Longboarders return

Scarborough Beach is a hub for longboard surfing, Malibu-style.

Go with the flow by Kim Newth

It is early on a Sunday morning and Sumner Longboarders' club members are gathering at Scarborough Beach to compete for honours at a points contest. Several new nine-foot-plus boards, sleek and streamlined, lie like huge freshly caught fish on the grass by the promenade. A group of admirers stand around, imagining the surf beneath their feet on a classic new board. As the sun climbs higher, lighting the blue and sparkling sea, no-one seems to be in any hurry to don a wetsuit and head into the surf.

"What surf?" exclaims Sumner Longboarders president Peter Mannix, noting the flatness of the swell. Conditions are perfect for a paddle, but too gutless for much else. The points contest is postponed until the surf picks up.

The Sumner surfing community has learnt to be patient over the past year. Earthquake damage resulted in health warnings being issued for their beach, effectively putting it off limits all winter because of sewage contamination. The water was finally declared safe early in September, only for the beach to close again later that month due to a broken sewer.

Most surfers are pleased to finally have the beach open and officially safe again; a few flat waves are nothing to complain about. Besides, there are other distractions. Bottles of wine, with names such as Noseriding Noir, Savvy Longboarder and Point Break Pinot, are being sold as a club fundraiser and several are being displayed on a section of seawall. No doubt a bottle or two will be shared later over lunch or a barbecue.

Peter tells me the club dates back to 1993. This was a time when nine-foot-long boards were going through a revival, as the older surfer community searched for an alternative to shortboards. Modern design-and-build techniques, allowing for lighter and more manoeuvrable construction, made longboards an ideal option. (Apparently, the main drawback of shortboards is that they are harder to stand on and catch waves, although they are easier to manoeuvre).

Tricks that can be done on a longboard contribute to their classic reputation. "Traditional longboard style involves intricate footwork, with the rider essentially walking around on the board to trim and turn it. One of the most famous and hard-to-master longboard tricks is called 'hanging ten', where the rider cross-steps to the very front edge of the board and stands with his or her toes just over the edge," Peter explains. "The trick is in making it look stylish and graceful."

Many of the club's older members started surfing at Sumner as children. Sometimes, they would even hitch a ride across town to get to Scarborough Beach. Back in the 1960s, the beach was renowned as one of the city's major surfing breaks, but the shortboard revolution saw its popularity decline. The new rising star was over the hill at Taylors Mistake.

Malibu in the United States was the epicentre of the surf explosion of the late '50s. It provided perfect surf, close to Hollywood. It produced a plethora of surfing legends, such as Miki Dora. It was the rediscovery of classic Malibu-style surfing in the 1990s that re-established Scarborough Beach as a longboarders' heaven.

"Longboarding is now mainstream again - all sorts are trying it," Peter says. "Our club encourages family involvement in surfing with a focus on enjoyment and camaraderie, as well as water safety." A promotional drive in local schools is planned this year to help boost membership with more families and young people.

February's earthquake not only shut the beach for months, it also demolished the surf restaurant and bar Club Bazaar, home of the Sumner Longboarders' clubrooms. Owner Glen Michael, who was one of the co-founders of the longboarders' club, is not easily defeated. He also owns the Headless Mexican, around the corner from the Club Bazaar site. "I've now made that available to the club as its new clubrooms on the first Monday of the month," Glen says.
In 1993, Glen was working as an Air New Zealand flight attendant. Two colleagues - a pilot and an engineer - were also keen surfers. "We were all working different shifts and thought it would be great to get a phone list together of people we could go surfing with. That was really the start of Sumner Longboarders. I had Club Bazaar at the time and offered that as a clubrooms and it went on from there." Membership has ebbed and flowed, peaking about 60 or 70 at times.

Another big force in the club for many years was Jonathan 'Fang' McCarthy, who died in June 2009. He was one of New Zealand's leading surfing environmentalists and a passionate advocate for the establishment of the country's first surfing reserves. Fang recognised the value of protecting surf breaks - the playing fields of surfers. As Glen observes, many of California's best surfing spots have been ruined by marinas. Fang was determined not to let that happen here. "He was a champion of the coastal environment and is sorely missed," Glen says.

When it comes to classic boards, club patron Denis Quane is your man. Universally acknowledged as the godfather of New Zealand surfboard manufacturing, he first started putting together hollow plywood boards in a workshop in his parents' backyard back in the 1950s. After witnessing the genesis of foam-board manufacture in Sydney, he decided to start making foam boards. In those protectionist days, it was a battle to even import the right kind of foam. "You had to have an import licence for everything and they wouldn't give it to me. I ended up having to go to Wellington to the Customs Department and told them I was not leaving until something happened. So, I did eventually get the import licence to bring the proper foam in."

His persistence paid off; Quane Surfboards continue to be renowned for their quality. These nine-foot-six to nine-foot-eight boards are all hand shaped. "They're pretty individual."

With 60 years in the longboarding business, there's no sign of retirement as yet. Denis is still surfing and currently planning a new board for himself in a classic longboard style. The club recently commissioned four replica old mals, shaped by Denis, which are used during the club's regular old mal contests.

When conditions are right, the surf off Sumner is perfect for longboarding. Peter Mannix describes the waves as "mellow", although when the big north/north- east swells push in, it can be as challenging as any break. Novices also need to take care with a notorious rip that is handy for getting out past the breakwater, but difficult to escape.

For the most part, longboarding at Sumner is for fun, enjoyment, meeting friends and showing respect for the coastal environment, but sometimes it gets competitive, too. There is friendly rivalry across the waters between the Sumner Longboarders and the New Brighton Longboarders, with annual interclub competition determining which club is better. An annual One Wave contest also pits Sumner's talent against that of the Kaikoura Longboarders.

Sixteen-year-old Luke O'Neill, who has been surfing off Sumner since the age of five, is the reigning under-18 national longboarding champion. In the 2010 Hyundai Longboard Pro tour, Sumner longboarder Grant Cochrane came first in the over-40 division and second in the over 50s.

Between 2003 and 2008, the club ran the very successful International Longboard Pro Am in Kaikoura, attracting some of the world's best longboarders, including two world champions, Josh Constable (Australia 2006) and Taylor Jensen (US 2011).

The club's core seems to mostly consist of men in their 40s and up, but families, women and youngsters are welcome, too.

Twenty-year-old Ambrose McNeill enjoys the support he gets from the club and appreciates the classic nature of longboarding. He's spending this summer working as a learn-to-surf coach at Sumner.

Says Ambrose: "It goes right back to the original surf culture that started in the '60s ... When you're out there, you're not thinking about anything. You're in the zone and it's just happening."

New club member Annie Bermingham enjoys being part of the scene and mixing with the guys she has met out on the water, but it's the surfing she loves more than anything. She rides a nine-foot-six McTavish Fireball and gets out into the surf as often as she can. "It doesn't matter what's happening, you get out on the water and it's a great place to be. I've done lots of things in the past, like rock climbing and snowboarding, and this trumps it. There's nothing else like it, really."

Like other club members, Annie's home was extensively quake-damaged; longboarding is a release from all that. "Your focus is on the here and now and the waves - I love it. For most people it's more than a sport, it's a lifestyle."