Whanganui Board Riders will celebrate the club's 60th anniversary this weekend. Photo / NZME
Dodging logs, murky brown water, one transient pop-up tent as the sole meeting place and 64-plus kilometres of uncrowded coastline have helped to define the Whanganui Board Riders’ 60 years in the water.
Past and current members will gather on Saturday, January 17, at the Whanganui Musicians Club to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the inaugural meeting held in December 1965.
It is one of the oldest board rider clubs in New Zealand.
From 2pm to midnight, they will reminisce with live music, surf stories, food and drinks.
“For the Whanganui Board Riders to have been sort of holding it together for 60 years is quite [something],” ex-president and current member Matt Edmonds said.
“We laugh with the Whanganui Board Riders but it’s possibly the most dysfunctional club on the planet until we need to come together.”
“Surfers are hard to pin down at the best of times.”
Members from all eras, including several founding members, are set to attend.
“There are not many of them left alive these days,” Edmonds said.
“But there are a few coming, which is cool.”
The official start date of the club had been under debate due to the lack of records kept at the time. Current members were able to determine the rough date following the discovery of a newspaper clipping from an issue of the Whanganui Chronicle published in December 1965.
“The very first generation of minutes that we’ve looked at, the president at the time asked that everybody stop scrapping with each other and annoying each other with tirades of abuse and whatnot,” Edmonds said.
“And funnily enough, it’s still happening.”
The Whanganui club has survived through the evolution and growth of what surfing in New Zealand is today, after it began to increase in popularity in the 1960s.
The club has seen the evolution of its home-break located on the north side of the Whanganui River mouth, at the end of Morgan St in Castlecliff – “that’s kind of our home base.”
Around the time of the club’s founding, the Whanganui River mouth was regarded as one of the most consistent “world-class” surf breaks in New Zealand, thanks to the Tanae Bank – a sand bank inadvertently created following the construction of the original Tanae Groyne, part of the South Mole, in the early 1900s.
As the original structure deteriorated, so did the wave.
The last remnants of the structure gave way in the late 2010s and surfing shifted to the north side of the river. Whanganui is no longer a surf destination widely known in New Zealand – except for the dedicated Whanganui surfers.
“If you can surf at Morgan St, you can surf anywhere on the planet,” Edmonds said.
“The coastline from here to New Plymouth is possibly one of the best on the planet. I kid you not.”
During the main wave season, which is between late January to September for the lower west coast of New Zealand, pockets of sizeable swell are ridden by those who know where to find them.
“It’s probably 200 breaks between here and there,” he said.
“There’s hours of fun to be had.”
Hope for the resurrection of the fabled Tanae Bank surf break has returned with the Te Pūwaha Whanganui Port Revitalisation Project which aims to rebuild the South Mole, including the Tanae Groyne.
The club now has about 35 members, ranging in age from 12 to 70.
“To be associated with the club, we’re all dedicated to the ocean,” Edmonds said.
“We all have a great love and respect for the ocean that we’re in, and it covers all types of people.
“There’s no rhyme or reason for who gets called to the surf.”
In true surf-style, the group was disorganised but passionate, Edmonds said.
“We’ve got no club room.”
“We’ve got a barbecue and a gazebo tent, I think, is the state of our affairs.”
The group meets monthly “but because we’re all surf rats, we’re at the beach together most of the time”.
The bands set to play at this week’s anniversary event include reggae group Roots Provider, who Edmonds said had strong ties to the Board Riders.
“They’re local as it comes and they sing about the place where we surf.”
“They’re all from our local break area ... most of them born and bred in Castlecliff.”
The event was organised by club member Jason McDonald.
“Without him pushing it, it probably would have come to nothing.”
Edmonds said they expected about 100 people to attend.
More information on the event and how to buy tickets is available on the Whanganui Board Riders Facebook page.
Erin Smith is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.