The Pacific Surfari

Comment Share Posted on Sunday April 25th 2010 at 11:27 p.m. Tweet

When Doug Young Calls you up to go on a surf road trip ones mind starts to race...

When New Zealand’s big wave surfing guru Doug Young Calls you up to go on a surf road trip ones mind starts to race as where we are going, what we are going to surf and of course how big is it going to be?

Leaving Christchurch in the spaceships from the Pacific Surfari surf school late in the evening Doug makes sure you have a relative idea where you are going until 5 hours later and a turn off, you have no idea until you wake up to a pristine bay with lines out to the horizon. Doug is the swell forecaster for surf.co.nz, so wherever you go he knows from years of surfing knowledge and Internet data, which spots will be pumping.

On this trip we have nine people ranging in age, starting at 14 through to 34 all excited about getting out into some quality waves. We wake up somewhere near Dunedin and ready for our morning surf, surround by nothing but ocean and bush Doug has picked a great spot, a peak at the far end a nice right hand bank and a wedge coming off the cliff, many options and good times to be had. After our morning session we head down a dirt road encountering some very large bulls, just like Doug! We park up and make our way down through bush for 15mins and come out to another bay that’s firing. A good powerful beach break that’s going off, we surf till late afternoon and head off to Dunedin to camp for the night.

Doug is a great host and shows his culinary skills by whipping up a huge breakfast for the nine of us before we head to St Kilda for another surf, once again its good, not big, but really fun waves. Doug pushes to surf all afternoon so we are forced to drive in the dark again to another mystery spot. We head towards the Catlins coast at the very bottom of the South Island in pitch-black darkness to camp. Waking up there is nothing but a ‘long drop’ toilet and us. We have another huge breakfast and head out, no roads, houses or shops we are completely isolated.

Walking over the sand to a magic spot with offshore reefs, a river bar and awesome peaks was a dream. The day was filled with great waves, long paddles, good times and still one more day to go. The surf the next day had dropped a little but was still great to be in the middle of nowhere with this spot to yourself, ending the trip the way it started we drove through the night back to Christchurch.

Like all good surf trips we had amazing waves for the effort that was put in getting there and of course I can’t tell you where we went! But if your looking for an amazing trip contact Doug at pacificsurfari.co.nz and you’ll find it and be sworn to secrecy.

A big thanks to Doug, and the Pacific Surfari team, Spaceships for the transport and Switch Espresso for our morning zap

Click on the picture below to view all the shots!

Keep tuned into surf.co.nz for more Pacific Surfari's

Written by Graeme Heald

Pics by Graeme and Doug

BIG THANKS TO

Pacificsurfari.co.nz

Spaceships.com

Switchespresso.co.nz