Raglan Redux

Yep, we came back to Raglan. How could we not? It’s my birthday and I will do what I want to do!

Drove all day Sunday and made it back right before sunset. The swell looked all right, but nothing special. We woke up early in the parking lot of the Retired Services Club to some thick fog. On the drive to Whale Bay Veronica told me that my birthday present would be her services as my personal surf photographer. Needless to say I was stoked!

The fog had lifted by the time we made it to the parking lot and the day was gorgeous. No wind, slightly chilly, but no clouds, and a 3 to 4 foot southwest swell wrapping into the point. Waxed up my board and put my wetsuit on. Felt a little strange after having two weeks off, and I secretly hoped that I wouldn’t be too big of a kook out there in the water since my baby would be watching me.

Some days you just get lucky. My timing seemed to be perfect as I was paddling out to Indicators. A lot of guys were coming in, presumably heading off to work, leaving about 15 guys out in the lineup. Even though it was a high tide, the lack of wind saw the waves reel down the point extremely fast. My first few waves I took off too deep and couldn’t even make it around the first section. After an hour there were only 8 of us in the lineup, and with the tide lowering the waves were getting better and better. Over the next hour and a half I scored some of the sweetest waves ever!

Of course, all good things must come to an end. By 11 am there were about 40 surfers out, all frothing over the great waves. I sat out there for the next hour just trying to get one last wave in, as I was exhausted.

Such great surf, by far the best waves I have scored on my birthday as it’s usually flat. And the fact that my beautiful wife suffered 4 hours of sand flies and a long hike over boulders to take some photos for me to remember it was the absolute icing on the cake.

That night we enjoyed a great steak dinner at the Harbour View Hotel. Truly a perfect ending to a damn fine day.