SURF CANTERBURY SURFING
Taranaki The New Zealand Surf Capital
New Zealand Surf Introduction
New Brighton’s white sands shift frequently and create great sand banks
working on easterly swells. Sumner, has a popular surf break, which works
on an incoming tide backed by an easterly swell. Taylor’s Mistake has
been the local legend surfing spot since the 1960’s, and can be found
just around the headland from Sumner.
Drive out to the shingle beaches of Bank’s Peninsula and you can get
good waves. A series of compact bays can be found on the exposed outer coast.
Look for Stony, Hickery, Gough Bays Te Oka and Magnet Bays. Low tide is the
best time to surf these beach and point breaks. You won’t find the summer
crowds here, but you will discover the best breaks that are fast and hollow
here.
Down the South Canterbury coast around Timaru and Oamaru there are good opertunities
to surf uncrowded breaks. Almost every river mouth produces a surf break,
but the best locations are in the first 5 kms south of Timaru and between
Oamaru and Moeraki. Patiti Point, near Timaru , has a left-hand reef break,
which operates consistently in any swell from the east or south. Jack’s
Point (3 kms south of Timaru) has both left and right-hand reef breaks at
high tide, as does Lighthouse Reef, a short walk to the south. Southerly
swells produce solid waves along the Timaru coast
From Oamaru south there are waves at Kakanui River Mouth, Campbells Bay and Moeraki.
Moeraki also has the famous and spectacular natural stones scattered along the beach.