Local knowledge is under-estimated. Where to get the best pie, the best pizza, the best place to go for a fun night out – all decisions made easier with the benefit of local knowledge. Finding the best surf for the right wind, tide and swell direction is like that as well.
I was reminded of this firsthand on Tuesday. At 10am I looked out the window and it was almost dead flat, same at 12pm, but at 12:20pm a set marched in from the east and was followed by many more waves in the 4-5 foot range. The ocean had switched on and an east swell was peeling down the city's beaches like our very own superbank. I was excited.
I scrambled to get work completed, assess the wind and tides and then proceeded to drive around oscillating back in forth in my mind about a suitable location to drive to. Perhaps we have too many options in this city – I came home, tail between my legs, waveless.
The very next morning the gentry among our local surf community began to tell me tales of epic sessions had on the north coast that evening. I was determined to make up for it and so drove to Aramoana that afternoon only to be embraced by a howling onshore and horizontal rain. I turned around and drove the 20 minutes back only to discover that the wind seemed to have swung offshore in the meantime. So I turned around and drove back. This time, the wind was offshore (yippee), but it was howling and the surf was blown out (booyah). Tail between my legs I whimpered home, second fail in as many nights.
The very next morning the gentry greeted me yet again brimming with tales of waves the evening before and this time only five minutes from my home. I was zigging when I should have been zagging.
Local knowledge eludes me, it seems ... that acute sniff of a wind shift and that tell-tale bump in a swell angle are not yet cues etched into my brain. But give me another 30 years of this and I just may develop that innate sense that I envy in my fellow surfers with this very gift.
Here's a little bit of local knowledge: if we all go to the stadium when the Highlanders are playing then our team responds with the kind of magic game play that has defined Otago rugby in the past. Let's make some noise and make the stadium an iconic stronghold – a fortress, feared by every other team.
See you at the beach ...
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