Shot down to the New Plymouth foreshore at lunch time to check out the Bogworks surf comp. Few fun looking waves coming through for the competitors throwing themselves into them. Good to see Paige Hareb out there charging. Got a few shots of the last couple heats – highlights for me where the layback drop wallet under a lip and hearing some older generation viewers hooting and waving Paige when she returned to shore.

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The ASP women’s dream tour came to New Zealand again this year for the NZ Surf Festival and New plymouth’s Fitzroy beach in Taranaki turned on stunning conditions! The sun was shining and more importantly the surf was pumping, with overhead left and rights that saw the girls schralping through some killer turns.

Sally Fitzgibbons (pictured above), last years defending champ put up a good fight, but Carissa Moore and Stephanie Gilmore went through to the final, with Steph taking it out. Taranaki’s own Paige Hareb put on an outstanding performance for a semi-final finish. Report over on ASP site.

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The surf just continued rolling in over the Easter weekend. Size dropped from yesterday (got to paddle into a few bombs that day!) but was perhaps even slightly cleaner lines. Shot down the Surf Highway 45 early on and scored this spot with around 10 others. A late take off in the lip early on in my surf saw my board smashing into my chin with a serious whack – as I could poke my finger into the face ding I caught a wave in for some shooting and leaking red before heading home for stitches…!

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The NZ wave nationals went off again this year with some pretty epic conditions – including calls of “as good as it gets!”

Yours truly went ahead and entered for a laugh and proceeded to bomb out faster than a cup’a'noodle cooking session. The good news was it meant I could grab some photos of the surf action for youse all to enjoy.

Ferran from Spain (pictured above) had a slow start in his first round, but after first heat jitters he laid down the gauntlet and proceeded to blow up round after round! Congrats to all the competitors and thanks to the organisers including Carbon Art and the Taranaki Windsurf Club. Look forward to next year!

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Great day of windsurfing on the Taranaki surf highway coastline today! The local wavesailors were joined by a few early arrivals and enjoyed some windy but fun conditions. Superb warm up for the New Zealand Wavesailing Nationals being held over the Easter weekend. The rising swell forecast is looking good for some epic surf.

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Pungarehu wasn’t quite doing it this day – but this beach break spot was cranking! Doesn’t need a whole lot of size before the wave starts having some consequence when the lip hits you. Broken mast, sail and UJ where the casualties of the day but a fair few lips got demolished in retaliation. Critical timing was absolutely essential at this spot to get your top turn right, with some of the sections breaking in knee deep water.

Was pretty good session, with just a few of the usual crew and couple guys from Dunedin out there. Plenty of waves to share on the surf highway 45 today, and plenty to run away from too!

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Part 2 of the great day windsurfing at Pungarehu is brought to you by the letter ‘C’ !

After grabbing some shots I was pretty desperate to get out there and snag a couple rides for myself. Luckily for me a friend was on the beach all sailed out after having marathon most of the day sessions…and to make matter worse for him was also suffering from the one day flu!

So set up the camera, left him to it and scored some shots of me wigglin around out there. Nope that’s not me above, but there’s a couple of me down below – look for the orangey red sail that’s trying hard not too wipe out on every wave.

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Pungarehu finally reared it’s shapely head and threw us some action. It’s a been a long time between decent wavesailing sessions out there!

Great to see the Taranaki surf coastline light up with decent windsurfing action again, let’s hope it’s the start of a great autumn season.

Here’s part 1 of the gallery – check out part 2 here!

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Today was a good day. Spent most the day on the water surfing couple different spots and enjoyed the sweet burn of noodle arms.

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Wind, waves & sun, what more could you need? Finished off the session with bbq on the beach and couple coolish ones to wash down the summer feel.

(by the time I’d finished my own session was shooting into the light and sparkles!)

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