Bring up the subject of surfing and you immediately think of suntanned, bleach-haired, dope-smoking dudes and their bikini-clad girlfriends, surfing the pristine waves of California or Hawaii in an endless summer.
Then there are the members of the Wanganui Boardriders Club, about 30 of them, who surf all year round off Wanganui's rugged black sand beaches. It's so cold in winter that they have to wear thick wetsuits, booties, hoods, and gloves. Among their number are lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and optometrists.
The president of the club is Ben Engelbretsen, a linesman, and the vice-president is Jarred Quirk, who works for a car dealership. These two are a tight-knit unit who grew up as neighbours in Castlecliff and learned to surf together as 11-year-olds in the chilly, dangerous waves next to the north mole.
"Having the beach at our back door encouraged us to surf," Jarred said. "And Ben's old man was a surfer so he taught us. It's a sport with not much outlay to do it - we didn't wear wetsuits then, and Ben's dad had a heap of old boards in the shed.
"It gave us a sense of freedom. It's an addiction - once it gets into your system there's no getting rid of it."
Jarred said people surfed for many reasons, which could be as diverse as being a physical sport or a spiritual activity.
"My wife will tell me to go have a wave because I'm grumpy, and people talk about being 'surf sick' where you haven't had a wave for so long that you start feeling sick."
Ben said surfing was a unique sport in that you could not do it exactly when you wanted.
"You have to wait for all the conditions to line up - the right swell, wind, tide. And it always seems to be at its best when you can't go, like when you're at work.
"That's where the addiction comes from - you're always waiting for those good days."
So what is the surf in Wanganui like?
"It's not the best surfing ever. You can go there every day for two weeks and not find the right conditions," Ben said.
"But when it's good, it's really good. It's different from somewhere like Raglan where you get consistent waves. And unfortunately the consistent waves bring in the crowds."
So, by far the best advantage for Wanganui's surfers is the lack of competition for waves.
"We've had a guy join us, he's a surgeon from California, and he just can't believe it. He's used to sharing waves with 300 or 400 guys, not three or four. He's amazed at how welcoming people here are.
"We do complain a lot when the waves aren't good, but when they are good, we have them all to ourselves."
Ben said the most popular surf spot was at Morgan St, with South Beach, the Whanganui River mouth, Long Beach, and Waiinu also surfable.
The excessive amounts of driftwood along Wanganui's beaches can be a problem, or even dangerous when waves wash it back out into the sea, Ben said.
Jarred said a lot of kids wanted to take up surfing because of its "cool" image.
"My mum freaked when I said I wanted to surf because she thought all surfers were dope-smoking dole bludgers. But it's not like that at all now. Ironically, the dope-smoking deros are all gone, yet the image remains."
Jarred and Ben believe it's that image which prevents surfing from becoming a mainstream sport in New Zealand. They say a lot of people don't know that surfing even happens in Wanganui.
"There's a core group of us who surf here all the time, and some of them are generational surfers like Ben. And then you get the people who are passing through, who stick around for a while then take off.
"We would really like to have more women join the club - it's quite different when there's women in the water. The language is a lot better, for a start."
Ben and Jarred have big dreams to grow the club, which includes having a Wanganui Boardriders Club building on the beach by Morgan St.
"If you go up the coast to Patea they have a boardriders club building, and same in Opunake - but we just don't. We want to try and build the numbers - we've come up with a logo, and made some club T-shirts.
"If we had clubrooms people would know that we're around, and it would make it easier for them to get involved."
Jarred said the club had been discussing the proposal with the Wanganui District Council, and were hoping to partner with them to make the project happen.
"We see ourselves as the guardians of the beach - it's our backyard and the place matters to us. I've lost count of the number of swimmers that surfers have rescued from Morgan St."
The club holds an annual surf competition against the members of the Opunake Board Riders, as well as a local surf competition in Wanganui. They also held a formal fundraising ball in April at Cooks Gardens, which was a big success.
Now the club is focused on celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. Jarred says they hope to have a reunion of as many of the original 1966 Wanganui Board Riders as possible. At least three of the current members have been with the club since its beginnings - including Ben's father Wayne - and there are several others who have moved out of town but still have links to the club.
"Some of those guys have great stories to tell, and we want to get them together so they can share those stories."
-To contact the Wanganui Boardriders Club visit www.facebook.com and search for Wanganui Boardriders.