Dunedin is a great place to live if you are a lazy surfer. We take it for granted that we have so many good breaks within 10 minutes drive of the city. We almost become acutely lazy as a result and we here at Dunedin Light are more guilty than anyone.
In our weekly search for waves we have struck gold regularly at three places more than any other. And they are only 10 minutes apart across a span of less than 8km. They are St Clair, St Kilda and Blackhead Beach. Together these three waves have delivered more pixels to Dunedin Light readers than any other. Not that there aren't other waves around that are equally as good, but the convenience of these and their dependability mean less time travelling and more time surfing (or shooting).
What a lot of people may not realise is that they don't often all come on at the same time. There is a cycle of quality surf. For Blackhead to work it needs good sand banks arcing off the kelp-covered rocks and not too much sand that it turns wild on the low-tide. St Kilda relies on the rips shaping the banks enough to let the waves run and not close out. St Clair just needs sand to fill in the gaps and link it all up. Luckily, at any given time at least one of these scenarios is in action.
The other benefit of these breaks is that they are all within striking distance of the CBD for those long lunches and early marks. Nothing is better than sitting in a meeting in the city with the dry salt crusted to your eyebrows the only telltale sign that you have just been floating around and riding waves in the ocean. If that's laziness, then we'll take it.
See you at the beach ...
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