SURFING’S WORTH SAVING TOO

I had the recent privilege of chairing a hui on saving our surf breaks called by Surfing NZ and held on a Raglan marae.

What’s that got to do with you the reader?

Well Surfing is one of NZ’s most popular sports rating above all of our national sports for participation and having an economic impact way above what most of our political leaders understand. There are well over a hundred surf shops in NZ. How many rugby or cricket stores? Surfing pulls in tourists and affects lifestyles. Look at what the kids are wearing.

We in the Far North are blessed with two coasts, many fine beaches (albeit with progressively less public access – Wake up FNDC!) and we have at Ahipara one of the very best surf breaks on the planet, a fact probably unknown to most of our councillors.

To illustrate my point, I recall taking the NZ Surfing team through Brazil and Argentina in the nineties. Everyone there knew of only three places in NZ, being Auckland (where the plane lands), Raglan and Ahipara being our top two surf breaks widely publicised ever since the movie Endless Summer came out in 1964!

Surfing has prompted the enormous development of Surfers Paradise in Queensland and has lead to rapid rises in the value of towns such as Whangamata, also blessed with an excellent left hand surf break. In spite of this economic and social impact there is no mention of the sport of Surfing in FNDC’s long term planning documents, let alone any funding set aside for the sport. Indeed such tiny sports as hockey look to be the beneficiaries of expensive developments in Kaikohe.

At the hui we were presented with a series of coastal photos taken by White’s Avaiation in the 1960’s and it was frightening to see the number of lost surf breaks that have disappeared under poorly thought through developments. A council carpark now covers up North Reef at Takapuna, groynes to save the beach at Omaha have ruined the old break at the northern end of the beach and many more are under threat.

Surfer, Paul Shanks fought a lonely battle to oppose the Whangamata Marina which Minister of Conservation, Chris Carter turned down, unfortunately in a clumsy way. Now a court has reopened this project in spite of a total lack of clear engineering reports stating that the famous surf break would not be affected.

Northlanders should be worried. We need to protect our surf breaks and the sport needs to be seen as one of our major tourist and sporting attractions.