"Want to hit the Catlins on Wednesday? Could be on."
JC Susan's question is one of the great wonders of surfing. Do you want to go explore a distant coastline in the hope of finding uncrowded, perfect waves?
For us here it means the optimism machine goes into hyper-drive as we begin stacking up all the reasons the wind and swell conditions could be shaping up to deliver some of the best surf imaginable. And, yes we are imagining it being beautiful and photogenic like the Catlins always is – one of the world's last great, relatively untouched surf coastlines.
We checked one forecast map and it said the swell wouldn't have kicked in yet, by Wednesday. Then we thought about JC Susan and the fact he is a surfing student ... on a student budget. He wouldn't make a trip to the Catlins without some intuition that the stars were aligned. Sure, he drove 170km chasing surf in one day the week earlier (and found it), but he is not the type to make a bad call. He's the current South Island Surf Champ and for good reason.
So we jumped in with him and his mate Sam Guthrie and embarked on a road trip into the heart of real surfing wilderness.
On the beach three sea lions were wrestling over their harems. In the shallows another male was frolicing with a young female. It was a good sign – the bulls, which can weigh up to 400kg, were entertaining the ladies so a couple of surfers could own the peak for a few hours at least.
And own it they did. As you will see.
Inspired by the lads, we took a little road trip of our own into the mountains over the weekend. Big blue skies and lots of quality snow to kick off a pretty incredible spring in the mountains. Make the most of it, the conditions are first class.
See you at the beach ...
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