Salani Surf Resort- Are Surf Resorts the Go

So are you sick of winter and want to break out of the winter Dero habits that set in when the onshores blow and sun ain't shinning. Well we did and this is what we found. Non of the nine crew had ever been to Samoa so it was the obvious choice to check out. The budget was set at $2000 for an all in package. The boys did some research and thanks to the ever traveled Pete Head at Island Holidays the job was done with ease. With most of us on the strictest of budgets and very little time off work we just needed the closest flight with ease of surfing everyday, Salani was by far the standout spot.

Situated on the mouth of a river is 8 Fales that all look out towards the very fast hollow left reef of Salani. It was the perfect location, with great surroundings and lots of stuff for the crew to do on the down time. I liked the beer, Marty liked the Banana Blasters, but some of the guys actually git active and went fishing but only caught the power lines while others paddled their kayaks upo the river. Mind you wew were up at 6:30 eveyrday and in the boat to head straight out for a wave. Except me, Iliked getting another hours sleep, having a coffee and waiting to hear what it was like. After the coffe one of the Boatman would ask if I was ready and I would nod and head out. No need to rush with boats at your disposal.

The Boatman were all good guys, typical surfers, not much to say unless they were talking about themselves. Daniel came from Hawaii, JP from South Africa (he had never surfed there) and a kiwi from the Mount James Mitchell. The guys were buzzing about the eagerness of our crew. To be honest we never scored the reef epic but we did score waves and the guys surfed at least twice a day on the 7 day adventure. I am a bit more picky and selective but I almost surfed at least once a day.
The Resort had a long hollow left that I never got to surf and on the other side of the pass a short hollow right that packed a shit load of power. There were many trips to the bottom of the reef and many battle stories being told. Every now and then one rouge wave would show the true potential of Salani Rights and rifle down the reef with a gapping chasm.

Like I said we never scored it but we were taken to one of the most beautiful surf spots I have ever been to. Known as a secret spot I won't go in to it as the first American with money would be all over it. The Package we paid for covered everything, 3 square meals a day, boat tramsfers, flights and even all the little tourist things we did. I told you I was on a budget so I watched my money carefully and after a week I had spent $260 on alchol and $4o on Poker. Not bad in my thinking, all that fun surf and sleep for $2000.00.


I know you are probably thinking you can do it cheaper, and you can, but why bother when you can switch your brain off and just go with the flow. No worries just a bunch of mates having fun.
I rate Salani 7/10, it missed a pool to hang out in but the food was amazing. Best time to go according to Nick the manager is In Feb when the winds are settled and the swell comes from the south and the north opening up all of Samoa tobe surfed. We got the nasty trades but we still scored some good waves. Good luck searching.

Riki Mitchell

Winter in Dunnos June - July

Winter 2007 in the Far South, often forgotten.. thankfully, the land of stickerless boards & bad light selfishly basks in tranquil 8-9 degree water. The feature of the 2007 midwinter swell consisted of a series of intense South East swells which gouged out massive bites of our coastline. Bizarre banks have formed, and some have disappeared, but waves were aplenty if you knew where to go.

Above: a fave spot up the peninsular somewhere late on a winters afternoon.
Below 4: Blackhead pumps



Below left: un-named spot past Brighton. Right: just another day in the lineup at St Clair

Below 4: Early morning light up north a bit.




Above 2: St Clair on the inside.

This winter the Otago beaches suffered great change with incredible losses of sand on our beaches up and down the coast. Most dramatically along the sand dunes of St Clair to St Kilda when on the 3rd of July a beach emergency was declared after 6 weeks of South East swells ate out tens of thousands of cubic metres of frontal dunes threatening to inundate the area of South Dunedin. Check out a short video of stills of the 6 week window of devastation.

Samoa and the Bigger ones that packed the goodies

Sucks to be you - Samoa

Redg trying to avoid the lip but ended up visiting the reef and the inside lagoon

Sorry Redg- 1st one to go over the falls

I thought he was going to make this for some silly reason

The Nine Riders of Aotearoa

At the beginning of the year a few of us had decided that this was the year that we headed back to the tropics for some perfect Polynesian waves. As time grew closer so did the amount of people going. What started as 4 ended up to be an instant crowd of 9. The 9 consisted mainly of Auckland surfers with a couple of imports from the Waikato chucked in for good luck. All levels of surfers were represented amongst this crew, even a token Maori longboarder to keep the line up in check.

Mark

Cam

Richard

Ian

Marcus

Todd

Matariki

Tim

Home Sweet Home

7 Days 9 Surfers and no grommets, the riders crew make it home in one piece and have over 200 photos to wade through. Stay tuned as The Boss reviews Salani Surf Resort and we talk Samoan Waves. Its good to be home... maybe?

September Cover Competition

The Slash Cover

The Soul Cover

The Atari Cover

The Dino Cover

Parting shot

One last word before I fly out. One of the members of our travel party emailed the resort we are going to, to ask if they accepted visa. The reply read yes we do but we don't have any bookings for 8 kiwis for next week. He promptly freaked and contacted Pete from island holidays who then asked who he had asked. The team member expained he had just emailed the information desk at Samoana. Pete then told him that he wasn't staying at Samoana, we were booked in to Salani. Good on ya Todd, sucks to be you.

Kelly Slater - In Black and White

Kelly Slater

“in black and white”

This film shows Kelly as he was first presented to the world when he was a wide eyed 19 year old. It was a marketing coup by Quiksilver, because they sold it as the cheapest surf video in the day, so everybody bought one.

I found watching that it (after ‘the freak' won his 7^th world title), gave me some fresh insight into the depth of the man.

From the start, Kelly encourages copying the video and giving it to all your mates, so it seems he sure understood marketing way back then. I was left wondering what he thinks of his frank answers to his breakfast interview today.

So what’s the juice?

Lots of Kelly; fresh on his first season at pipeline and looking comfortable.

Man on man with Tom Curren in France Jeff booth has a nice little section in Tavarua and legend Tom Carroll and Kelly’s brother Skippy also make a showing.

But the gem is from Ross Clarke Jones who makes the call, "Kelly’s going to be the best surfer in the world for a long time unless he gets AIDS. So many chicks are after him". I think that says more about Ross than Kelly.

Oh, for God’s sake Kelly. Why Pam?

Rating: 6/10 A historic record of ‘the freak’ as a teen. Well priced

Running time: 23 minutes long.

Best to watch when: Kelly wins his 8^th and you wonder how he got there

Sucks to be you

So stoked to bring this back to life. This is such an intricate part of Riders and just needed to be here.

Wishing you hadn't gone for the off the top

Hoping your missus is looking the other way

Wishing everyone was looking the other way

ChCh Turns it on!!

A solid swell has been hitting Canterbury for the last week.

Heres a few shots from sunday, one lone soldier out back (bout 50-100m past the end of the pier), with all this goodness to himself.

Others tried, but no one could get out there to join the champion, jumping off the pier was most likely the only option