Storm Surfers NZ: screening tonight!

Storm Surfers NZ is screening 8.30 tonight on the Discovery Channel. Watch some crazy surfers battling crazy waves and conditions — should be a cracker!

Wetsuit Tip #1: How to remove wax from your wetsuit

A sign of good use more than decay, wax on your wetsuit can give you street cred but can also look a bit ratty. Thankfully there's an easy way to get rid of it.

In this video we'll walk you through the process of taking wax off your wetsuit.

Common areas that build up wax

Chest panel, bum, knees, elbows, hips/side panels (from carrying your board)

What you will need

- Household iron (no steam)

- Cloth or tea towel

Prepare the wetsuit:

- Make sure your wetsuit is clean, dry and odor free. Trust us - you need to wash your wetsuit before you iron it, the heat really makes them stink.

- Warm the iron up, set it to a low temperature, nylon setting.

Before you start:

Check if your wetsuit has any liquid taping or PVC kneepads as these areas will melt under heat. Test a small area to check if your wetsuit can take the heat. (all Seventhwave wetsuits will be ok)

Some wetsuit brands have a fluffy lining usually on the chest panel which will melt under heat. The same applies to wetsuits with liquid or rubber taped seams.

A type of lining to watch out for, common on Xcel and O'neill brands

 

How to do it:

Lay the tea towel or cloth over the area you wish to clean.
Iron over the waxy area and keep it moving, you should only need to do this for 10-15 seconds.
The melted wax will stick to the tea towel and easily lift off.

Repeat on any other areas that need cleaning.

Be careful not to get wax on the iron. A little bit of wax can go a long way and your mum/wife/girlfriend will be highly annoyed.

Seventhwave Wetsuits are made in New Zealand from Yamamoto Limestone neoprene. Seventhwave Wetsuits are different because we make each wetsuit Custom-Fit, to the customers measurements. We like to get your measurements and details and then custom make your preferred wetsuit model and thickness to your exact size and shape. We think that's why we get such good feedback from our customers, many of whom come back again and again. To own a Seventhwave wetsuit is to support New Zealand made, to stand up for quality and to experience water sports in a warmer way.

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Kiwi Louis Tapper's Brazilian Kitesurfing Expedition

 Adventure kitesurfer Louis Tapper is setting his sites on a new world record – to kite 2000km of Brazil’s coast to complete the “longest journey kitesurfing”.
Armed with one kite, one board and a backpack, Louis, 35, will spend the next month kiting and when there’s no wind, he’ll be walking. 


Although multi-day adventures by paraglider, rowing and kayaking are well established, Kite expeditions of this nature are not common. “Kite surfing is slowly gaining popularity, but it deserves a better profile – it is a fantastic sport, it’s totally exhilerating and addictive,” says the New Zealander.
“I know many people (including my parents) think I’m a bit mad doing this, but it is a way for me to test my limits both physically and mentally, and also push the sport of adventure kitesurfing to the next level.” Louis, who lives in the notoriously windy city of Wellington, has pushed the limits of kiting before. In 2008, he traversed New Zealand’s dangerous Cook Strait (between the North and South Islands). And in 2009, he decided to fly with the big boys, kitesurfing 260km in 13 hours from Auckland to the Bay of Islands for yachting’s 2009 Coastal Classic race. Although not officially recognised, Eric Gramond is undisputably the kitesurf world distance record holder with his 13 day trip of 1450km along the coast of Brazil.
Louis trip aims to beat that by over 500km. The official Guinness record up until this point has been for distances completed under 24 hours (333km). This next adventure is expected to take a month – beginning around the 20-25th July in Salvador and ending in Sao Luis.

“To put the scale of 2000km into perspective, crossing from Australia to New Zealand in a straight line or following coastline of NZ from top to bottom is the same distance,” he says. “Brazil just happens to have mostly consistent wind and is much warmer, so I figured, why not?” Louis will carry minimal provisions – food, water, money, dry clothes, sandals, repair kit and pump – in a 35 litre backpack as he kites. Although a solo adventure, he is hoping other local kiters will join him for sections along the way.

Check out yakers.co.nz to follow Louis's progress

Night surf anyone?

Night surfing could come to Lyall Bay in a proposal that would see floodlights in street-level bunkers shine across the waves.

Wellington Boardriders Club wants to set up what it says would be the world's first permanent, purpose-built night-surfing facility.

One option would be the installation of three sets of floodlights, in three bunkers about 30 metres apart, along Moa Point Rd beside Wellington Airport.
Boardriders spokesman Kristin Savage (see picture) said the lights would shine across the water at the eastern end of the beach – called The Corner.

"Night surfing will double the supply of good waves by extending the time you can surf."

A proposal from another group to build an artificial reef to bolster the number of good quality surfing days, which it estimated at 27 each year, has lost traction.
The Boardriders club did not know how much floodlights would cost, Mr Savage said. "At this stage we think we could pay for it by a combination of corporate sponsorship, grants, and by structuring our membership fees around the cost."

Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay-Rongotai Progressive Association president Steven Moore did not think many residents would oppose the lights.

But if Wellington City Council was asked to provide money, there might be some.
Council spokesman Richard MacLean said its concerns would be around what the lights looked like and how secure they were.

Airport chief executive Steve Fitzgerald said an earlier Boardriders proposal to put the floodlights on poles had not been supported.

"The Civil Aviation Authority specifies a zone around an airport where particular care must be taken, to ensure any lighting will not interfere with flight safety at the airport. [But we] would be happy to work with the Boardriders and the CAA to ensure that any new proposal meets all of the aviation safety requirements."

Head to stuff.co.nz to read comments about the proposed plans and to write your own

Shot of the day

Port Robbie Camera this morning! Sick!

Shot of the Day

Sick shot of Seventhwave ambassador Angie Koops enjoying some concrete stoke.

Shots of the Day

Vanda is a surfer/shaper based in Victoria, Australia, which means his locals include Winkipop and Bells. As you can see, having good waves on tap pays off. Vanda using our MAX 2/2 models in these shots taken by Sloane (click on them for a larger version).

Desert golf in Peru?

Seventhwave rider Amee Donohoe and friends partake in a game of desert golf after the Peru stop on the Women's World Tour. Someone forget to turn the sprinklers on?

Surfing and soccer....

It's only fitting considering the All White's draw last night....

Congrats to Ben Mackinnon: 2010 NZ Bodyboard Tour Champion!

Over Queens Birthday weekend Dunedin’s Ben Mackinnon won the Open Men’s, Senior Men’s and the overall New Zealand Bodyboard Tour Champion Title in one hit. All with one event left to go in the tour in late October.

The Blaketown challenge was run over Queens Birthday weekend the 5-7th June 2010 in Greymouth. The ‘barber’ was in full force first thing in the morning with howling offshore winds powering down from recently snow capped mountains. Large and tricky conditions greeted riders with heavy and straight closeouts lining the beach. Judges rugged up well in sleeping bags, puffer jackets, nana’s old blankets and anything that they could find in order to fight the frigid conditions. Competitors surfed in sleet, hail and freezing rains braving the cold to put on soaked wetsuits and to put on a show of high performance Bodyboarding for those who came to watch.

“I really went for it you know. I had injured my neck from a large aerial move the night before the contest and ended up living off pain killers and hot showers to push through. But the competitions had a few great riders who came out of the wood work to compete and it just pushed me to suck it up and push through.” Mackinnon said.

With powerful drifts on the west coasts and flooding rivers competitors were asked to paddle like they had never paddled before with one competitor getting sucked out in front of the river mouth and down to another beach across the river over a kilometer away. Mackinnon hit many large inverts, a move where the wave is used a ramp to propel the rider up and out in front of the curl, all while the rider extends his body and boards then brings it back at the last moment before landing. No easy task in double over head waves. He also executed many Back flips out into the wave flats. With a possible maximum heat score of 20 out of 20 for two waves Mackinnon posted 19 out of 20 with a perfect 10 for one of his large aerial off the heavy closeout sections.

By winning the overall title for 2010, a title which he won in 2008, Mackinnon will be invited to the largest event on the Bodyboarding World Tour. The Pipeline Pro in February 2011 held on the north shore of Hawaii. Mackinnon will start in the 5th round of the main event allowing him to miss many of the earlier heats and compete against the world’s best professional Bodyboarders.

Mackinnon said he was stoked with the result. “I really wanted this win and really meant a lot to me. I have never won here in Greymouth before and it’s just a really special event, an event that is a huge part of New Zealand Bodyboarding and one your peers really feel matters.”

Mackinnon is currently on a break from riding to let a few injuries heal. In November he will compete with the New Zealand team at the Australian national Titles on the Gold coast then he will begin his build up to the Hawaiian event, training which involves a lot of underwater lengths, breath hold training and Pilates.

He is currently studying massage therapy at Otago Polytechnic and working towards financial sponsorship for the Tour event in Hawaii in February. His current sponsors are Seventhwave Wetsuits, R and R sport, Isolated Online Bodyboard Shop, Back in Motion Physiotherapy and NMD Bodyboards.