Exploring the Early Days of New Zealand Surfing
Origin stories are always interesting, aren’t they? Especially when it comes to surfing. Gerry Lopez and Uluwatu, Jeff Clark and Maverick’s… they’re stories everyone likes to hear. But when it comes to surfing in New Zealand, there’s a bit of a blind spot. Red Bull Surfing is currently releasing a series of short films called Made in New Zealand, and the second one looks at the pioneers who put New Zealand surfing on the map. The first pointed a camera at Kehu Butler, a CT hopeful who you should definitely be aware of.
As it turns out, surfers weren’t exactly looked kindly upon in the earlier days of New Zealand’s early surf exploration. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty common thread with surfing around the world.
“There was a very dim view of surfers by the public in general,” says Clive Neeson, director of Last Paradise. “They thought it was some kind of cult where their daughters might be perhaps in danger of meeting a surfer and all the consequences of that.”
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Red Bull’s second installment of the series paints a fantastic picture of surfing in New Zealand before the global boom in popularity. While the waves there still remain as good as they ever were, the lineups certainly have changed. But with a little courage and a heart that beats for exploration, it’s still a place that can mimic what it used to be like.
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