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F***! a noah!!!
Brendon Bell – ‘Bloody good award’
On Sunday the 29th of March I was seriously on the prowl for a wave...
I decided that the place to be was at a place just north of Kaikoura called Clarence.
There is a right point break there that I have wanted to see work for a couple of
years. I have read about it but never been able to find it. So off I went, surf
bible in hand, to seek out this wonderful break. I drove from Christchurch up to
Maungamanu in two hours. Breaking, clean and about 50 guys out. three foot. Hmmmmmm.
Onwards up to Clarence. About another 15 minutes then a signpost indicates that
this stretch of road (and one house) is called Clarence. OK. So lets follow this
gravel road to the river mouth – that’s where it’ll be. I took the car down this
gravel road / became farmers driveway / goat track designed to kill my car. Parked
up cos I couldn’t be arsed mucking around with gates. Did the big run towards the
river mouth, jumping streams / mud oceans and cattle stops, dodging electric fences.
After about 15 minutes of this shit I was buggered and I figured I had about 2kms
still to run. Bugger this! So I slowly head north on the highway some more and through
a gap in the hedge I glimpsed peeling surf!
U-Turn and parked up across the track. Jumped out, real excited ran to check it
out. It was about three to four foot and just peeling nicely. One of those nice
little localised early morning offshores blowing that helps too. Yippee. I got into
my wettie and waxed my board.
Then I headed for the beach. Up and over the railway tracks, underneath the electric
wire of the electric fence and across the rocks. As I was crossing the rocks a seal
popped its head up right where I estimated the take-off zone to be. Hmmm. I don’t
think seals bite so it should be ok. Where are all the others I wondered? I thought
all the locals would have been up here?
So I paddled out and had some awesome waves. Rights and lefts, it was great. All
to myself. I saw a few seals now and then. They are pretty freaky because they pop
up next to you and then they pop up 100 meters away. I figure as long as I leave
them alone they will leave me alone.
I had been out for about an hour and was just sitting on my board in the take-off
zone waiting for the next set to come through (as you do). My foot bumped something
quite hard. I thought that it wasn’t too unusual since I had elected to surf here
at low tide (I feel it increases the suck factor at reef and point breaks). So I
gave “the rock” a good shove with my right foot. Suddenly there was all this turbulence
in the water around and in front of me, then a big tail and fin comes up out of
the water next to me (reaching nearly my shoulder). I’m like F***! a noah!!! and
trying to stay on my freakin board. Its about then that it hits me that I am really
out here on my own. So I try to stay calm (yeah right – I’m jumpin out of my flippin
skin man) and stay on my board. After about a minute I worked up the guts to paddle.
So I paddled myself in a bit, caught a wave and just knee-boarded myself in. Once
I got on the beach I was pretty relieved to make it. I started thinking things like
“I wonder how many of them are down there” and “how long had my foot been sitting
next to his head?” So I got changed had some lunch and a drink.
Then I piled in the car and went down to Maungamanu. It was still 3 foot and still
50 guys out. This time I didn’t think twice, geared up and paddled straight out
there!
Asked a local about Clarence. He said that he won’t surf there. Well that sort of
says it doesn’t it?
Damn its good to be alive!
Brendon Bell
P.S. I decided not to tell the missus or she will worry every time I go surfing.
Brendon Bell
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