All aboard for school when the surf's up

On Waikiki, the world's most famous surf beach, the beach boys ply their trade. They're not gigolos, nor are they boys; most are well into middle age.

These happy Hawaiians are surfing instructors who give tourists a taste of the sport their forefathers invented more than 1000 years ago.

The beach boys and their clients ride tandem on long surf boards, though nothing near as lengthy as the 30m wooden boards that Hawaiian royals used to surf on.

Surfing was taboo to commoners, but Duke Paoa Kanamoku - there is a statue of him in Waikiki - took it to the world early last century.

The Duke rode a 51kg wooden board and is credited with being the first rider able to turn left and right on a wave. He also rode standing on his head, backwards and tandem.

The Duke's legacy is found throughout the world on any beach or reef with a surf break. The sport has changed immeasurably, with most surfers using short, ultra-light and extremely manoeuvrable boards.

Bodyboarders surf on even smaller boards, lying prone or kneeling on one knee while they perform acrobatics in the surf.

But older surfers have begun to dust off their long boards and follow a trend back to riding a wave in a flowing style. Long board riders can catch a wave earlier and surf in smaller, less powerful waves.

The resurgence in long boards seems to have had another effect, too; the beach boys, or at least surfing instruction, is no longer exclusive to Waikiki.

An established tradition of surf-riding schools on the Californian coast has arrived in New Zealand with professional instructors based at such top surf spots as Raglan, the Taranaki coast and Canterbury.

In the north, the Rosevear brothers, a family of legendary surfing status on Far North beaches, are in their third season of running Isobar Surf, a surfing school based in the Bay of Islands.

There is no surf in the Bay of Islands but there are a lot of tourists and young backpackers who want a taste of surfing without having to go to Waikiki to hire a beach boy.

Nicki Wynnychuk, an Isobar instructor, discovered surfing as a Kerikeri teenager and before he was out of his teens had worn out a tent from his weekend camping excursions.

Somehow he found time to get a degree in fine arts from Victoria University and do a spot of teaching in the Hutt Valley.

But the Northland surf and the Rosevear boys, with whom he had spent much of his youth, drew him back north to teach at Northland Polytech, work at his own art - and go surfing.

The Rosevears are the family behind the award-winning Mahoe cheese factory at Oromahoe, near Ohaeawai.

But the brothers, Jessie, Tim and Jake, like surfing as much as making cheese. Tim manages the Department of Conservation campsite at Tapotupotu Bay, near Cape Reinga, which just happens to be the spot where coachloads of tourists to the northern tip of New Zealand take a lengthy lunch break.

While they are cooling their heels they can also take a surf lesson.

I met Wynnychuk, 24, at Taupo Bay, near Mangonui, with a vanload of foreign backpackers from Paihia who were keen to add surfing a Northland beach to their New Zealand repertoire of bungy jumping and white-water rafting.

The wannabe surfers get taken to whichever Northland beach has the safest surf on the day. And with such a long background in surfing in the area, Wynnychuk and the Rosevears know a few spots that they try to keep secret from other surfers.

When the winter comes, Wynnychuk and the Rosevear boys will head to Europe as contracted instructors for a French surfing school.

Such is the growth in surf teaching that the instructors around New Zealand are looking to set up a professional organisation and set coaching standards and qualifications for instructors that will be recognised by the overseas surf schools.

For the record, the beach boys on Waikiki are all registered and carry a number and photo ID, just like a taxi driver. It is illegal to teach surfing for money unless you know what you are doing. And there is nothing wrong with that, is there?

* A full day with Isobar, including equipment, transport and lunch, costs $79. Isobar Surf, ph (09) 405 9963, (021) 260 6945, email: isobar@hotmail.com

Raglan Surfing School, ph (07) 825 6555, (025) 603 5856

Raglan Surfing School

Northland

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz