, it needs care. It pays to kill the fish quickly and mercifully by spiking its brain – rather than to let it fight itself to death while suffocating. It also pays to quickly bleed the fish by running a knife from just inside the gills and then straight through under the throat, you can also make a small cut to bleed the fish at the tail end.
When cooked fresh from the sea, kahawai is delicious. If taking home, keep in an ice slurry of seawater and ice.
When filleting the fish immediately cut
out the dark red-blood meat along the centre of the fillet. Cut the fish into small fish-finger size morsels and cook quickly.
Kahawai may have a bad reputation as an eating fish because people try and cook fillets that are too big. By the time the fillet cooks through, the flesh is dry and tasteless.
Smoked Kahawai is delicious, either by hot or cold smoking but other cooking methods can prove successful.
Tony Bishop recommends this recipe from New Zealand’s leading fish chef Ray McVinnie.
Scale and fillet the Kahawai, leaving the skin on. Liberally coat the flesh with sea salt – only sea salt will do – and half a cup of tarragon, fresh if possible, but use less if you have dried tarragon. Place in refrigerator for at least six hours, overnight is better. Skin the fillets and wipe and wash off salt and tarragon, then pat dry the fillets thoroughly with paper towels.
Cut the Kahawai fillets into serving portions and grill on barbecue, or under oven grill, for around two minutes each side. (The salting partly ’cures’ the fish). Do not overcook – slightly underdone is better. Place on plates and dribble with a vinaigrette.
Kahawai also makes great raw fish. Slice fillets into thin slithers and put them in the fridge for about 2 hours to ensure they’re nice and cold. Marinate for 15 minutes in 1/2 a cup each of olive oil and balsamic white or Italian white vinegar, 1 tablespoon of capers, 1 loosely chopped garlic clove and some loosely chopped square leaf parsley. Eat on toasted ciabatta bread with a red onion, lettuce, tomato salad. Also try sashimi style with any dipping sauce.
Kill the fish mercifully & quickly...
Kahawai feeding frenzyAsh Scott from Lloyd George Road and Troy Conole from Pare Street recently proved primitive methods can still catch a feed from the sea. Trailing a lure on five metres of line attached to their surfboard’s leg rope attachment the boys hauled in several Kahawai schooling off north Makorori in late October. The Kahawai were in such a feeding frenzy one latched on to Troy’s finger while he was paddling.
BeachLife | 19
Tall tales from the Murphy Road ditch
THE STORIES THAT OLD ditch could tell! As small children in the 1940s Eileen Phelps
and I use to scurry along the ditch and crawl through the drainpipe going under the main road from Murphy Road into Cooper’s property by the church. The ditch continued on until it reached the bullrushes where we use to meet Liz Allen from the Four Square Store to play amongst the cow pats and stamp our tiny feet in the puddles, then run through the thistles chasing the sheep, while our brothers played cricket in the paddock until it was time to go home for tea.
We, tiny and unseen, would walk along this muddy, subterranean pathway down Murphy Road towards Cooper Street to play with Lyn Ferris with Mr Chong from the next door market garden peering down at us from above. Wild stories were told about him not trusting banks and burying his money in the garden.
The ditch carried on in a U-turn down the side of Chong’s house and down the back of Pepper’s and Ferris’s, past Costain’s ducks and into King’s Creek where we caught eels and paddled and played for hours.
The ditch was used as an imaginary castle moat from which Kevin Phelps and the twins would hurl balls made of mud while playing war games against each other and any poor soul that happened to pass by.
They would also hide in the ditch and spring up and scream at a poor Jenny on horse back: “Who’s got the biggest backside (been polite) – you or the horse?”
Mary Shipp told me years later she dreaded
biking past the Murphy Road ditch as these terrible boys would jump out of the ditch calling: “Battleship! You are a destroyer.”
At other times the children of the neighborhood would have competitions to see who could jump the ditch without falling in. I see this game was still carried on until the recent covering in of the drain.
Not only the neighbourhood children but also adults over the years have stories to tell about the ditch.
One night after a party at our parents’ home, as the guests were leaving, Mrs Joan Cornish missed the footbridge and fell into the ditch with a shriek. Her photographer husband Mr Lloyd Cornish yelled back: “It’s alright. It’s just the wife.”
The famous owner of J. Wattie Canneries, Mr Gordon Wattie, after celebrating his birthday, which happened to be on New Years Eve, backed his brand new prestige car straight into the drain, which was lifted out manually by Mr Warwick Spence and friends.
All sorts of cars were attracted to this ditch. Our mother was well known for going to the rescue of many an injured soul. Mr Trafford, Mr Murray Torbet and even one Christmas morning Santa delivered to me at 6am in a big red Mercedes no other than the entertainer Prince Tui Teka, stuck in our ditch.
Before the new main road went through, my mother put herself through a course at St. Johns and was extremely disappointed when the next car crash happened. She rushed out to find the occupants had flown as the car was
stolen. Her second attempt was when Cheryl MacFarlane and friend did a U-turn landing head first in our ditch. My excited paramedic mother rushed to help Cheryl who appeared to be bleeding from the mouth only to discover that she had been eating a plum.
Later on, after we had been in a car accident ourselves up Northland, mum lost her nerve and refused to go out on ditch rescues. So one night, after hearing a thud in our front drain, I wandered out to see that the ditch had swallowed an entire small car and to my delight found my ex-boss Mr Alistair Bryan, trapped inside. Unhurt I must say – shaken and but not stirred – after a night at the Cossie Club (if you get my meaning).
Sometime later we found his missing spectacles at the bottom of the ditch which I returned, much to his embarrassment.
The ditch flooded more than once. My brothers at the time ran the Twins’ Poultry Farm and one day after heavy rain my brother Ross phoned me to see how I was. Why, I asked? The farm is flooded, he said. No, we are okay, I replied. I put the phone back on the hook and went out the back door stepping up to my knees in ditch water.
Mosquitoes and the odd frog lived in the ditch except in droughts. It always held water as it actually ran uphill. In 1954, my father wrote to the Harry Barker council to have the ditch filled in. Every time we’d see a surveyor poking around in the ditch we would ask and be told. “Yes, we’re filling it in – next year”. Finally, 55 years later, it’s gone.
There wouldn’t be many magazines that would devote a page to the memory of a ditch. This year the
infamous Murphy Road open drain was finally piped and buried and is now just that, a memory. Murphy
Road resident Beverley Carswell takes us on a nostalgic and amusing trip down memory drain ...
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beach life
20 | BeachLife
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Surf club ready for new summer season
THE 2009-2010 SURF LIFESAVING season is up and away at the Wainui Beach Surf Life Saving Club.
Volunteer patrols have started and will run every weekend from 1pm to 5pm on Saturdays and 10am to 6pm on Sundays right through to mid-March. Regional surf lifeguarding starts on Monday 21 December and goes through to Friday 22 January.
The paid lifeguards are employed and managed by Surf Lifesaving Gisborne, largely by funds received from the GDC, and they use the Wainui surf club as a base to patrol the beaches during the weekdays in the peak summer months of December and January. The positions are largely filled by university and secondary school students who are on their summer vacations and looking for work.
The Wainui Nippers programme is now in full swing. It is provided for children from the ages of 5 through to 13 and is held at every Sunday starting at 10am and all children are welcome.
There have been several personnel changes within the Wainui SLSC this year. Justin Martin our long-serving Club Captain and IRB steward has moved out of town. His two positions have been filled by Rama Robertson (IRB Steward) and Jeremy Lockwood (Club Captain).
Sue Quilter was awarded the Life membership award at this year’s AGM. Sue has been involved with the Wainui SLSC for many years and has contributed in many different areas. She is Wainui SLSC’s inaugural woman life member.
Our Junior Athletes have been working hard out training over the winter months and names to watch include Toby Harris in the beach sprint and flag races, Ollie Puddick in the ironman and board races, Ben Tinnelley for the ski events and Laura Quilter in the junior swimming events.
Wainui committee members and officers are as follows:Patron – Alan Baylis; President – Grant Fussell; Vice presidents – Trevor
Williams, Murray Robertson, Kev Mastrovich; Club Captain – Jeremy Lockwood; Power craft officer and gear steward – Rama Robertson; Chief instructors – Chrissy Robertson and Dieago Pedrioli; Youth Development– Fly Falwaaser-Logan; Caretaker – Alan Baylis; Committee – Lyn Grimson; Honorary Solicitor – Neil Weatherhead; Auditor – Richard Coates; Manager – Mike King; Finance Manager – Nic Williams and Coach – Dion Williams.
Surf Lifeguard award courses have started again and we hope to get at least another 10 people through their surf lifeguard award. If you have any questions regarding any aspect of the Wainui Surf Lifesaving club please feel free to contact our Manager Mike on [email protected] or call 0274223364. Mike King
’80s nippers flashback
Where were you in ’82? Chances are you were down at the beach hanging out at the surf club with this bunch of nippers. There are a few legends in this line-up who got their first taste for the waves with the Wainui Surf Club. Most of these kids are in their late 20s and early 30s today.
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HOUSE OF HAIR TEAM: Sharelle Hindrup (manager), Carleen Hickling
(senior stylist), Marnie Evans (owner), Ashleigh Richards (technician),
Emma Ruru (technician), Christina Beach (technician) and David Isaacs.
WINNER!Sharelle Hindrupwins regional Photographic
Award!
BeachLife | 21
Wainui runnersSeveral locals including a contingent of 78 children from Wainui Beach School took part on the Gisborne Herald Quarter Marathon in November.
LEFT: Rory Faulkner of Douglas Street celebrated his 12th birthday with a 10km run which he completed with his mum Nicky.
RIGHT: Also completing his first ever 10km run was Jordan Grace of Douglas Street who did the run with his dad Steve.
beach life
ABOVE: Wainui School children turned out en mass for the Gisborne Herald Quarter Marathon. On the day the 78 children taking part completed 2.2km. However in training for the event, running just 1km each day, the kids actually ran a full marathon distance.
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22 | BeachLife
ABOVE: Michelle Nyholt of Pare Street celebrated her birthday recently by shouting a large group of friends to the opening of the new Matawhero Winery. A portion of the crowd is pictured waiting for the mini-bus to arrive to take them out to Matawhero. PHOTO BY TESSA McCORMICK
beach life
ABOVE: Wainui’s Ferris family members went to Auckland recently to visit brother Dale who was having a housewarming party. What he didn’t know was sister Sher had won a night out with the group “Ladykillers” in an online fund raising auction and brought the ladies along to the party. Pictured from left are Margaret Ferris – Taisha, Tina Cross, Jackie Clarke, (3 of the Ladykillers) – Sigrid Reid, Dale Ferris, Don Green, Lou Thomson (obscured) and Wayne Ferris. PHOTO BY SHER GREEN
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BeachLife | 23
ABOVE: Local boys Blair Stewart, Tom Dalton and Dane Simpson who all grew up together at Wainui Beach celebrated a combined 30th birthday party earlier this year.
BELOW: Local girls Jade Gunness, Analise Franks, Hayley Dalton, Dallas Boyce and Beth Tweedie were on hand to party with the local boys at the combined 30th. PHOTOS BY HAYLEY DALTON
ABOVE: Tim Gander of Murphy Road as Captain Jack Sparrow at his 30th birthday celebration recently which had Smugglers and Wenches theme.
BELOW: Joel Pollock and Willie Baty party pirate style.
beach life
Beach Party!
PHOTOS BY PHOEBE GANDER
Having a celebration? Make sure you send in a photo or two to BeachLife Magazine. Email digital files to [email protected].
24 | BeachLife
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beach life
ABOVE: Not that long ago Jacob Kohn thought Razza was his absolute hero then next thing you know he’s facing Razza in a first round heat of the 2009 O’Neil Sequence Surf Shop Pro.
ABOVE: This picture was taken in the early 1980s at a Christmas party for the Wainui Nippers of the time. We’ll leave it to your keen eyes and memories to identify the kids – several who are still hanging about at the Wainui Surf Club to this very day! And look – that’s dear old Joy Low in the background. A bearded Mike Virtue is also in the picture.
ABOVE: Lysnar Street’s Louisa Chapman was admitted to the bar at the High Court in Gisborne by the Honourable Justice Keane earlier this year after successfully sitting several requalification examinations. Louisa, now working at Egan and Kite, had previously been admitted to the bar in London in 2007 after studying law at university in Bristol.
ABOVE: Casey Willson (in the middle) of Moana Road turned 5 in November and celebrated with friends Fern Boyle, cousin Charlize Willson, Shayla Neshausen, Pila Crick and Imogen Amor Bendall.
BeachLife | 25
Wainui Beach’s reliable water supply
WATER SUPPLIES
Phone 867 6028Greg Judd Mobile 027 230 2464
DRIVER/OPERATIONS MANAGER:As a Wainui Beach homeowner, Greg Judd of Judd Water Supplies knows the importance of a reliable, clean source of household water for those times when the tanks run dry.
Call the big green truck!
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beach life
ABOVE: Charlize Willson celebrated her 5th birthday recently. Also pictured are Piran Payne, FernBoyle and cousin Casey Willson.
LEFT: Super Dad Craig Willson with Charlize, Jes and Chase on Charlize’s 5th birthday.
RIGHT: Who’s the bald guy hanging out with Adrianna Bataritta Clarke? (John and Andrea’s grand-daughter) Hey – it’s Kelly Slater in between heats at the final of the ASP World Tour at Sopelana Beach in Spain.
26 | BeachLife
Fleet of foot at school athletics
TOP LEFT: Grace Nepia and Emily Fitzgerald put on a sprint for the finish with Skye Hutchings in third place.
ABOVE: Alysha Ngaira, Erina Walker, Tabitha Edwards and Myah Woodcock in the 10-year-old girls 200m heats. In the final Myah was first, Alysha second and Erina third.
RIGHT: Racing around the turn in the 11-year-old boys 200m were Jacques Klavs, Tama-Jay White-Ryan, Kobe Johnson, Luke Simperingham, Michael Bloxham and Kelly Geiseler.
ABOVE: All go in the 8 year old boys 2oom were Jacob Scammell, T.J. Pyper, Te Murunga Jones, Brandon Tane, David Barker and Flynn Kelly.
BeachLife | 27
ABOVE: Ella Trafford clears the bar with a winning smile to claim the girls high jump championship for 2009 over a height of 1 metre 20.
ABOVE: With room to spare and in classic style Jacques Klavs clears the bar on his way to second place in the boys high jump championship.
ABOVE: Using a different but successful technique Kobe Johnson clears 1m 17 to win the boys high jump contest.
Yahna Lodge has every reason for a victory salute after winning both 10-year-old girls 100m and 200m events.
beach life
28 | BeachLife
TROY CONOLE HAS NO plans to leave Gisborne anytime soon. This 22-year-old Pare Street local is proud to be Wainui born and bred and has a collection of successfully selling art work that testifies to the passion he has for the local lifestyle.
Troy has been exhibiting his unique artistic renderings at the Tsunami Bar for the last year. So far he has sold around fifteen pieces and demand seems to be increasing.
His pieces all have a surf focus conveying a certain “airbrushed” dream-like look of surreal surfing perfection – that offshore dream of a perfect day at a perfect location that, as they say, “only a surfer knows the feeling”.
The locations are not fantasies but local surf breaks like Wainui Beach, The Island, Makorori Point, Pipeline and often evident are the iconic headland backdrops of Tuahine, Makorori or Young Nicks Head.
Troy says he has been drawing these waves since he was about 7-years-old at Wainui School. They decorated the covers of his exercise books and any spare scrap of paper that came his way as he grew up doodling and sketching, later taking on painting and sculpture as his main subjects at Campion College.
He left school half way through the 7th form when he was fortunate in successfully applying for a graphic design apprenticeship at the Gisborne Herald.
Troy’s “paintings” are actually digitally drawn. He has adapted the design software Indesign to create digital files that, when printed on high quality canvas, look like they have been hand-painted.
Troy defends himself when purists say they are not real paintings. He says he has “done his time” spending years working with real brushes using oils and acrylics and making woodcuts of his beloved waves. With Indesign he uses his fingers on the mouse as he would a pencil or paintbrush to draw the perfect lines and create the soft blends that allow for the unique look of his works.
Anyway, what do the purists know. His paintings are selling – enough to have funded an Indo surf trip earlier this year.
Apart from a school trip to Japan the Bali trip was his first travel experience as an adult but it hasn’t fired a great desire to give up his career for the big OE.
Where many of his contemporaries had to leave Gisborne to attend universities or design schools, amassing huge student loans, Troy was paid to earn his graphic design
credentials doing his apprenticeship in graphic design at the Gisborne Herald. At 22 he owns a car and a house in town. The plan is to keep working, keep surfing, go fishing and play “happy families” when his girlfriend and fiance Jessica comes back to Gisborne to live from Auckland.
Troy’s paintings sell for $280 and are always original. Even though they are digital files and could be reproduced over and over, he only ever makes one print of a drawing.
He also has a small enterprise selling drawings of classic cars from his website www.carillustration.co.nz.
Troy’s art turns a buck at the Bar
Artist and self-confessed Gisborne lifestyle lover Troy Conole with one of his original canvas mounted surfscapes.
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BeachLife | 29
OKITU MAN AND fishing consultant Daren Coulston is so outraged at the current direction of the New Zealand fishing industry he has started a national campaign to bring about change.
The campaign is called “New Zealand Fishing – Keep It K-iwi”. The aim of the campaign is to create a nationwide groundswell of opposition to the foreign crewing of New Zealand fishing vessels and the processing of New Zealand caught fish in foreign countries.
Daren has registered a trademark for the campaign which is the "flag" the growing group of discontented people are rallying under.
Daren says New Zealand is the only developed country in the world that allows foreign-crewed factory trawlers to catch the bulk of its fish.
“Around 45% of all New Zealand’s deepsea quota is caught by foreign-crewed vessels, nearly all of Iwi deepsea quota is caught by foreign crewed vessels and about 65% of all New Zealand fish caught is processed in China and Thailand.
"”This is the great New Zealand scandal, as New Zealand has the capability to catch all of its own fish – we don’t need foreign crews here at all.”
The Great New Zealand Scandal was in fact the title of a recently-screened television documentary which exposed foreign-owned factory fishing trawlers paying crews third-world wages while living in appalling conditions onboard the boats.
“These trawlers are chartered by New Zealand companies and quota-owners to catch New Zealand fish – forcing our own commercial fishermen out of their own industry,” Daren says.
Daren has created the Keep It K-iwi movement to give a voice and a focus for New Zealand fishermen and others who are concerned this “foreignisation” of the industry will bring about the demise of the New Zealand fishing culture.
“The scary thing is that if we let foreigners catch our fish for another 10 years we will loose the capability to do it ourselves. We will be trapped into foreign fishermen catching New Zealand fish for decades to come. Is that the way it is meant to be?
“NZ Fishing– Keep It K-iwi represents all the fishermen who went to sea in the 1970s and 80s on foreign boats to learn how to catch New Zealand deep sea species and how to operate large factory fishing vessels during extended voyages.
“We then used these hard-learnt skills to crew and operate New Zealand-owned vessels as the “New Zealandisation” of the industry began after the enforcement of the Quota Management System.
“But now New Zealand company owners have found ways to import cheap foreign labour to take the jobs New Zealanders have a legitimate expectation to hold. Some fishing companies have never employed a New Zealander in their offshore fishing operations.
“In the last 10 years the domestic fishing fleet has declined by over 50% depriving the New Zealand economy of much needed income taxes and ACC contributions and local economies are missing out on the millions of dollars of wages that would be spent every year by New Zealand crews and their families.
“A New Zealand factory trawler with a crew of 40 at sea has an annual wage bill of $4.2 million, whereas a foreign boat’s annual wage bill is a mere $800,000. But it’s not just wage revenue the economy misses out on. Foreign factory boat skippers are paid by the amount of fish that they catch, whereas New Zealand skippers are paid for the quality of the end product, ensuring the maximum benefit of our valuable fish resource.”
Daren says there is no reason, apart from greed, to justify the use of foreign boats and their crews to catch New Zealand’s fish resource. The practice just forces local fishermen out of the industry.
The jobs directly related to foreign crews fishing New Zealand deep-sea offshore resources is estimated at 1200. The loss of jobs in fish processing factories is estimated at 2000 plus.
“And it gets worse – several companies have applied to the Immigration Department to allow foreign crews on inshore vessels.
“We believe that the wages and social benefits to New Zealand of using local crews far outweighs the profits enjoyed by the eight companies who use foreign crews.
“This is a national disgrace being ignored by all politicians and New Zealand’s media. Only action from outraged Kiwis will force politicians to take notice and act to make it illegal to catch New Zealand fish with foreign crews. This is our resource for all Kiwis to benefit from, not just a selfish few.
“In a global recession, with unemployment soaring, with crime and the cost of the dole on the rise we cannot allow Kiwi jobs to continue to be taken by foreign crews.”
The NZ Fishing – Keep It K-iwi movement has a website at www.nzfishing.net.nz. Go online to register your support for the cause.
Move to stop foreign fishing
Daren Coulston has started a nationwide campaign to stop the hiring of foreign crews to fish New Zealand waters.
beach people
30 | BeachLife
WHEN LYSNAR STREET’S Joan Coates recently received a civic award for her volunteer work in the Gisborne community it seemed like a good enough reason to interview this indefatigable octogenarian about her colourful and interesting life.
For Joan Coates has been a well-known personality in Gisborne or over half a century, most of those years spent living here at Wainui Beach.
In many ways Joan was Gisborne’s first real celebrity in the modern sense of the word.
Celebrity first came her way when she was announced the winner of the third Mrs New Zealand contest way back in 1962. It was one of Gisborne’s defining moments when one of our very own provincial city “housewives” was deemed to be the finest example of a wife and mother in the whole of the land.
From that day on Joan Coates became a public personality. You could hardly pick up a Gisborne Photo News without pictures of Joan Coates at social and charity events or modeling the latest fashions for the local women’s wear stores.
As the years went by she became well-known for her interest and knowledge of sport and her love of gardening. Lately she has been recognised for her efforts as a tireless volunteer for public organisations and charities which rely on people with big hearts and shoulders to keep them viable.
This propensity for raising her hand when volunteers are called for was recognised in October when she received a Gisborne Mayor’s Civic Service Award for “community service to the Gisborne district through various organisations”.
Joan Coates was born Joan Davenport
Mrs New Zealand settled for life at the beach
If you live in Lysnar Street you will know Joan Coates as the friendly lady with the lovely garden at number one. Most often you’ll spot her ripping out weeds either at home – or around the corner at her adopted spot on the highway. Joan has had an eventful and colourful life, coming from a privileged family of British Raj tea planters, settling in New Zealand in the 1930s and then spending two years as the epitome of a Kiwi housewife and mother during her 1960s reign as “Mrs New Zealand”.
Joan Coates 47 years after her reign as Mrs New Zealand is still a woman of style and dignity.
beach people
BeachLife | 31
in Calcutta, India, in the mid-1920s. (With reverence to a lady’s prerogative not to reveal her actual age, we can only say her 80th birthday was celebrated a year or so ago.)
Her parents, Guy and Doris Davenport, were wealthy English tea planters from Darjeeling. The tea gardens they owned in the Darjeeling hills had been in the family for several generations and they very much epitomized the era of the British Raj – the British colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.
Joan and her younger brother John lived in luxury attended by servants for the first decade of her life.
She tells the story how one day when she was still a baby a wild monkey stole her out of her pram. A servant saw the monkey scaling the wall separating the garden from the jungle, who alerted her father who fired his gun.
If the monkey hadn’t dropped her immediately she believes she may have ended up like Jane “swinging through the tree-tops looking for Tarzan”.
Joan received home education from a nanny until she was 8 years old. Then family tradition was that the children were shipped back to England for further schooling. Her father couldn’t stand the thought of separation from his wife and children so he abdicated from his role as the family manager of the tea gardens and found a job as a tea taster with a firm in Auckland, New Zealand.
In the mid 1930s the family booked a first class passage to New Zealand on the SS Rangitata, a voyage that took six weeks.
In New Zealand they lived in Remuera Road, next door to the parents of the future Sir Edmund Hillary. Joan was enrolled at Meadowbank School where, at nine years old – and because she had never been to an actual school before in her life – she held the dubious record of being the oldest ever primmer one student. At least for the first term.
When she was 11 years old she became friends with a young man who was five years her senior. Young Jim Coates was a son of friends who had tennis parties with her family.
As a teenager she attended the prestigious private Anglican Auckland Diocesan School for Girls and on leaving school worked as a nurse at Auckland Hospital during the years of World War 2. Here the pretty young nurse met up with Jim Coates again, by this time a handsome junior house surgeon, and they married in 1945.
They lived in Auckland where sons Michael and Richard were born then travelled to England where Jim would further his medical studies at London Hospital and later Edinburgh.
Third son Graham was born in Hampton Court just days after the abolition of war time petrol rationing which caused huge traffic jams around London and a panic as the baby began to announce itself.
The house had a river frontage so the
midwife was dispatched by boat while the doctor came on the back of a policeman’s bicycle – riding along the footpath blowing his whistle.
Around 1953 after they had returned to New Zealand Jim Coates was offered the job of senior physician at Gisborne’s Cook Hospital and so began the Coates family’s attachment to Gisborne that remains to this day.
They lived in Stout Street, just around from Wi Pere Street, and the boys went off to Mangapapa School. As the wife of the town’s leading doctor Joan was socially in demand and even then became immersed in volunteer work for various organisations. In 1960 she gave birth to a daughter, Tessa, now married to Sean McCormick and living in Douglas Street at Wainui.
It seemed like a perfect story. So much so that son Graham urged his mother to enter the upcoming 1962 Mrs New Zealand contest. After lengthy interviews by a panel of judges and a process of elimination Joan was announced the national winner out of 2000 entrants.
“Winning the contest was so unexpected and it certainly put my every move in the spotlight – but it gave me the opportunity to do many interesting things I could never dreamed of doing,” she said.
It was very much a life-changing event. She reigned for two years as the figurehead of New Zealand’s married womanhood and for the main prize she and Jim went on a tour of the USA and Canada with a visit to the World Fair in Seattle.
Everywhere she went she was photographed and interviewed. An American newspaper reported during the tour: “In her realm on the Southern Pacific Island, Mrs Coates can expect a life filled with many personal appearances, lectures and interviews during the next two years. Her title is based on her merits as wife, mother, homemaker, community citizen and personality.”
But life was not as perfect as it appeared and when her marriage ended a few years later Joan left Stout Street to live in a rented house in Wairere Road with daughter Tessa.
Gisborne’s most photographed woman of the 1960s Mrs New Zealand Joan Coates with 21/2 year old daughter Tessa pose in their Stout Street garden for the 1963 April cover of Photo News.
32 | BeachLife
BeachLife | 33
Around 1974 Joan bought a small cottage in Douglas Street. Over the year's the old beach bach was renovated and improved and Joan established a lovely cottage garden in the backyard which has often been included in local garden tours. Here she has lived as a popular personality of the Okitu community until the present day.
In the early years as an independent woman – with Tessa at boarding school and later away working and travelling overseas – Joan first worked for Hammon Jewellers and later as a salesperson for Guy and Dunsmore Sports.
With an active interest in tennis, golf, badminton and trout fishing she became sought after for advise and information on sporting equipment and sport in general.
Her community work also continued. She
was a committee member and then chairperson of the Heni Materoa Children’s Home through the ‘60s and ‘70s, a founding committee member of the Gisborne Business and Professional Women’s Club, also a committee member of the Royal Overseas League.
She was on the original organising committee to raise funds to build the Gisborne squash courts, a long-serving committee member and is still currently the patron of the Poverty Bay Golf Club.
She has been a volunteer at the Wainui Surf Club for decades, a helper at the Gisborne Public Relations office in its day, a volunteer with Palliative Care, Keep Gisborne Beautiful and Eastwoodhill Arboretum.
She has worked as a volunteer gardener at Eastwoodhill for 20 years, she gardens and maintains an adopted spot on the State Highway at Okitu – also at retirement homes, the Poverty Bay Golf Club and for years has opened her own garden for public viewing to assist fund raising ventures.
A bite from a white-tail spider a few years ago has left one of her hands slightly deformed which caused her to give up golf and restricts her gardening activities.
Through the years of the ‘70s
and ‘80s she socialised with a great group of lady friends – who were all characters of the Okitu neighbourhood – Joy Low, Jean Schroder, Gloria Harrison, Nelly Lloyd, Kate Hitchings – spending hours at the beach in the summer and long evenings dining and playing cards together.
Joan is now the last woman standing of this group of local identities. Today she continues to garden as much as she can, keeps in touch with her children and her grand-children – and is lucky to have son Richard and daughter Tess still living at Wainui.
Until just recently she would jump in her car at short notice and drive to Blenheim to visit son Graham, an expert consultant on the farming and marketing of salmon, who is now partnered with winemaker Jane Hunter. Son Michael occasionally visits from England.
Yes – Joan Coates is an icon of Gisborne and certainly a loved elder of the Okitu and Wainui communities. A true celebrity in our midst.
“Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time.” - Edwin P. Whipple
Joan’s father Guy Davenport preparing the elephant for a trip into town from the family’s Darjeeeling tea gardens in the 1920s.
Joan with baby Richard in England in the late 1940s.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Portrait of Joan just before the Mrs New Zealand contest, publicity photo with Dr Jim Coates while on tour of the USA as Mrs New Zealand, an early taste for beachlife at Bognor Regis in the 1930s, dressed up with Dr Jim in top-hat and tails on the way to the Queen’s garden party in 1950.
34 | BeachLife
THE UNTIMELY DEATH on the 10th of September 2009 of Douglas Street resident Dean Farley Craig provided an opportunity for friends to look back on the life of this multi-talented local man.
Dean, most-lately known for his work locally as a property valuation expert, died only 10 months after being first diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2008.
Born in Lower Hutt in September of 1953 Dean spent his early years on the Kapiti Coast until his mother and step-father, who were both teachers, left New Zealand to live and work at Niagara Falls, Canada.
They returned to New Zealand to live at Manurewa when Dean was 12. From an early age he was a handy runner but at Manurewa High he was always beaten into second place by a very fast opponent named John Walker. Due to his speed as a runner he also made the school first XV.
He left school and went to Victoria to study law but dropped out after a year. Here he met his wife-to-be Heather Mackay who was also a student at the time. Heather is now library manager at Tairawhiti Polytechnic.
Around 1974 they went north to live in Mount Maunganui where they shared a flat with others right on the main beach. Dean took up landscape gardening and pursued his passion for kneeboard surfing. They then moved to Auckland where he started a job building.
Around 1975-76 Heather’s parents were living in Gisborne where her father, Dr Millen Mackay, was the superintendant at Gisborne Hospital. Dean and Heather came down for a look, liked what they saw, and stayed forever.
In Gisborne they bought a house-bus in which they lived at Makorori for the summer and then at the showgrounds. Dean had a number of jobs – he did a diesel mechanic apprenticeship at Monk Brothers and then switched to take on an auto electrical career at Lucas. At another time he went crayfishing.
While at Monk Brothers he and friend Ned Pyne from Wainui got the job of demolishing old Central School and salvaged the rimu and kauri timber to build their homes. While renting a bach on the beach in Wairere Road Dean and Heather bought an overgrown section along Douglas Street.
Dean first built a garage at the front of the property in which Heather and first daughter Tess, who is now 21, lived for about five years while the main house was being built. A second daughter Meg, now 16, followed and then son Baxter who is now 13.
Around 1987 Dean got a job with the then New Zealand Valuation Department which went on to become Valuation New Zealand. Surviving the downsizing era he proved himself as a very capable valuation officer with his knowledge of building and his ability to write well-structured reports.
Later he became the Gisborne area manager for Tauranga-based Landmass Technologies and through his efforts successfully held the contract to undertake the three-yearly government valuation of this district.
As always Dean became very passionate about his role as a valuer receiving favorable feedback from the Government auditors for the credibility of the data he prepared on over 23,000 individual homes.
Dean was a huge reader of newspapers with a big concern for global issues and always up with the play on international news. During the Springbok Tour of 1981 he turned his van into a mobile petition until it was eventually covered in hundreds of signatures from those against the rugby tour. He and Heather were amongst the protesters who invaded the pitch at Hamilton to disrupt the now historic Springboks versus Waikato match.
Dean was an enthusiast for everything he took up. He was one of the first to take up mountain-biking in Gisborne and was extremely fit. During the early ‘90s he would often be seen returning home covered in mud on late weekend afternoons after cross-country cycle rides over the steepest terrain. He had a huge interest in all sports – particularly rugby,
Formula One motor racing, boxing and cycling – particularly interested in the Tour De France, of which he knew every detail. Even at a time when he was seriously knocked about by chemotherapy he insisted on inviting friends over for a Tua versus Cameron fight-night party.
As Heather’s brother Neil says: “Dean never gave in, he really did die with his boots on. Even with his chemotherapy he insisted on driving himself to Palmerston North for the treatment. He never once complained or expected any sympathy about his medical problem. To him it was just another challenge.”
Just ten days before he died he was at Rugby Park vocally encouraging son Baxter as he played for the Poverty Bay Under-13s against Wellington.
Heather says he was real can-do sort of man. He built their house, he fixed their cars, he made their furniture, made his own surfboard – he even sewed Heather’s wedding dress.
Dean’s family will miss him dearly and so will those who called him a friend.
Dean Craig taking a break in his workshop with his son Baxter.
Very clever and always extremely fit Dean Craig was a committed but unassuming citizen of the beach.
Okitu sad at loss of a capable man
beach people
BeachLife | 35
EARLIER THIS YEAR I went to the home of my Moana Road neighbour Bert Cotterill. I often played golf with Bert on Sunday mornings and he had kindly offered to let me have a near new trundler he had in his garage when he noticed mine had become dilapidated.
Bert and his wife Pam lived at 81 Moana Road in a beautiful, spacious home on a 1/4-acre section overlooking Wainui Beach.
He was proud to show me around his house and in a small room dedicated as his office I noticed several pictures of a younger Bert in celebratory poses with athletic young swimmers who were obviously New Zealand representatives.
It was only then I learnt Bert, the Sunday morning golfer, was actually quite famous and a respected personality in the New Zealand swimming scene.
A great story for BeachLife, I thought, and made a plan to come back in the near future for an interview so I could write up his interesting life’s story for a future issue of this magazine.
I was shocked and dismayed when I heard news on Monday 24 August that Bert, at age 75, had died suddenly the night before in Waikato Hospital.
So I am now, sadly, writing his obituary.Bert was famous in the swimming arena.
He taught thousands of youngsters to swim during a 66-year involvement in the sport.
During a period of 20 years he coached three Kiwi swimmers at three Olympic games – Sandra Whittleston of Napier in Mexico in 1968, bronze medal winner John Coutts of Hastings in Montreal in 1976 and Sharron Musson of Napier in Seoul in 1988.
His numerous official roles over the years included coaching and managing Commonwealth and Olympic Games teams, a four-year stint as chief examiner for the New Zealand Swimming Coaches Association from 1980-1984, treasurer and later president and secretary-manager. In 1977 he was named New Zealand Coach of the Year.
A foundation member of the Napier Aquahawks Club he had recently been awarded life membership of Swimming New Zealand. He completed the first father-and-son duo to be awarded this honour. His late father
Joe was a member of the Wanganui East Club when he was made a SNZ life member.
Bert was, in fact, New Zealand’s first full-time professional swimming coach.
A former head of physical education at Colenso High School, Bert started swimming with the Wanganui East Club in 1942 and also represented the Karori and Heretaunga clubs.
He was a five-time winner of the New Zealand three-mile championship from 1954 to 1958. In Hawke’s Bay he took up a teacher-coaching role with the Te Awa club, which he held from 1960-1966. He was the Greendale club’s chairman and coach from 1966-1972. During the 1985-86 summer, he was centre manager and coach at Sydney’s Carlisle club.
From 1991-2000 he was the New Zealand Swimming Federation’s director of coaching and education. He was also the author of the unit standards for the popular Lotto Learn to Swim programme.
Bert and Pam came to Gisborne in 1999 to
realise a dream to live beside the sea. Shortly after buying their home on Moana Road Bert and Pam went for a swim and, after catching a wave and body surfing into the beach, Bert said: “I think we’ve just arrived in heaven.”
From 2000 until his semi-retirement in 2007, Bert was assistant-coach to Gary Martin at Gisborne’s Enterprise Club.
In recent years, he enjoyed playing golf with Poverty Bay’s Sunday morning “Three Putt Club”. In partnership with competitive local golfer Allan White he was a winner of the prestigious Barns Graham Cup in 2007.
“He was a generous and totally honest man,” says Pam, “who never gave up his love of teaching children how to swim.”
Bert is survived by his wife Pam, six children from separate earlier marriages and 12 grandchildren. A very sad Pam is now planning to leave Wainui Beach to move to Tauranga where she has family. Gray Clapham
Farewell to swim legend
Bert and Pam Cotterill together not long before Bert’s sudden death in August this year. Bert was a well-known coach and official of New Zealand Swimming.
Quietly-spoken Moana Road resident Bert Cotterill was the New Zealand swim coach to three Olympics, bringing home a bronze medal with John Coutts in 1976.
beach people
36 | BeachLife
IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS since Wainui local Matt Nache Clarke and his friend Gene Paul started Gisborne’s PAULNACHE art gallery.
Originally The Pencil Gallery, Paul Nache (an amalgam of the two owners names) specialises in contemporary New Zealand painting and hosts frequent exhibitions by recognised local, national and international artists.
On October 23 they celebrated the gallery’s fifth anniversary and took time out to reflect on their success and the choice to base the business is Gisborne.
Matt Clarke – the son of Penny and Kerry Clarke – met Gene Paul at art school at Massey University where the were both studying design and fine art in advertising. Later in Wellington they worked together on the idea of creating an online art gallery. By chance Matt was offered the upstairs space above Mitchell’s Cameras in Gisborne and the idea moved to establishing a physical gallery based in Gisborne. The decision to try such a venture in the provinces was a bold one.
But for Matt particularly it meant he could come home to Wainui Beach with his partner Tracy and their little boy Roman where he could bring up a family in the beach environment he grew up in.
Matt says the concept of the gallery is to showcase art of the highest local, national and international level.
Now their reputation has elevated in the art world people are now buying online via the gallery’s website, but at first it was important to establish the gallery and the physical connections with artists and buyers.
Establishing relationships with art buyers, some in Gisborne but mostly in the main centres and some internationally, has been the key to the business.
“We’ve got good relationships now where we are the intermediary agents connecting artists to art buyers,” says Matt.
“It’s a game. While people are buying art for investment, they are also investing in the future of the artists they buy. They are usually people who have a passion, maybe an obsession, for buying and collecting art.”
Matt gets satisfaction from seeing top artists like John Walsh, who he used to study at school, now working enthusiastically with the gallery.
Matt and Gene look back on getting started as 23 and 24-year-olds in a gallery in Gisborne with no lights and no doors. But then this year they saw themselves mixing with the 'who’s who' of the art world at the invite-
only Auckland Art Fair and being recognised amongst the leading art dealers in Australasia.
Their showing at the Art Fair has made valuable new connections with dealers and promoters from all over Australasia and that will lead to some really good work coming to Gisborne.
“It’s great to be in business in Gisborne,” says Matt. “We like Gisborne, we have our family and friends here, we can live the Gisborne lifestyle. The earthquake of 2007 (which badly damaged the gallery building) worked in our favour allowing us to reinvent the space, add on a balcony, uplift the whole image and totally rebrand.”
A real highlight this year was the showing of five works by Raymond Ching at the gallery.
“We are now operating at the same level as many of the bigger city galleries but we get to do it from this beautiful place called Gisborne.”
On New year’s Day PAULNACHE Gallery will be opening a new exhibition called Paper Money, a curated group show of works on paper featuring art by Damian Hirst (UK), James Aldridge (Sweden), W.D. Hammond, Gretchen Albrecht, Billy Apple, Rob McLeod, Matthew Couper, Mark Braunias, John Walsh, James Ormsby, James Robinson, Paul Hartigan, Rob Hood, Sanjay Theodore plus others.
Matty Clarke’s choice of home works outDouglas Street local and art gallery entrepreneur Matt Clarke and his Welsh-born wife Tracy, daughter Teifi (2) and son Roman (4) relish life at Wainui Beach.
beach people
BeachLife | 37
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LOOKING HEALTHY BECAUSE you have a tan can be a bit like looking happy because you are drunk – it can be a short-term illusion with a price.
Kiwis have some of the most sun-damaged skin in the world – a price we pay for clean air, outdoor lifestyle, and skins that would be happier in a cloudier climate.
You can avoid sun damage by covering up and using sunscreens, but advancements in science offer hope for those who didn’t.
From California, where youth and sun are almost religions, there are now physician-only products that give your body the ability to undo some of the damage.
To understand how the repair works, we need to understand a little about how the damage is done. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun and sun beds has two main wavelengths, UVA and UVB rays. UVB rays have a shorter wavelength and cause sunburn in the outer layer or epidermis, but UVA rays cause a lot of aging because they penetrate deeply into the middle “dermal” layer of skin and damage collagen fibres.
As these are repeatedly rebuilt, skin gets wrinkled and loses its elasticity as collagen becomes depleted.
To protect against sun damage, our skin forms melanin, better known as a tan. The trouble is, fair to medium-skinned people have uneven melanin production, and tend to form freckles, moles and age spots, (or liver spots). Without protection, capillaries break and skin loses its tone.
Prevention is better than cure, but some existing damage can be undone by stimulating the skin’s own capacity to repair itself.
To do this we can either stimulate collagen production and break down pigmentation using intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments, or use specialised peels suited to your specific skin type to get through the epidermal layer of skin to the dermal layer beneath.
Peels painlessly take away layers of dead cells that build on the skin’s surface, revealing new skin beneath.
Most creams and potions people use can’t make it past the epidermal layer to work where they are needed. Skin may feel softer, but they do nothing to stimulate collagen production or address the
aging taking place in the middle "dermal" layer of skin.Young, healthy skin constantly renews itself in this layer, eliminating
or repairing old and damaged cells, and generating new cells before fine lines, wrinkles, or sagging can develop.
As we age, the rate we heal slows as levels of human growth factor drop, and this, along with DNA denaturing from the sun’s radiation mean our skin begins to lose the race repairing the damage.
Growth factors are natural proteins abundant in young skin that regulate cell turnover and generation, and the production of collagen and elastin in the skin.
Skin Deep Aesthetics now has the latest low-allergenic skin rejuvenation range from American company, Benev.
In addition to high quality peels and maintenance products, Benev also has human growth factor products, which simulate the healing processes that take place in young skin.
This is not a time machine, but the results are often amazing, and offer hope for a range of skin issues, including eczema, acne, psoriasis, and pigmentation.
Call Skin Deep Aesthetics for a consultation with Dr Anuya Deshpande. Skin Deep Aesthetics is Gisborne’s dedicated physician-led appearance medicine clinic.
Clinic: 41 Stout StreetPhone: 06 8632688 www.skindeep-nz.com
Undoing the damage of a life in the sun
ABOVE: Specialised scanning technology can reveal broken capillaries (middle) and pigmentation (right) from sun damage in the dermal level of the skin before it makes its way to the surface, or epidermis. Skin Deep Aesthetics has the Reveal Skin Analyser in Gisborne for a limited time from this month to give clients a baseline to track treatment progress.
BeachLife | 39
WAINUI RESIDENTS are fortunate in having close access to the YMCA’s Kaiti fitness centre and early childhood care facilities in Wainui Road.
In what was the former Kaiti Memorial Hall the Gisborne YMCA now runs a state-of-the-art fitness centre and employs professional trainers to assist members achieve health and fitness goals.
Adjacent there is also a newly built complex devoted to child care.
The overall CEO of the YMCA is longtime Wainui Beach resident Leigh Gibson. Leigh has a huge and passionate commitment to the YMCA. She says the YMCA, a community owned organisation, has a vision to be recognised and respected as a leader in the Tairawhiti-Gisborne community for providing quality services in education, childcare, fitness and recreation.
HEALTH AND FITNESS"Focusing on the fitness role of
the YMCA, which most people are familiar with, the concept here is to make achieving fitness fun and easy by providing motivating and encouraging environments within Gisborne’s most professional fitness gyms," Leigh says.
Kaiti Gym open hours are weekdays (6am to 7pm) and Saturday (8am to 12 noon). The City Gym hours are weekdays (5am to 8pm). Saturday (7.30am to 3pm) and Sunday (8am to midday).
Membership allows use of both the City and Kaiti facilities and entitlement to reduced rates at the City Gym’s cycling Spin Classes.
Friendly and professional service from qualified staff is available at all times at both gyms – plus personalised programmes, regular monitoring and general nutritional and health tips. Personal training
programmes are available to help you meet your goals whether you are training for an event or just wanting to keep fit.
Kaiti Gym members Anne Bradley and Kath Thomas (pictured above) can’t say enough in support of the Kaiti Gym.
"It’s friendly, welcoming and very relaxed. The instructors are very good and it’s non-threatening for people our age. We love it."
While the gym is set up to make new members feel comfortable – it has all the latest equipment and range of weights experienced weight-trainers need for a full body workout.
CHILD CAREAlso available to beach
residents is the YMCA’s Early Childhood Centre in Wainui Road.
"We are a chartered and Ministry of Education-licensed early childhood centre offering quality care and education for children from birth to 5 years of age," says Leigh.
"Our community early childhood centres provide modern, purpose-built centres
with quality resources, quality equipment and quality staffing."
The Kaiti childcare options are Y Tamariki Bilingual Centre (6am to 6pm) and Y Arataha Childcare at the back of Kaiti Hall (8.30am to 3.30pm).
The YMCA provides all meals for children which include morning and afternoon tea and a cooked lunch and dessert. Dietary concerns and special meals are catered for.
There is also the Active Learning Centre, similar to Kip McGrath, (3pm to 5.45pm) managed by a registered teacher currently doing her masters. The cost is $15 per afternoon, and the children are collected from all primary schools including Wainui.
The programme is filling fast so contact the City YMCA reception for registration forms.
The YMCA is very keen for Wainui and Makorori residents to make themselves familiar with the Kaiti Gym and Child Care services.
Call in and ask about membership options. And tell them BeachLife sent you!
Fitness and childcare offered at Kaiti YMCA
YMCA KAITI CENTRE224 Wainui Road
Ph 06 867 2393YMCA CITY CENTRE
Cnr Childers & Roebuck RdsPh 06 867 9259
Wainui’s Leigh Gibson is CEO of the Gisborne YMCA.
YMCA Kaiti Gym fitness instructor Len Wawatai explains fitness equipment to Anne Bradley and Kath Thomas.
$99 SPECIAL OFFER FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTSThere is currently a $99 3-month membership offer for university
students home for the summer at both the City and Kaiti YMCA Gyms.
40 | BeachLife
THE STORY OF Frederick Ottaway and the mystery of the Wainui windmills continues.
We have been able to shed some light on the background of the man who built windmills in the Wainui Beach sand hills around the turn of the 20th century.
In earlier issues of BeachLife we revealed that Frederick Ottaway built two windmills – one along Wairere Road around 1895 and then another larger one opposite where the Chalet now is around 1917.
Both windmills were built from recycled materials, mostly from flattened kerosene tins which were painted with tar and coated in sand.
Older Gisborne residents remember the Moana Road windmill still remaining in a dilapidated state up until the early 1940s.
Recently BeachLife was contacted by Mr Ivan O’Connell who’s wife Lilus is the great-great-grand daughter of Mr Ottaway through Ottaway’s daughter Hilda. It is now believed Frederick had two children with his wife Elizabeth, the other a son named Alfred.
Of interest is that Lilus and Ivan’s daughter Rachael is married to local man John Lewin and living in Murdoch Road. Their two daughters Grace (7) and Gemma (5) who attend Wainui School are therefore great-great-great grand children of the man who built the windmills.
We also now know that Frederick and his wife Elizabeth lie side by side in a substantial plot in the Taruheru Cemetery. Fred died on 14 December 1928 aged 81 and his wife died aged 70 on 23 January 1930. It is thought Frederick was of Norwegian origin but details of what he did for a living and where the family lived are still unknown.
Another descendent of the Ottaways, Ernie Hart, still lives in Ormond Road. Although Fred died just after Ernie was born, Ernie can remember going on family outings by horse and buggy to visit the windmill which still had its sails attached in the very early 1930s.
Mr Trevor Ottaway who used to be a cobbler who ran the shoe repair business in Bright Street was also a direct descendent.
BeachLife welcomes any more information about the Ottaways and their windmills.
A little more light on windmill mystery man
A photograph of Fred Ottaway and his wife Elizabeth from great-grandson Ernie Hart’s album. The family portrait and substantial cemetery plot suggest they were people of some means.
The last resting place of the Ottaways at Taruheru – Fred died in 1928 and Elizabeth in 1930.
32 Douglas Street • Okitu • Wainui Beach
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SUMMER SPECIAL 20% DiscountWhen booking tell us you saw this advertisement in BeachLife Magazine and we’ll give you 20% discount!Valid on or before 31 January 2010
BeachLife | 41
Wainui & Makorori Beach Tsunami Plans
LOCAL TSUNAMI (The Worst Case)A local tsunami may be caused by a major earthquake (similar to December 2007) or one that goes on for longer than a minute.Local tsunami are generated very close to New Zealand. This type of tsunami is very dangerous because we may only have a few minutes warning and damage could be quite significant in specific areas. A landslide in the Hikurangi Trench or a large earthquake from an offshore fault could cause a local tsunami
THERE WILL BE NO TIME FOR AN OFFICIAL WARNING!
If a Tsunami is generated it will probably arrive 20-30 minutes after the earthquake.
If you observe the sea recede suddenly you have about 3-5 minutes to get to higher ground.
EVERY HOUSEHOLD SHOULD HAVE IT’S OWN EVACUATION PLAN AND PRE-PLANNED ROUTE TO HIGHER GROUND
You need a pre-planned escape route. Preferably one that does not require a vehicle. Include elderly neighbours in your plan.
You need to know exactly how to walk quickly from your house to the nearest hill you can easily climb.
Once you are high enough to view the ocean and the incoming wave you are probably safe and will have time to climb higher as necessary. At night you will hear the wave.
If you live further that 3 minutes walk away from the nearest hill, if you have young children or you are elderly you may need to plan to take your car to where you can easily climb a hill.
When the first wave comes ashore it will have slowed to walking speed on steep slopes. A second wave may move faster and potentially go further inland on top of the first.
Prepare an emergency “getaway kit” with things you need if you have to leave the house in a hurry. Have a torch and a battery radio.
Before returning you should wait for an official all clear, but generally one hour after the earthquake is considered “all clear”.
Wainui School has it’s own evacuation plan during school hours.
Keep listening to the radio for updates (Classic Hits 90.9 or More FM 98.9).
There will be no official warnings given for a localised tsunami. It is your responsibility to get yourself and family to safety.
DISTANT TSUNAMISDistant tsunami are generated from a long way away, such as from across the Pacific in Peru/Chile. In this case, we will have more than six hours warning time (in most cases up to 11-15 hours) for New Zealand.
THERE WILL BE WARNINGS FOR THESE EVENTS!
If a Tsunami is generated from the West Coast of South America there is usually many hours (about 11 hours in most cases) to prepare for the event.
There will be a declared Civil Defence Emergency if evacuations are necessary.
Only the most low lying areas of Wainui will need to be evacuated.
You can check where these areas are on the GDC website Civil Defence pages at (www.gdc.govt.nz). If unsure you can ring the District Council.
Makorori Beach will be totally evacuated – so there is no map.
POLICE, FIRE AND CIVIL DEFENCE PERSONAL WILL INITIATE THE EVACUATION BY DOOR KNOCKING. THERE WILL BE NO NEED TO PANIC.
You should plan to go to stay with friends or family outside of the evacuation areas. There will be an official evacuation HQ at Te Poho O Rawiri marae.
You may have to stay away from your home for up to 24 hours.
Listen to the local radio stations (Classic Hits 90.9 or More FM 98.9) for information. If information on the radio conflicts with that given directly to you by Police or Civil Defence, obey the latter.
Make a plan with your family, and include elderly neighbours, before such an emergency. Make sure that everyone knows where they go if the call comes to evacuate.
There is no need to evacuate for a potential tsunami from the Pacific Islands – just stay clear of the beach.
CIVIL DEFENCE COMMUNITY EMERGENCY MANAGERS:Ray Veal — 54 Moana Road — 867 6017Michael Willock — 18a Sirrah Street — 868 1083Paul Ericson — 14 Moana Road — 867 9141Richard Busby — Makorori Station — 868 9027
GDC CIVIL DEFENCE 867 2049 EXT 8435www.gdc.govt.nz
NOTE: In the event of a local tsunami event Wainui and Makorori residents should avoid driving if at all possible. With only 20-30 minutes to get to
high ground the highway will become jammed if all households try to drive to Makorori Hill or Winifred Street. Take pets if possible but don’t waste
time trying to gather precious items. Saving lives is the priority!
• The 1947 local tsunami event was caused by an earthquake that went on for over a minute but the shaking was hardly noticed at the beach. Prolonged shaking earthquakes are potentially the most dangerous for
generating big waves.
GET READY GET THRU
42 | BeachLife
Okitu Store Summer 2009-2010
SUMMER HOURS Monday to Saturday: 7.00am to 8.00pm
Sunday: 7.30am to 7.30pm
Phone 06 867 7013
We have a wide range of just about everything!Let the sun
shine in!The winter at Wainui seemed particularly longer and
colder than usual so the summer warmth is definitely
welcome.
Summer brings to you the new ice-cream flavours like Mint
Cookie Smash, Yoghurt, Berry Mudslide and of course we’ve still
got the tried-and-true favourites.
Kids – come in and check out our slushies – be adventurous –
mix it up and make sure to ask for a special Vampire Concoction
and grab a snack pack or some treats for the beach.
The surf is getting better so if you haven’t already; come and
hire a surfboard and wettie give it a go and have some fun with
friends.
A range of boards of various sizes is available, waxed and
ready – and if you are super lucky some sessions with the Quinn
males might be available over the summer holidays.
Top those beautiful warm summer BBQ evenings off with our
great range of wines and ales and for those too tired to cook
after a day in the sun and surf – ring or pop in for takeaways.
Make sure to take time out with a magazine over the holiday
period – the surfing magazines have some great footage of our
local surfers showing their stuff!
If you’re thinking of some gifts for Christmas – grab one or a
few of Christine Page’s beautiful photo tiles and complete the
gift with one of her locally shot cards – the perfect package.
There are plenty of refreshing drinks to quench the summer
thirst and off course a great range of energy ones for that extra
zing required over the holidays!
Smiles are free from our friendly staff and summer hours
have begun so we don’t close until 8pm!
The hardest decisions you should have to make this summer
should be the size and flavor of your ice-cream.
BeachLife | 43
P 867 1684 W www.surfboards.net.nz
Wainui Beach | Ph & Fax 06 867 0823 | Cell 021 119 [email protected] www.surfingwithfrank.com
Learn to surf lessons: Surfboards and wetsuits provided. No more than 4 students per coach. Male, female, 8 to 80 years of age. Give it a go, you’ll have a blast. Surf Tours & Surf Guiding: Gisborne, Raglan, Taranaki. Sit back and relax while we get you to the best waves for the conditions. Wetsuit and surfboard hire available.
WE HAVE HAD AN interesting spring with weather conditions ranging from summer-like swelter to wild winter temperatures, often within one day. I haven’t seen smoke pouring from neighbor’s chimneys so regularly throughout October and November for many years.
The cold snaps had me thankful for the extra stash of firewood I had tucked away in the woodshed. Needless to say the regular wind switches to the south have kept our beaches alive and pulsating with plenty of springtime swell. The sand has also made a steady return to our beaches and its no secret how good the waves have been along the middle of our beach. Pines to Chalet has been pretty good over the last couple of months with nice sand bars being held in place by pockets of reef not yet entirely covered by sand.
The Gisborne Boardriders Club’s leading figures and committee members have been very busy over the last part of the winter through to spring organising grants and a paid coaching team to implement an intensive ten-week coaching course for young club members. Being hired to head the coaching is local ripper and former National Champion and New Zealand Representative James Fowel. James has used his knowledge and experience as a teacher and coach at a national level to design a full programme that will run the duration of school term four.
The course covers basic preparation for young competitive surfers, goal setting, mental preparation, filmed competition and free surfing sessions and a health component. The course also provides a pilates and fitness section with Fiona.
There are around thirty young local club
members enrolled and participating. The surfers have been split into three groups Emerging, Advanced and Elite. Bodhi Whitaker is head coach for the Emerging group, I am coaching the Advanced group and James Fowel is in charge of the Elite group.
From what I’ve seen so far I can safely say that no coaching programme for surfers this well structured has ever been offered to our young surfers. The students seem to be responding well to the regular, structured lessons combined with practical sessions.
The O’Neil Sequence Surf Shop Pro bought many great surfers to our beaches over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of November and Saturday provided all competitors and spectators with great 2 to 3 foot waves with offshore winds at Red Bus, Makorori.
With many local surfers entered, the competition was exciting viewing as Gisborne’s older more experienced surfers went head to head with new local talent. Of course, the out of town surfers were certainly not there to merely make up the numbers and as conditions deteriorated on day two their ability to make something out of nothing was all important.
Che Whitaker, Morehu Roberts, Damon Gunness, Brent Rasby, James Fowell, Nathan Welch, Johnny Hicks, Blair Stewart and Maz Quinn were all local heat winners on day one,
Hot competition as spring brings class waves By KELLY RYAN
wave rave
Adam Grimson finds perfection over the Wainui spring banks.PHOTO BY TOM GRIMSON
44 | BeachLife
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an impressive quota of local success. Morehu Roberts and Blair Stewart were top scorers on day one with two wave totals of 13.75 and 15.25 respectfully.
For some of our younger competitors like Jacob Kohn, 16 it was a great chance to get some valuable Open Men’s surfing experience. Kohn drew seasoned competitor Brent Rasby, Matthew Daniel and Chris O’Leary, all Gisborne surfers in the round of 64. Rasby was able to offer a few words of advice and encouragement pre heat before demonstrating the heat winning formula. Kohn was eliminated but the way this guy is going at the moment he probably took more from this loss than anyone else did over the weekend.
Sunday dawned with a snappy southerly on the water and this, combined with a diminishing swell made for much worse conditions. The event proceeded and most of the local contingent fell in the Quarters and Semis. Chris Malone was our only finalist and surfed very well to a credible second place finish. The event win went to a young Raglan surfer Billy Stairmand. Stairmand 20, was a former Raglan Surfing Academy student and surfs very fast – look out for him this season as he now leads the Export Gold Series. The next event is in Whangamata at the end of Januray. In the under-20 division a very young Adam Grimson and young Buck Woods both managed to finish 5th equal with the winner of the event Paco Divers from Sandy Bay.
Jayda Martin-Fitzharris performed well making the Open Women’s final and at 14 is doing well to make open finals.
On the weekend of November 14 the New Wave Primary School Championship provided an opportunity for New Zealand primary and intermediate aged surfers to compete in a professionally organised surfing event. The inclusion of championship and plate divisions allows the grommets to have a minimum of two surfs and compete against surfers of similar ability. The championship and plate
system helps to develop the next tier of junior surfers of the future.
Testing conditions at The Pipe greeted what seemed like hundreds of grommets on day one. The incoming tide saw a dramatic increase in swell from two to three feet and then five feet by lunchtime. Stamina, paddling fitness and wave selection determined the progression of surfers through to the next round.
In the championship division local boy Korbin Hutchings (Gisborne Intermediate) made his mark on the event scoring 15.67 out of a possible 20 in his first heat then backing it up with a 13.0 in his 2nd heat to progress into the semi finals.
In the plate event George Busby impressed many with his efforts attempting to tackle the big waves out the back in his heat. With time running out he changed his plan and managed to get two scores and move through to the semi finals.
Dayna Story (Campion College) progressed and secured a place in the girls’ championship division semi finals a long with Millie Crewe.Paige Penny (St Mary’s), Jasmine Smith (Gisborne Intermediate) Taylor Brown (Gisborne Intermediate), Samantha Wood (Campion College) Abby Falwasser-Logan (Campion College) were others that progressed through to the semi finals of the girls’ championship division.
Korbin Hutchings was the eventual winner
Jamie Curl pumps the accelerator surfing his Wainui home beach.PHOTO BY TOM GRIMSON
Wainui’s George Busby made an impression in the New Wave Primary School Championships.PHOTO BY TOM GRIMSON
BeachLife | 45
of the boys’ championship division, a good town beach up-bringing obviously helping the young ripper who is now a Wainui resident.
Dayna Story managed to finish 3rd for Gisborne in the girls’ championship event but was a little disappointed with this result. After a flawless semi final performance 3rd was obviously not the goal for this focused and stylish young woman. Abby Falwasser-Logan from Gisborne came in 4th place behind Story.
Final results in the boys’ plate division were George Busby 1st, Leroy Shaw 2nd, Issiah Grace 3rd and Rangi Moore 4th. All these boys are local surfers. One Gisborne girl made, and won the girls’ plate final and that was Ruby Cave.
Damon Gunness had a memorable baptism by fire a couple of swells ago with his first shot at serious tow surfing at a crazy reef off the coast. Damon’s ride of the biggest wave of the session landed him the cover of New Zealand Surfing Magazine. He must be now wondering if he can still draw some excitement from 3-foot Wainui waves. The group of well-known New Zealand surfers set off on a mission to find a wave fishermen talked about. On a hunch and a truckload of pioneering spirit they headed into the unknown and discovered a slab of rock out in the ocean that creates rideable monster waves – right on our continental shelf door step.
The 12th December is a date to keep free for the 2009 Primo Boardroom Summer Slam.
More of a festival of surfing than a competition and designed for all ages this event is a chance to spend the day at the beach with friends and family.
Those who were among the hundreds involved last year will tell you what an awesome day out it is. Surfing competitions,
sausage sizzle, Primo giveaways, awesome prize packs, autograph sessions with Gisborne’s top surfers and the chance to test drive the latest shapes to come out of the Boardroom, see you there!
Finally, I want to wish all surfers preparing for the upcoming competition season the best of luck with their respective circuit competitions. In saying that it’s no secret that good competitive surfers create their own luck by being prepared, setting realistic goals and having the desire to win.
For all the free surfers, enjoy the empty waves when all the hotties leave for their competition weekends, spending nervous hours sitting in their cars waiting for their heats in often substandard conditions.
ABOVE: Thanks Cory Scott of New Zealand Surfing Magazine for letting us print this now famous photograph of Wainui local Damon Gunness surfing what is thought to be the biggest wave ever surfed in New Zealand. Damon was one of a crew of surfers who took boats and jet-skis out to a "secret" offshore reef on October 14. Looking for a rock in the ocean some 26km offshore – previously only spoken about by fishermen – they discovered waves breaking, fanned by an offshore wind, of proportions never before experienced in this country. The photo of Damon above has been entered in the Oakley Australasian Big Wave contest which rewards the rider of the biggest wave of the year with a cheque for $20,000. PHOTO BY CORY SCOTT – NZ SURFING
"I knew it was big but had no idea it was that big until I saw the photos later. Everything came together perfectly and I’m sure that day will be locked in our memories for life." DAMON GUNNESS
Jacob Kohn enjoying the power lefts at Impossibles during a
trip to Bali in October with Adam and Tom Grimson.
PHOTO BY TOM GRIMSON
46 | BeachLife
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