Surf Artist Blog

Welcome to the surfing, photo & environmental blog of COTW featured surf artist Nic Reeves entitled 'Phoam Surf Blog'. This page displays the 20 most recent posts from Nic's blog, you can see the rest on her blog. You can also subscribe to this blog's RSS feed by clicking here:

If you would like to comment on any of the blog posts in this section you can do so either in our -forums- or on the original blog post, which you can reach by clicking on the title of any blog post below.

Nic Reeves... Phoam Surf Blog

Sea Wall under Scrutiny Again



Excellent article making the Cover and page 3 of the D Scene this week.
Local surfer Mark Stevenson shines the light on the ongoing issue of poor maintenance and work practices over the St Clair Sea Wall.
I believe the responce by the DCC to defer any 'work or maintenance' until a report is back over erosion at Middle Beach (due to be finalised by the end of 2012) is too long to wait to address simple issues of maintenance and public safety. When in fact there is already an independant "St Clair Seawall Peer Review" published by OCEL consulatnts in February 2006. This covers failures of the sea Wall since its construction, its structural capacity, failure of function, solutions and responses to the public and a city councillor. Why wasn't anything heeded from that review?

Waiting to address issues this way is incompetent. This is exactly what the DCC did with the Sand Sausages adjacent to the Sea wall. They put off doing any maintenance work on them as they became exposed, although it was allowed in the consent conditions. To ensure they "be maintained in a state of operational repair to ensure their effectiveness without the need to apply for additional consents". Instead they did nothing and opted to wait for a potentially lengthy public consultation process over sand mining at Tomahawk.
In the mean time, the sand sausages were completely exposed over time, contributing to increased erosion events right along the dune area to middle beach and St Kilda in 2007.
It was only the 'sabotage' of these sand sausages that allowed them to do the necessary work to bring the due system back in to some kind of equilibrium.
see related post here: phoam.blogspot.com/sand sausage deterioration over 18months

I seriously hope that the DCC will take action sooner, now that the public has been again informed, thanks Mark.

If you are interested please check out related posts on Sea Wall Issues, The failing steps and Ramp here: phoam.blogspot.com/search/label/Sea Wall Steps & Sand

Don't let the sun


I can't light no more of your darkness
All my pictures seem to fade to black and white
I'm growing tired and time stands still before me
Frozen here on the ladder of my life

Too late to save myself from falling
I took a chance and changed your way of life
But you misread my meaning when I met you
Closed the door and left me blinded by the light

Don't let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself, it's always someone else I see
I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losing everything is like the sun going down on me

I can't find, oh the right romantic line
But see me once and see the way I feel
Don't discard me just because you think I mean you harm
But these cuts I have they need love to help them heal
~ Elton John

Majestic Mansions SOLD


see related post
http://phoam.blogspot.com/2009/08/majestic-mansions-for-sale.html


The reason I've taken control of the land out here is to get the best possible outcome for the city.. so it remains a destination for visitors and the people of Dunedin City
.. if they can get a park ..

Seaweek - Dunedin Coastal Cleanup



The 4th Annual Seaweek 'Dunedin Coastal Cleanup' is on again this year, with support from the Dunedin City Council and the Department of Conservation
Sunday the 14th of March 2010.
Jay and Nic are again organising a Greater Brighton coastal cleanup in conjunction with the Great Dunedin Coastal Cleanup & Seaweek with the support of Big Rock Boardriders
You are most welcome to join in with our local crew, no matter where you live.
Meeting at 10am, we will be setting off into groups to clean up the Brighton Domain, Ocean View Beach and dunes, and down along the coast towards Taieri Mouth. If there are enough people we will send a group off to Blackhead as well. Please register your support by emailing me or leaving a comment to this post.
Meet at:
Sunday 14th March 10am at the top domain carpark at Brighton. Anyone else from town is most welcome to join us.

Rubbish collected will be taken to Hancock Park, St Kilda (corner Victoria Rd and John Wilson Dr) from 12.30 to 2.30pm for rubbish weighing, recycling and disposal. Or to the Greeen Island Landfill.

Please bring: Water bottle, sturdy shoes preferably gumboots, sun hat, sun-block, raincoat, warm clothes. Rubbish bags and gloves will be supplied. We hope you can join us.

Prizes: At the weigh in at Hancock Park, there will be prizes for most rubbish collected and strangest item found. There will be Seaweek 'Fish for the Future' displays & activities, videos, Free sausage sizzle, prize giving and Rocky Shore Guide launch!

Hancock Park Festivities start at 12.30pm, prize-giving from 3 to 3.30pm. Hosted by the Dunedin City Councils' great Dunedin Coastal Cleanup.

Other Seaweek Activities:
Dunedin City Council Wild Life of an Estaury Seaweek Poster Compeition

Young marine leaders competition

Short stories from young people
Otago Changing Seas Symposium see here
More information on events during Sea Week, please follow this link
or go to http://www.seaweek.org.nz/
Heres looking for a better turnout than we did last year ( see previous blog post here)

If you can't make the Brighton and south coast from Blackhead to Taieri Mouth Cleanup.
Below a photo of a days rubbish collection by Tony Denley at St Clair last year.

:: VID :: Tsunami Warning

On the 28th of February 2010 an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit Chile. This generated a tsunami wave that raced across the Pacific Ocean at 700 miles and hour. Here in Dunedin, New Zealand J and I set off for an early 7am surf and photo session. The sunrise was gorgeous and the surf was clean and peeling with only J and two others out. Perched on the edge of the rocks at 8am I was told by a local clubbie that a Tsunami was on its way over from Chile, and to vacate the water immediately. We did. From a vantage point on the hill above the break we watched and waited, listening to the radio and watched others hovering close to the beach along with police patrolling the beach. After 90 minutes realising that there would be negligible effect on our part of the country the surfers went back in the water. No tsunami event was experienced by any of the surfers in the water, and no tide events of any significance were recorded on film.

Music: Echophonics Workshop by Dunedin Musicians -Junk Shop Star With recordings from NZ radio stations as I filmed.


See previous blog post with images and other coverage of the event at the link below:

Otago Tsunami Warning



Tsunami warnings have been posted around the Pacific, including New Zealand, Mexico, the USA's Hawaii and California, Japan and Russia and the Australian East Coast (south of Queenslands Double Island Point to the southern tip of Tasmania) after a massive earthquake near Chile's second largest city Conception.

At least 147 people are dead in Chile following the 8.8 magnitude quake. After the earthquake, a tsunami warning was issued and a wave measuring 2.34 metres was measured in Talcahuano, Chile. Later in the morning a wave of 0.35 metres was measured at Easter Island.

Current national modeling information indicates the risk to the Otago coastline of a wave height of less than 1.00 metre.
However, strong currents and unusual tidal effects may continue over the next 12 hours.

Below, At 9.45am about when the Tsunami was supposed to Hit the Otago Coast, clean sets still peeled through, with only a slight receding of water at the shore, and without noticing the tide was back to normal. A police officer stood at the edge of the Domain with members of the public watching the sea. (?) while another officer calls in a local surfer.

As a precautionary measure people in Otago are advised to:

1. Stay off beaches

2. Stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities)

3. Do not go sightseeing

4. Listen to the radio and/or TV for updates

5. Follow instructions of your local Civil Defence authorities.

MCDEM and scientific advisors are closely monitoring the situation to determine the likely severity of the threat to New Zealand.

Police are patrolling Dunedin beaches as they are able to ensure people are out of the water and away from the coast.

Staff from Otago Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group have been closely monitoring the situation through the night.


The Dunedin Forest Fires


A spark from a logging truck around Mt Allen outside Dunedin created an out-of-control fire which burned for over three days. These images were taken on the second day, first one (above) mid afternoon from Andersons bay Rd South Dunedin of the smoke plume hovering over the suburb of Mornington. Below sunset about 8.30pm looking over the Kaikorai Estuary.


Above left: again looking over the Kaikorai Estuary about 8am with the cloud plume brushing over the top of Saddle Hill. Above right: taken from my front gate at about 9pm with the smoke Haze pushing down over saddle Hill. Below, just after 9pm light fading from my front gate again.

Day 2 - Hyundai Longboard Pro Dunedin


Gorgeous light in the morning. I missed the first few heats, but set myself up to get some mood shots for the Womens Semi Final. Above: I think Daisy Thomas. Below left: Local Tash Civil tucks into the green room in a very close heat, just pipped out of a finals berth by .4 of a point


Above: Leroy Rust, stepping to the nose.. big congrats on your soild surfing all weekend resulting in second place in the Open. Below left: Shayne Baxter, taking out the Paddle Board final, powering with your unique style. below right: Mike Thomson


Below: the comp site, decked out with a bit of vehicular eye candy. A massive Thanks to Hyundai for your support of longboarding in New Zealand.


Above: Jae Kilgour, local hero, so stoked to see you surfing with such style and control over the weekend, congrats on your placing in the finals of the Juniors. below left: Mischa Davis winner of the womens longboard. Below Right: Sam Poulter.. oozing old skool style, a joy to watch you surf.


Above: Daniel Procter took out the main event with a very tight heat. And Mike Thomson again below, placed 1st in the over 50's.

Full results and article here

Heaps more shots, sorry I couldn't put everyone up.
There is an excellent video below of the event by NZ Greenroom Productions


Phoam Surf Blog is 4 years old today!


4th Birthday
Today celebrates FOUR years since I started the Phoam Surf Blog

Covering Surfing and Coastal issues in the deep south of New Zealand.

With 981 posts and 1765 commets, there has been thousands of hours on the beach photographing free surfing and surf competitions. Extensive travelling and thousands of hours in front of the computer photoshopping, editing film, and joyful labour at the easel painting. Not to mention the four other blogs I have launched.
Save Ocean Beach 13foot of Wood Friends of Blackhead Contributions to the Big Rock Boardriders blog. And my photo contributions to my partner's blog at Boardriding Scooter Trash

However, this blog did not start out with its current title.
It was originally Nic's Southern Surf and Art, screen shot below from November 2006

There have been a number of revamps of the template over the years, such as this one below: which was celebrating 20,000 hits.

Sitemeter has now recorded over 150,000 hits

Below is a series of covers I did for the first few years, heading up each month in a mnagazine style. I would like to find the time to complete the concept.

Currently the www.phoam.co.nz website is down, due to technical issues around changing domain registry garbage. Hopefully it will be back up soon.

Thank you all for your support over the years, keep stopping by, I know things have been sparse the last three months, but I'm pretty much back on board now.
If you are so compelled, please leave a comment, input, criticism, raving love etc
.. I'd love to hear from you

Namaste
Nic Reeves

Day 1 - Hyundai Longboard Pro Dunedin


Managed to spend 3 hours at St Clair today.
Quick post with some of the photos, real tired need sleep.




Hyundai Longboard Pro this weekend


St Clair Dunedin will be turning it on for a host of longboarders and paddleboarders this weekend.
I sat at St Clair for a short while this afternoon watching to see if any of the crew here for the weekend comp would paddle out, and was granted a sneak preview.


Hopefully the wind dies, and the swell holds. i hope to get out for a few short stints behind the lens over the weekend. See you there!

Villa Rustica - Surfers Retreat



An advert I designed for Rod and Nat at Villa Rustica which has been running in SLIDE magazine for the past three issues, (Posted for Nancy )

New Artwork - Blackhead Bliss


Completed Art commission of Blackhead. 60 x 28 inches

Above: Initial design pencil sketch. Below: the blank canvas.. massive, and the beginning of the artwork

Sunny St Clair


Glorious Sunny day at St Clair on the 5th.
A bit of a check in with the recovery of the Sand Dunes too below.

Swans in the Eve


I took a short walk after tea tonight to the waldronville estuary, the light was beautiful. The swans were on the far side, so no up close ones. Played with some manual focus playing with the grasses and sparkle of the water.

Full Moon Tonight




Tested out a Canon 1Ds tonight, the pohutakawa pics taken at about7pm, the top one is a closeup of the same photo below it, amazing resolution, the lens I used was my 100-400 4.5-5.6, so not that sharp
The surfing at about 8pm, light was failing by then.

Growing out of Control


Above: garden is growing out of control especially the mizuni lettuce, courgettes and the sugar snap peas. In the foreground are Nasturtian flowers for the salads, with a selection iof herbs in front in the orange pots. Below, a closer look at the garden.


Above: last week, one of the brocolli held in front of my green pepper growing on the kitchen windowsill with Basil. This week the brocolli is twice the size, along with the cauliflower.

So good to walk out the back door and pick all the fresh salad leaves and herbs right there.

:: VID :: Seven Sessions



The Story behind this Video
A debate on a New Zealand surf forum late 2007 led to the creation of the 'Olo Hikoi'. At the centre of the Hikoi (Journey) was a 13foot hollow core wooden surfboard shaped by Roy Stewart. The forum debate was over previous claims in another surf forum by the board's shaper that it would outperform other longboards at Pipeline.

The nine month Hikoi covered the length and breadth of New Zealand and was shared, surfed and delivered between members of the surf forum.

This video covers the 5 week Dunedin leg of the NZ Hikoi. Although there were 14 sessions in total, only seven were visually documented. Dunedin surfers were Jay, Beano, Shayne, Caity, Nic, Homa, Jono, Jimi & Hayley. Images and editing by Nic Reeves of phoam.blogspot.com - Thanks to Junk Shop Star for the use of their track Aria for Aria. myspace.com/junkshopstar

All of the NZ Hikoi sessions and most of the Hawaii sessions were blogged at 13footofwood.blogspot.com - Each surfer sent in words, photographs and videos sharing the stoke with their travels, experiences surfing the board and board reviews.

The board is now (Jan 2010) in Hawaii in the possession of Garrett Mcnamara and has indeed been surfed at 2nd reef pipeline.
Thank you to Roy Stewart for making this Hikoi possible by allowing your board to tour.
Unfortunately due to communication issues, the UK tour has been canceled.

:: Boart Art :: The Joker

Above: Caity with her Joker board art, and behind her on the street her new car ( she sold the 4WD she bought, chewed too much gas)

Caitlins scuzzy old fish, which had a revamp last year during a party at home (left) was getting a bit manky because we didn't seal the design on properly ( just used a clear enamel spray from a can).
So she decided to remove the previous work.. and asked me to help her put on a spanking new design. One of her favourite symbolic images.. The Joker, from the deck of cards.
Why The Joker? She likes the Joker because of its dual use. In card play it can either be the trump card & highly regarded, or it is of no use at all and discarded from the pack. This to her represents her feelings of her own duality and usefulness of her place in life depending on outer rules and circumstances.
How we did it
We started off by scanning the playing card, and then printed it out to A4, Caitlin then drew a grid over it, and scaled the grid up by 2x to a large piece of tracing paper. I then transferred the design over to the tracing paper using the block grid method. Next Caitlin hung it against a window, and reverse traced it with charcoal. After that she laid it over her board charcoal side downwards taped it into place, and rub transferred the image on to the board. I then freehand drew with black Poscas over the charcoal. Caitlin then took the board to Carsey at Quarry Beach, who clear spray coated the design.

Below Left: a closer look at the boart art, and Right: a real cool painting that I picked up at the tip shop last week. Its an original oil, probably an old chinese production line artwork. I loved it not only because of its composition and colour, but because it was the day I decided to start Chinese acupuncture to help me get back on board with life. Weirdly too, that that night on TV, every programme or movie we watched had a tiger in it.


Big Rock New Year Comp & 2009 Prizegiving

POSTPONED TILL NEXT WEEKEND DUE TO WEATHER AND PREDICTED SWELL
From the Big Rock blogsite
http://bigrock-boardriders.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-comp-2009-prizegiving.html

Yeah we've been lazy, but it's summer there's been waves around and Andy sends his love to everyone!


First Comp of the 'Summer' series is to be held on Saturday 16 January 2009, with Sunday 17th as a backup in case of poor conditions.
Planning to kick off at 8:30am sharp!

Meeting at the top car park at Ocean View, if no parking is available, there is a car park at the bottom of the hill.
We will be taking entries for open shortboard, open longboard and possibly woman's as well - depending on numbers.

Fees are also now due and it would be helpful if these were paid at the comp, as follows:
Student/Retired $5
Adult $10
Family $20
Following the Comp, there we will also be a prizegiving for the 2008/2009 season.