Surfing: Get a board and prepare to be amazed

Daniel Kereopa gets ready to search for surf. Picture / Richard Robinson

Greg Townsend, the head of Surfing New Zealand, delights in delivering a tough love message to our best young talent.

SNZ aims its development programmes at surfers up to the age of 18. Then it's off with you into the big wide world, also known as the Australian junior pro circuit.

"I tell them if you're not in the top 10 on that circuit after three years, forget it. Go and find a job," says this 42-year-old former meat worker, miner and landscaper.

Surfer Townsend became SNZ's chief executive 10 years ago, and for most of that time operated from a spare bedroom at his home.

On surfing, he says: "It changes you for the rest of your life. Once it grabs you, you're buggered."

And Townsend and his crew have been busy grabbing more surfers, and more for surfers.

SNZ has an office in Raglan and three full time staff to be joined - possibly - by a national coach, thanks to a "corporate family of sponsors" and Sport and Recreation New Zealand money.

The really big news for surfing, apart from the emergence of star-quality performers like Maz Quinn, is that the participation number is estimated at a whopping 260,000, compared with 220,000 just three years ago.

That's way ahead of rugby, the national yardstick, and heading towards the real recreational biggies like walking and gardening.

And Townsend is a rarity among sports administrators. He actually reckons the media does his sport proud (give that man a medal) and has played a big part in this lift. Surfing had the sixth highest amount of television time last year, he says, according to network figures.

The general picture is this. Surfing is on a roll, with a more professional attitude at the top, and enthusiastic participation and support elsewhere. Heck - you can even learn to surf at SNZ-approved surf schools these days.

However, you might have been forgiven for missing the harder edge to the sport at the national championships in the Far North over the past week.

Quinn, Daniel Kereopa and all were hard at it in the water of course, although the lack of prizemoney at nationals might take a touch of competitive "aggro" away, according to some.

And you might find the odd gentle mumble about the judges' scoring around the place, which is only natural.

But the only potential moment of real tension on the beach came when the sausage sizzle ran out one day. And even then, it went largely unnoticed around the beach chairs, tents and ubiquitous four-wheel-drives.

Cut the tension in the air with a knife this was not. More like cut me another sandwich mate, with maybe a surfing-related ooh and ah every now and then.

At one point, the announcer threatened anyone who veered into the official area with fines of chocolate bars and steak sandwiches.

And for any city soul raised on the regimented ways of football, cricket, etc, it was mystifying to witness the relaxed way this national championship wandered between locations, as the conditions dictated.

Four-wheel-drives led the sedate march around the rocks when the championship was staged at Tauroa Point, near Ahipara. On other days, they headed about an hour north, to the Bluff, using Ninety Mile Beach if the tide allowed.

There was even the possibility that an east coast location would be needed, which seemed to bother no one.

You kept looking for the drama out of these sea changes, but none arrived.

And how did you find out the location each day? Apart from the bush telegraph and radio spreading the news around the little campsites dotted everywhere, there was the more romantic method of checking the notices tagged to a Kaitaia petrol station and Ahipara dairy each morning.

The nationals were last held at Ahipara in 1998 with a record 380 competitors entering. This year, more than 330 have trekked north.

And from the remote surfing village that has been camped in the Far North, it can be reported here that Surfing New Zealand knows a lot more about these surfers and the rest of them than might be imagined.

Last year, a survey on its website received the sort of response that gets pollsters doing cartwheels in delight.

A massive 2500 people who had surfed within the last year sent in answers, about 1 per cent of all surfers. The biggest response age was the 15 to 30-year-olds.

Here, we reveal a slice of the results and our take on them.

Male/female
* Just 14 per cent were female, a little lower than SNZ expected. But as one surfer said: "When I'm out there, about one in 10 are women so it's probably about right." However, surf school owners report heavy patronage by females, over half their clients in some cases. Whereas the guys rip into it, the girls may prefer a doorway to the waves. The gender balance could be changing.

Single/married? 
* Thirty-six per cent were married - the rest might be married to surfing, which would explain why they are single.

Income
* Seven per cent were in chairman-of-the-board range, earning over $100,000 a year. About a quarter earned more than $50,000.

Smokers?
* You need far too much puff for surfing to start puffing. A massive 55 per cent reckoned they had never smoked, and 27 per cent had stubbed out their habit. Seven per cent were daily smokers.

Cellphones
* Doesn't everyone have a cellphone? Not quite. Only 94 per cent of surfers do.

How often do you surf?
* Everyone knows surfers are a keen bunch, and here's the proof. About 40 per cent surfed two or three times a week in summer. Twenty-seven per cent hit the beach four times a week. Half of the respondents spent more than 90 minutes in the surf each time.

Travel
* See above. Surfers are fanatical. Incredibly, 4 per cent travelled more than 3000km a month during summer to catch regular waves. The rest of the figures were just as impressive. This next part is a Herald estimate, but in days of old about 74 per cent of this travel would have been done in a trusty Peugeot, and very possibly the 404 model. I didn't see one old Peugeot with a surfboard atop all week. Times have changed.

What's the main buzz about surfing?
* This provided the answer which has given SNZ a warm glow. Seventy per cent said the feeling of mental well-being was the most important part of surfing. Surfers often talk about the spiritual aspect, although this can disappear when a rival drops in on your wave. And for novices, the mental well-being trip might pass you by for a while. But stick around - apparently it will get you in the end.

The dangers
* Nearly half had performed a surf rescue.

Do as I say, not as I do
* About 85 per cent had never received lessons, but 67 per cent recommended lessons to others.

Take it easy
* Sixty-five per cent had never been in a surf competition.

Surf star recognition factor (in per cent)
* Maz Quinn 94, Jay Quinn 89, Daniel Kereopa 89, Lisa Hurunui 78, Bobby Hansen 66, Richard Christie 44, Arini Mason 40.

Whaaaat? You mean 6 per cent don't know who Maz Quinn is. Where have they been. MAZ QUINN. You know. Maybe they are the same 6 per cent who don't have cellphones. Weirdos.

What do you think attracts people to surfing?
* The overwhelming winner - a cool image. Even if you are flailing about in the water, you can still look like the real deal on the beach. However, the great belief among the surfing fraternity is that images of cool are quickly replaced with feelings of mental well-being, the real and lasting surfing grab.

What puts people off surfing?
* Lack of knowledge first, swimming concerns second, no surfboard third, concern over body shape fourth.

Revealing, or too revealing in the case of answer four. And yes, not having a surfboard would pose a problem. Good point.

The big one. Where do you get your weather info from?
* Weather is everything in surfing, even bigger than mental well-being. And this is where surfer self-sufficiency, the rebel with a board bit, becomes obvious. Nearly 60 per cent claimed to rely on personal observations as their main source of information. The next best thing was relying on a mate. The internet got a medium sized tick, but television a smaller one and newspapers were virtually crossed off the list.

SNZ's Ben Kennings reckoned this question was probably ambiguous, and that "personal observations" might include a peep at a newspaper or telly. So rest easy, weather girls.