Level’s down, surf’s up

Surfers have been reunited with their boards after almost five weeks of no waves.

Christchurch’s most popular beaches were busy yesterday morning, with many taking to the water for the first time in more than amonth as the alert level three rules kicked in.

At least 70 people were surfing at Sumner Beach and about 50 were at New Brighton beach. The temperature hit 17 degrees Celsius at noon, with a calm breeze making for good surf conditions.

Sumner surfer Ben Astor captured the scene on the first day of level three by air, with drone footage showing the large number of people who braved the chilly water to catch some waves.

Astor said he went for a surf at Taylor’s Mistake about 7am and passed Sumner on his way home.

‘‘The surf was small but tidy ... There were a lot of smiles and everybody seemed pretty happy to be back out there, even though the water was pretty cold.’’

Christchurch man Struan Purdie said it was good to get out in the water at New Brighton after weeks of torturing himself by watching the surf cameras every day during the lockdown.

‘‘It felt great to get the monkey off my back and get out there.’’

Surfers were able to re-enter the water as of yesterday as the country moved to alert level three.

Lastmonth, police visited Taylor’s Mistake and Sumner to ‘‘educate’’ a group of surfers on the guidelines of alert level four and remind them of the risks if they were to get injured.

About a week later, surfing was banned completely, along with fishing and tramping.

Last week, police were called to a group of surfers on the Ka¯piti Coast after amember of the public reported that one of them looked to be distressed in the water.