BEHIND THE LENS Back to the insane shots of yours at Quarry Beach Surfboards, of some big wave surfing near Dunedin. Tell us a little more about that… “Yeah, unbelievable – we never thought as groms, we could have accessed waves like that in our backyard. “We would get the odd big 8 or 12 ft session in Dunedin every year or two, and that was huge. A couple of others would surf out of town in bigger waves, but it was Hawaii for the huge surf… That was, until we started a big wave memorial for one of the big wave searchers, Rex von Huben, the biggest big wave warrior around. (Rex was a local Dunedin surfer that sadly died in a car accident.)
“The memorial started in the first year as a big wave adventure for 30 of NZ’s best big wave surfers. It was held in the south, finding 6-8 ft solid, maybe odd 10 ft. But by year two it was up to 12-15 ft waves at Centre Island in Foveaux Strait. (Recently, with the use of shark tagging Centre Island has been found to be on route to NZ’s white pointer home base, Stewart Island, which is right next door.) “This was serious now, as it was definitely life threatening between deep water hold downs, sharks and 20-25ft waves now possibly on the agenda. Jetskis also helped us to venture further into Milford on the West Coast, Port Craig in southern Fiordland and the Catlins in search of the biggest beast.
“I eventually came to the conclusion that the area around the Catlins is easiest for big waves, especially for access and time. And it’s just a lot cheaper - just drive up and you’re out there, no choppers or boats needed.” As far as travel goes, StevO’s been a lot further afield than just the local waves. To date, he’s racked up visits to 35 different countries and reckons every different trip has had its own magic moment, or in his case life-threateningly dangerous ones. “Once an elephant in South Africa nearly killed me, thought it would have to go round the tree to get me 10m away, but no… He went straight through the bloody tree -a full size male with huge tusks. jul/aug 2012
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3/07/12 12:19 AM