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PHOTO: MARK CHAPMAN<br />
We pretty much headed straight for Graeme Carse at<br />
Quarry Beach Surfboards. We had been worded up he<br />
was the man to see and would sort us out with some<br />
boards. We chatted with ‘Carsey’ and his lovely partner<br />
Gaby (more on them overleaf) for a little while, but they<br />
could see we were champing at the bit for a surf and<br />
sorted us out with a variety of boards to tackle the late<br />
afternoon choppy conditions - a snub-nosed mini-mal<br />
with a significant nose rocker that went like a rocket,<br />
Gaby’s own thruster and a brand spanking new fish.<br />
We headed straight to the nearest beach, being St Clair,<br />
which was listed in Sean Doherty’s The Pilgrimage, 50<br />
Places to Surf Before You Die. There’s a series of point<br />
breaks and numerous beachies along the 5km stretch of<br />
white sandy beach. We paddled to an outer bank that<br />
was working to the left of the point. We surfed some<br />
fun waves for the next couple of hours until the day<br />
started getting on a bit. Did I mention my paranoia and<br />
that the place has lots of seals and so forth? And then<br />
there’s that bloody big bull kelp that reaches up and<br />
grabs you by the legs. You frequently feel like a goner. It<br />
was beer o’clock time.<br />
The next day, the conditions and the swell could not have<br />
been more perfect. It made leaving all the more harder.<br />
So was the water cold? Apparently it was 12 degrees<br />
but with the quality of the suits we tested protecting<br />
us from the elements and the fact we had been in NZ<br />
for two weeks, so we had possibly acclimatised to the<br />
cooler conditions, I can’t say it was a factor. Plus, we<br />
had it easy. There were no howling arctic winds, no<br />
sleet, and no snow on the beach. The air temperature<br />
was mild to say the least. In fact it was warm. For the<br />
two days we were there you could have worn a singlet<br />
and shorts down the street, providing you weren’t in the<br />
shade. Hardly hellman territory.<br />
Later that night however was something else, the<br />
temperature plummeted the wind picked up and we<br />
were reminded of how close we were to the South Pole.<br />
Yes, we’ll come back for some southern comfort... and<br />
freeze our asses off. After all, there’ll always be more<br />
wetsuit testing to be done.<br />
may/jun <strong>2012</strong><br />
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