New stick on the block.

Check out my new shred stick that SJ shaped up for me. yeeeewwwwwww. 

The first time.

Todays post is of little Em waxing her new shred stick for the first time. There is something about that first wax job that is kind of special it has to be done by the owner of the board and I guess its some kind of conection ha ha I'm sure you all know what I am talking about.

Brett Caller in Black n White

BC playing with some Crescent head walls last Saturday morning.

Pics n Post via ST IMAGES

Jaya

This is Brett's little brother Jaya. We chucked him in the back of the van on the way down to Crescent last weekend. The little punk gets better every time I catch up with him. He'll be kickin your arse in no time Caller!

ST SURF IMAGES

Back to the BAY.

I shot back to the Bay yesterday to start my second year of Sport and Exercise science at Uni. This is a Tom Woods pic from late last year when he came to stay with me.

NZ

Here are a few more Pics from NZ

Daisy Day.

Last year when Sage and I went to NZ we got to hook up with a photographer called Daisy. Daisy is a local girl to New Plymouth and is a women of many talents, surfing coach, photographer and she owns her own surf store. This year when I went back to New Plymouth I came a cross this book called 30 years of surf photography. I flicked a few pages in only to find a photo of a couple of familiar faces. I was so suprised and never would have thought, so I took a quick pic. Pretty classic.

A day in the Office.

I've been spending alot of time at the Valla factory this summer listening, watching and learning the craft.  Today I watched Sage shape this fish from start to finish. I love to watch a blank being mowed and I would love to shape myself a board one day when my skills are up to scratch.

Hand Plane.

Before I went away I was spending a lot of time in the Valla factory. I really enjoy body surfing and have wanted to make myself a hand plane for some time now. I found a small slab (really just a cut off) of paulownia on the factory floor one day and just started hacking away and this is the finished product.

barrel shot by Woodsy

10 piggies over.

This photo was snapped up by my friend keith last year when he came to stay at my place in Byron. Keith is great to shoot with coz he doesn't make a fuss and just blends in with the crowd, it's like you don't even know he is there. He gets really choice shots and interesting angles. check out his blog.

NZ Road Trip.

So after six fuel tanks, three water tanks two gas bottles, so many games of Uno and a bunch of K’s Little Em and I the “happy campers” are back from our epic road trip all over New Zealand. We flew into Auckland in the North Island and zig zagged our way to Christchurch in the South Island. We didn’t really have a plan other than that we hired a three birth camper just for that extra comfort and head room and that we had to be in Christchurch in thirteen days.

We headed off down towards the east coast in search of Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula which I must say is well worth the walk its absolutely beautiful. Em and I spent about three days cruising around the Peninsula bush walking, site seeing and hunting down epic bakeries before my surf froth got a little too much due to the lack of waves and the hectic onshore I decided to pack up and head straight for Raglan.

Em fell in love with Raglan and once again I was definitely not disappointed with what Rags had to offer. The points were three to six foot for most of the time that we were there and on the last day a buddy of mine that I met last year picked me up and took me on a boat ride from Manu bay to this insane three to four foot beach break that was pumping in the middle of nowhere and it was just us, unbelievable.

We then made our way down the coast surfing, tramping, and discovering freshwater streams to New Plymouth. New Plymouth is this nook around a volcano with many sick reefies all around it with just about all wind protection; let’s just say I had a lot of fun at this joint. It’s about Day six now and our pre book ferry from Wellington to Picton sails tomorrow so little Em and I are on the road again punching it down the west coast. The ferry ride from Wellington to Picton is amazing. You sail up these sounds that are surrounded by these massive rolling hills and are quit a site.

Our original plan was to just spend the next six days driving down the coast from Picton to Christchurch until we realised that that would only take about five hours so after chatting with a few locals and a couple of other travellers we replanned and headed up towards the Able Tasman National parks the across to West Port and then down and across the Lewis Pass where they bread the biggest and wildest swarms of sandfly/ mossy/marchfly I have ever seen.

We then shot back up to Kikora to see some seals that are really just big lazy staffy look a like’s that are everywhere. From Kikora we drove down the coast to another Peninsula east of Christchurch and spent our last few days at this little French fishing village called Akaroa. We ate fresh salmon straight from the boat that was cook to perfection on the BBQ right there on the wharf, ate delicious ice cream and tramped up massive mountains to burn it all off.

This road trip was two weeks well spent and if you get the chance to do a road trip like this in NZ you will not regret it. Here are a few pic’s from our travels.