Mark Davy and Tim Boere discuss the finer points of a surfboard at this year's Cove Fish Fry.
Mark Davy and Tim Boere discuss the finer points of a surfboard at this year's Cove Fish Fry.
Northland surfing legend Ross Edge passed away this year, but his memory will take pride of place at a unique Northland surfing event next year.
A surfboard dedicated to Mr Edge - an iconic figure on the Northland surfing scene for almost 60 years - will feature at the CoveFish Fry event at Waipu Cove on March 12 in honour of the late surfer, said organiser Michael Cunningham.
Mr Cunningham said the fourth edition of the Fish Fry was already attracting plenty of interest, with surfers, and board makers coming from across the country and some even from overseas likely to turn up. More than 1000 people are expected for the event, which starts at 8am and will go through until about 4pm.
"The Cove Fish Fry is a gathering of positive and like-minded surfers and shapers sharing a day at the beach. The original format of the Fish Fry was based around the Fish surfboard but as the event has evolved and spread throughout the world it has become open to all forms of surfcraft - fish, logs, hulls, alaia boards, handplanes, mats, the list goes on. The Cove Fish Fry is a non-competitive and non-commercial event," he said.
Mr Cunningham said one of the great aspects about the event was that people were now bringing along boards that had been made after they had visited earlier Fish Frys.
"One guy is bringing three or four that he had made because of earlier Fish Frys and one is a Steve Lis Fish - who is what the original Fish Fry was named after - and he's dedicated the board to Ross Edge, who is an absolute surfing legend up here," Mr Cunningham said.
"Given Ross' standing it will be great to have something like that there remembering and recognising Ross."
He said several other members of Northland's surfing fraternity had also passed away in the past year and they too would be honoured during the event.
