Pam-Pam

Hey everyone, cheers for the patience in waiting for some grub from Cyclone Pam,

Working away from town and lack of net access meant my hands have been tied until now but as I type from an Internet Cafe, I will now elaborate on what went down as one of the better swells in Nelson in the last few years.

In what was hyped up to be one of the biggest cyclones in southwest pacific history it was somewhat daunting to see the swell starting to fill in late on the friday 13th evening considering the system was still above Vanautu some 1500-2000km away. The Saturday morning bringing a super fun 2-4ft clean groundswell with the local crew absolutely fizzing and a large number of out of towners packing the snappers lineup to a 25-30 people head count. The hassling was somewhat ugly at times and the drop in's just about outnumbered the solo ridden waves. Later in the afternoon the swell subsided and left quite a few of us perplexed and a little anxious as to where the swell had gone and wondering if that was all we were going to get.

Local shredder Joe Leeper (pictured above), now living in Auckland, had booked a ticket to Nelson 2months earlier and he couldnt believe his luck, making a right cheeky shit of himself in true comical Leeper styles terrorising the lineup with a stone cold demonstration of shit hot surfing and how to have fun at the same time,

Sunday morning was a little more promising with some bigger sets in the morning but the real pulse began Sunday afternoon when some solid lines started filling. Snappers was packed whilst other locales were mysteriously empty although perhaps not the same size.
After much doubt the realisation was that indeed the mega swell we had all waited for was infact a reality.

Monday morning was actually slightly sceptical looking on the higher tide but as the tide began to drop so did the bomb sets. Each set bigger and bigger peaking out late morning and through midday in the 6-8ft range.

    Hindsight is 20/20 vision and although the Vanautu Monster didnt yield the biblical swell we had envisaged, it still was one of the more memorable 3 day groundswells in the last 10 years. Lets keep our fingers crossed it is a good omen as we head into the colder months of the year.

There are a lot of photos on offer from this swell and I have in my hands 6000 photos on disc from Bill Evans from both the sunday and monday. Im more than happy to share with anyone who wants to burn or drag a copy please feel free to contact me nelsonboardriders@hotmail.com to arrange. I may also burn off a few and leave them in Hogeys  AVAILABLE NOW.

Club News: 

Heading into late April we are looking at holding a club day involving a fun competition possibly at Rabbit Island on the high tide to keep it fun.... followed by an evening bbq and slideshow of the combined 8000 photos from Tahunastudios, Bill Evans and other contributors. Always looking for help in organizing so shoot me an email also and lets do this before it gets too cold!!! Be great to pull it off during school holidays too. 

Have a geat week and safe Easter.

Share this post