Action shots from around NZ

Check these shots out from different beaches from around the North Island

NZ Surfing Magazine Review

I'm posting this up as a thank you to the Boys at NZ Surfing for sending Riders Anonymous an issue to check out over the Christmas break. This is the third Issue under the new ownership of Luke Millen and I have finally warmed up to like the new cover layout. The boys pushed the limits on the covers and it looks hot. There is a whole lot in this issue and plenty of reading. Good
reading too... The Green article on another Indonesian nutter is compelling. I was bummed but stoked at the same time to see they got Samoa Pumping not long after we visited there ourselves in August. The Primo roadie hits Shippies and they score more sick waves. If only we all could roadie with chocolate milk. Go buy a copy and make up your own mind.

Surf Art...ish

I can't even paint a gingerbread man but playing around with photoshop can make you a Picasso. If you have any images that you have tweaked send them into us at Riders and we will post them up. matariki@hotmail.com

Piha in January

Piha becomes the hub of the Auckland surfing Lifestyle in January. The weekend of the 5th and the 6th are no exception. A swell was forecast to arrive on Saturday of the 3-5 foot range with NE winds all weekend. The bars all over the west coast have been groomed really well over the past two months of offshore winds but I chose to head to Piha. True to form it was pumping and crowded. The best bank had 50 guys on it but DAM it looked like an Indo left. It was too good to photograph and crowded enough without me posting photos all over the net. Any way South Piha has three distinct Banks all working through the tides. I had some excellent waves that offered everything from smackable sections to fast barrels. What a great start to the New Year

One more time... Editors Words

I know, I know, you are all thinking will it hang out this time. Riders has had many changes over the last couple of years. At least I can say couple though. From the full blown web magazine to the now blog format. It has been diffilcult to keep up the motivation of driving an idea that returns little but personal satisfaction. I have learnt a lot and been shown so much that it only seems right to not give it up just yet. After a couple of months I finnally dusted of my camera and lens and got back into action. A little rusty and aided by a some good light, I managed to get a couple of shots off while in Wanganui for the Christmas period.

Zen and Zero

Zen and Zero runs a line somewhere between 'the far shore' and 'Fear and loathing in las vegas' as 6 Austrian surfers (yep Austria's landlocked) traveling from the usa down to Central America in search of their 'captain Zero' ..Surf writer Allan Weisbecker !
This DVD does sucessfully strip surfing back to the explorer/feral traveler roots that saw surfers become prolific wave finders throughout the 70's and 80's before surf camps and package tours.

What gives this film the extra drive to make it special is the narration that fits like a glove and a soundtrack thats inspired in delivering an end result that is a live vibrant feel despite a lack of pro surfers and spectacular surfing moves..

Personally i loved the great editing , sick camera angles some Zen ramblings and a glimpse of the surfing worlds greatest writer?!
How good is this dvd ? I've watched it 3 times in 9 days !

Running time: 90min
Rating : 4.5/5
It is no surprise this surf film is picking up loads of awards
Awards Won :BEST of FEST ADVENTURE FILM: Tahoe-Reno Int. Film Festival, BEST FILM: Surf Film Festival St Jean de Luz, France, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST STORY: X-Dance-Action Sports Film Festival, Park City, USA (Nominee: Best Film, Best Original Score) DIRECTOR'S AWARD: Santa Cruz Int. Film Festival, USA BEST PHOTOGRAPHY: II Festival Internacional de Cinema Surf, Brazil USA BEST PHOTOGRAPHY: Pichilemu Surf Film Festival, Chile.

From carving to carving

A brief time line history of how we got to where we are.
A wholly inaccurate explanation of our ancestors and how our past was shaped.

3000 B.C. The riding of reed rafts sitting or standing was practiced by Peruvians.

200 B.C sandwich islanders (Hawaii) are carving olo – a long wili- wili (balsa like) surfboard six inches thick through centre of board with a convex top and bottom shape so edges bevelled to ½ inch all round these boards were also shaped of koa (mahogany) but normally only for alii (chiefs).
The other type was the alaia surfboard about 12 foot long for an adult and 1 ½ inches thick through the centre bevelling off to ¼ inch on the edge.
Lightning bolts were a common deck symbol.

1900 first imported Californian redwood and iron tools used for shaping surfboards in Hawaii.

1926 Tom Blake carves first hollow ‘cigar board’ a hollowed out olo board.

1932 Blake starts manufacturing hollow paddleboards (toothpicks) he later goes on to invent windsurfing, patent the surfboard fin.

1934 hot curl boards ‘olo’s with their back hacked off’ get surfers in the power pocket for the first time.

1945 Gardner Chaplin (Miki Dora’s step dad) meets Bob Simmons an aircraft engineer injured in an accident and introduces him to surfing. Bob promises to be surfing’s first innovator.

1947 Pete Peterson builds a hollow fiberglass surfboard.

1948 Bob Simmons builds a balsa railed Styrofoam centered fiberglass covered surfboard. Surfers everywhere say “on ya bob”

1955 Dale Velzy and Hap Jacobs develop and use router jig for shaping. (Early CNC ‘computer numerical coding’ shaper)

1957 Dave sweet starts building polyurethane foam surfboards.
Dow chemical hooks Hobie Alter up a couple of free polystyrene blanks but he deemed to light when test ridden? What?


1962 Barry Bennett starts blowing blanks in Australia.
1963 Average board is 9 feet 6 inches
1968 The short board revolution is starting, in a year boards lose 2-3 feet in length and hanging ten is nearly extinct. Australians Nat Young and Bob Mctavish lead the charge.
George Greenough on his kneeboard spoon was a major influence as he could get right in the barrel and turn hard on the face of the wave. Thank you George!!!!
Surfers leave the “sport” in droves unable to handle the short boards and unwilling to be uncool enough to stay with longer boards.
Average board is 6 foot 3 inches.
1971 July 7th Tom Morey plays around with Insulite foam and poly-ethylene and calls it the “boogie board” which goes on to become the most popular surf craft ever. Speaking of popular, the ‘kook cord’ was introduced much to the soul surfers’ disgust for about 6 months, and then it was widely accepted by all.
Cue early 70’s surf boom.

1972 First honeycomb surfboard developed by aqua jet!! (Thirty years later Salomon reintroduced this as ‘new’ technology)
1975 Renny Yater uses a computer to analyse volumetric efficiency and efficiency of template arcs and curves on surfboard design.
1979 CNC shaping for surfboards is first used.
Also Mark Richards was influenced by a board Ben Apia lent him which launches the ‘twin fin’ era, with style.


1980’s Maybe the drugs ran out cos the ideas sure did.
Apart from surfer’s starting to being influenced by skateboard style manoeuvres.
And that inauspicious day when Simon Anderson introduced what many people would later refer to as the ‘leg rope of the 80’s’, the thruster surfboard. The thruster was a direct reaction to the inability of many surfers to ride the pivoty twin fin. Suddenly with this user friendly board, surfing became as popular as tits. Thanks Simon.
1990’s saw the introduction of close tolerance foam blanks saving shapers precious time.
1991 Randy French makes epoxy fibreglass prototype surfboards promising stronger lighter surfboards, but the conservative surfing public isn’t ready.
1996 Greg Loehr introduces epoxy fibreglass sandwich ‘syntech boards’, twenty times stronger than polyester boards.
2000 In this new millennium, we can conclude that construction of our surf craft hasn’t changed much in 35 years; we just have a wider variety of board shapes.
Long and Short boarding are now on level pegging in popularity and innovation and as the construction methods for our craft finally edge their way towards being less environmentally damaging. This has been made possible with the introduction of stronger sun cure resins, quality epoxy sandwich construction and more resources being put into maintaining flex and feel while retaining strength.

Like the ancients we try to spend as much time as possible in the ocean, we thank Huey for the waves, grab what we’ve been able to craft or trade our time to buy and head out back for that beautiful ride to the shore.
I don’t give a fig what it’s made of but I try to buy locally made if it’s competitively priced and good quality.
If one day I couldn’t afford a board I’m sure I’d just go out and bodysurf it because it’s the ocean and me not the craft that matters anyway.

First light

Last week the missus attended a premier
held by Otago surf adventure film maker Guy Ryan.

Fortunately for me she grabbed a copy of 'First Light' for my perusal,
Guy is a student at Otago uni and this is his second production
the first is included in the bonus section of this disc .

While short at just over 10 min this film is a sweet little nugget of refined Otago gold
Guy has injected style and originality into every second with soulful lineup shots and some froth inducing empty wave pans, which when combined with good performances by the local crew really sets this Dvd firmly in the dvd player for a quick blast before heading out for some peelers.
Special mention goes to the sick soundtrack by Oli Cameron who won Otago universities Mothra film award for his sweet sounds.

Rating; 4/5 great work but too short.
Running time; 10 min plus 30 min of extras inc 'lines of creation'
Watch when; you got 10mins before you hit it.

Is winter over early in 2007

Almost over night the water has warmed up and turned green. With summer comes longer sessions beautiful sunsets and crowds of townies. I love being a solar powered surfer.

Carver C7....... Ultimate Trucks ..?

The "Feel" when driving down the line or turning when surfing or snowboarding is utterly unique and many surfers and snowboarders have tried to replicate that feel on the land with boards like the "freeboard " or "Tierney rides" and to some extent they've succeeded in snowboard style turns but surf feel was harder to replicate .
A couple of months ago i got the chance to try the latest innovation in surf style skate trucks and at $160 NZ it felt a bit of a risk i mean throwing the flowboard into the creek cos it reeked cost me half that !!

So loving a risk..... a ? fool? and his money were soon parted !!
and a few days later a new set of trucks and an inch of riser pads arrived ? so i fit half of em...
15 minutes later the decks setup and I'm off for a pre-work skate the trucks took about 5 mins to push to their limit and for me to realize the rest of the riser pads were needed .

Who'd know it... i'm no Fool (in this purchase anyway)
these trucks blow minds .. drop and grab rail for a cranking turn and you better be hanging off the board cos she'll turn on the spot
They're amazing !! suddenly small spaces are so much fun and hills are screaming at you too carve them up BUT a word of warning these trucks will cause problems....
you'll wear out wheels ,
get kicked out of the corner dairy for sk8ing over to the bread racks
and the missus will leave you cos you can't stop skating in the house.

Rating : 5.5/5 too good to be true.
Use when : The surfs flat (or you just wanna skate more than you wanna surf)
Warning : wear safety gear so you can push your limits and sk8 safe,
Also : Don't lend trucks to friends as it will cause them to have moral dilemmas as to giving them back.
Recommended setup : 36-38" concave double kick deck ,Skf bearings , Abec 11 no skools 65mm 81a duro wheels.
Watch: Concrete skate