A group of Southern surfers chase a record-breaking swell as it lines up a remote reef break buried deep in the Catlins. What transpires has it all: blood, guts, an inhospitable peak and the rise of a new talent in big-wave surfing. New Zealand Surf Journal takes you inside one...
Sessions
The February swell that swept into the East Coast and drifted south made a direct hit on Gisborne. The wonky, wobbly swell hit with such intensity that only few breaks could properly handle the volume of water moving around. The unusual easterly swell direction added to the confusion. But if...
A swarm of tropical cyclones swirled through the Pacific in the first half of February. As they dissipated they tracked south east and got trapped off the East Coast by a blocking high over New Zealand. That scenario created the perfect long range and sustained swell engine for the East...
I’d been tracking it from a week out and it played the notes of the forecast with precision. For big wave surfing this was a classic: its deep fetch straight off the western edge of Antarctica, landing an almost direct hit on the southeast corner of New Zealand. Then, sometime...
Featured Unruly Caverns: Chasing Slabs In The Deepest South
A late-season swell offers one last roll of the dice for New Zealand’s big-wave riders and the stakes are high. As the winds swing through the ideal bearing the focus falls on a reef on a remote corner of coastline. Four teams of surfers get the session of a lifetime....
Bobbing around on a jet ski near a reef off the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island it dawned on me that I had been drawn here like a moth to a flame. Each passing set of waves grew in size and intensity and started to look more like...