Bay Harbour: February 01, 2017

Wednesday February 1 2017
BAY HARBOUR
PAGE 15
Low pressure system whipped up
bigger waves than Cyclone Pam
• Aaron Lock
IT SEEMS as
though the
weather has
finally settled
down and
perhaps the
first large,
high pressure
system will centre over the
southern part of the country
this week.
The southern ocean is still
quite active with plenty of
south-westerly swells pushing
north.
The spring-like weather last
month has had a silver lining
in the fact that there have been
plenty of waves around.
Consistent southerly swells
have been pushing up the
coast and each north-west to
south-west change has been
preceded by a fun north swell
for the city beaches. Taylors
and the Scarborough breakwater
have had some great waves.
The last big low pressure
system whipped up one of the
biggest north swells in a long,
long time. Bigger than Cyclone
Pam, although a lot messier.
The Environment Canterbury
buoy off Banks Peninsula
peaked at an average wave
height of 5.5m, with 11.5m
waves recorded from the
north-east.
There were waves breaking
in places they shouldn’t – I saw
some rollers breaking up the
shipping channel in Lyttelton
Harbour.
For most of the day on ‘big
Sunday,’ it was too big and
messy to surf, but once the
wind swung offshore, the
swell became organised and
there where some big bombs at
Taylors and Scarborough for
the brave.
The water is still pretty
chilly only 17 deg C. February
is normally the month of our
warmest ocean temperatures
so hopefully we can get at least
Aaron's surf report
a few weeks of 20 deg C water.
The National Surf Championships,
presented by Health
2000, were held in Piha this
month. Raglan’s Billy Stairmand
won his sixth open
men’s title.
A small crew of local surfers
ventured north with some
great success. Harrison Whiteside
made the open quarterfinals.
Lucy Temoananui put
in a great performance to
place second in the women’s
SUP division. She was leading
most of the final and was close
to victory but her rival from
Gisborne scored the winning
wave in the last five minutes.
Alan Temoananui surfed
well in the competitive over-28
men’s division to place fourth
in the final.
Ava Henderson put in a
great performance in the under-14
girls’ section, winning
all her heats on the way to the
final.
Henderson placed second in
a tightly contested final. Her
mum, Donna, put in a last
minute entry into the over-30s
women’s event and ended up
winning her first national title.
The waves were pretty big and
challenging for most of the
week.
The South Island circuit
begins this month with the
Cape Classic in Westport
on February 24 and 25. Locally,
the Malfunction at New
Brighton will be on February
18. We are heading into what
is normally our best time of
year for waves, so get out there
and make the most of it.
SPORTS
SWELL DONE. Local surfer Alan Temoananui rode the waves well to grab fourth place in the
over-28 men’s section at the National Surf Championships in Piha last month. Meanwhile, Ava
Henderson came second in the under-14 girls’ section.
PHOTO: CORY SCOTT
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