THE SAVIOUR
Our most trusted wave comes to the rescue once again.
While the last few months dragged out, with surfers up and down the country screaming out in despair looking for any window of opportunity to snag a wave, we sat and waited and hoped for an opportunity to take off on the 75th Primo Roady, and then we waited some more. Eyeing long term forecasts were depressing, yep it was gonna be another eight days of howling north westerlies and the East Coast was flat. Perfect for a dive and fish you say, but after sucking down my tenth cray in as many days and having devoured 20 kilos of fish in the last month, something more was needed. The wet type which you can ride. Then just as all hope had dwindled, came an excited call from a army of East Coast soldiers that were keen to hit a kinda known spot over West. Raglan is our most famous wave, to see her in form is mesmerising, but what many forget is she is also our most consistent spot. There is generally always swell and the points can be ridden even in the worst of conditions. But finally we had a little reprieve from the onshore winds and the lads were beaming at the chance to ride a wave, although were pre-warning that their surfing just may be a little rusty through lack of practice. What is also the bonus with the Raglan coastline is there are other options apart from the points, if the swell drops the beach becomes use-
able, and if the wind swings up the face of the points then around the mountain at Ruapuke it begins to pump. So with still five days out we made it a date, knowing at least we would get something. Raglan would become our saviour. Traversing across the island and into the mighty Waikato seems to always grind to a slow crawl once we descend the Kaimai Ranges, with thick fog making visibility difficult. Perhaps the same weather pattern that makes foggy mornings is related to good surfing conditions over this way, as it is a regular occurrence. After shitting the bed and heading across well before dawn, which seemed like a good idea at the time, when we pulled up to the sight of eight foot wash throughs, and we were wishing we had stayed in bed. Reclining the car seat squashing poor Bucky Woods in the back, and it was time to get some Z's while waiting for the swell to abate and clean up. The lads didn't hit the lineup till late arvo but Raglan delivered the goods, and a few waves were shredded right through till the last minutes of daylight faded. The morning was gonna pump! Nek morning and hello where had the swell gone? The wind was also a completely different direction to what was forecast but hey, that was typical fashion for this spring. Before the tide dropped too much the soldiers hit a sand bar down on the beach, before hitting the road and fanging back across the island to watch an important boxing match, where Manny Pacquiao also got hit. So all in all it was a day of hitting. But at least the cobwebs had been washed off during another Primo Roady.