NZSFC's POD AND REEL Podcast

Episode 6: Launching Through Surf: West Coast Wisdom and Warnings

• NZSFC • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Our journey takes us to New Zealand's wild west coast, where experienced local fishers share crucial knowledge about surviving the unforgiving surf, beach launches, and bar crossings that make these waters so challenging yet rewarding.

• Five west coast legends with decades of frontline experience reveal their hard-earned wisdom
• Mark Gill from Manukau Sport Fishing highlights the importance of proper vehicle preparation and weather forecasting
• Chris O'Neill and Duncan Clarke from Piha Deep Sea Fishing Club explain why club membership provides essential safety networks
• Craig Ross from Muriwai Sports Fishing Club describes his 37 years of beach launching experience and techniques for reading surf conditions
• Dr. Mick Kearney from Drowning Prevention Aotearoa emphasises planning as the foundation of west coast fishing safety
• Local knowledge passed through clubs provides crucial information about changing conditions, safe launching spots, and rescue protocols
• Proper preparation includes deflating tyres to 10 PSI, carrying spare parts, and always wearing life jackets
• Understanding tide, swell, and wind patterns is essential before attempting a west coast launch
• The west coast is "self-governing" - its challenging conditions naturally limit fishing pressure and maintain healthy fisheries
• Experienced fishers prioritise safety over catching fish, often cancelling trips when conditions appear marginal

The NZSFC Pod and Reel podcast is brought to you by the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council with support from Maritime New Zealand and the Safer Boating Forum.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council Pod and Reel podcast. I'm Mike Plant from the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council and today we're heading out west, proper west. Out here the coast is wild, the surf unforgiving and the fish worth every second. There's no marina, no pontoon, no calm estuary, just beach launches, bar crossings, surf breaks and a crew of stubbornly smart fishers who know what it takes to get out and, more importantly, get home.

Speaker 1:

In this episode you'll hear from five west coast legends with decades of frontline experience out west. They've all lived it Boats rolling, bars rising fast, mates getting rescued in those gnarly moments from when you're riding a wave in that dusk with a broken prop, hoping like hell to hit the sand and not the surf. You'll hear about the generational knowledge passed down through families at clubs like Muriwai, piha and Manako Sportfishing, and how one wrong call, a tide tackle, a mindset, can cost you everything. This episode isn't just a warning, it's a bit of a wake-up call. The west coast is fierce. It's beautiful but brutal. Treat it with respect or pay the price, whether you're launching off the beach, fishing the rocks or chasing marlin beyond the. This is one episode for you, so let's get into it.

Speaker 2:

You learn to respect the environment. Obviously, we're dealing with the wild west coast as it's known, and growing up, you always heard of people going missing and bodies washing up and the likes and parents and everyone always kind of telling you be careful, be careful. And it's just what we've always tried to be is careful.

Speaker 1:

Let's start with Mark Gill from the Manukau Sport Fishing Club. A committee member, a delegate and someone who spent his life fishing on the west coast, he knows what catches you out and what keeps you safe.

Speaker 2:

The tides have always been an issue in the Manukau Harbour particularly. You know, floundering in that at night time getting caught out. It's just a wild place and if you make a mistake unfortunately you can perish. It's just a slow progression and always trying to learn and always trying to remember and knowing that we're only a small cog in this big machine. You know, not one place or one line of information has kind of taught me what I know. It's more or less an accumulation of earlier years parents and people in the community and the later years, older people in the fishing club manukau sport fishing club particularly people like peter jackson, and he's kind of more or less pioneered the fishery out there out of the manukau and kind of paved the path for us younger generation to kind of operate under and through and flourish, you know.

Speaker 1:

Now over to Chris O'Neill and Duncan Clark from the Pihar Deep Sea Fishing Club. Both are also seasoned lifesavers. Duncan grew up fishing and lifeguarding here. He remembers learning the hard way.

Speaker 3:

My first trip was with the old man when I was shit. I was probably only 12 or something and a little 14 foot tinny with a 20 on the back. He had a head of rod and reel, but I was relegated to the hand line Having a go at me from mucking around pulling a snapper and when I flipped it over the side into his lap and it was about an eight pound snapper, he was like holy shit, you should have said something. But yeah, it's always that. Make sure your gear's maintained, make sure, like my outboard mechanic, he's mobile and he laughs at me. He goes some years. You know he'll service the outboard and I've done 10 hours. Another year I've done 150 hours. So it's just a thing I do every December Get everything serviced ready for the upcoming season.

Speaker 1:

You know, and I guess the West Coast doesn't really forgive mistakes. Can you guys think of a time?

Speaker 4:

when you or someone you know pushed the limits and maybe it backfired a bit yeah for that, yeah, yeah, we've seen a few guys out here that come out. They're not club members and they because you can get onto pr sometimes and launch your boat, and so I've had a few guys that have gone out in little tinnies and like basically haven't been able to get back through the surf, just not, not fast enough. So I've seen that a few times. You know, sometimes you can launch and the tide changes and then it's a whole different beach when you come home.

Speaker 3:

So you see that occasionally, and there was one guy that borrowed his mother-in-law's Jeep Cherokee and followed one of our members onto the beach with a bit of baffling bullshit and he backed into the hole to take the boat off. And he just must have thought he was East Coast because you know, back down on the lull, walked back, was untying it all. And then his set came in and the next thing, the Cherokee, swimming, was up to the windshield. And yeah, that was a full fiasco because you know, the boat was stuck on the beach, the truck was flooded, it wasn't running, so I had to tow him high and dry and get his boat and gear off the beach. At the end of the day he still went fishing and then he borrowed someone else's wagon to tow the boat off the beach and he left all his rods in the rod holder up high and as he went under the trees he just cleaned the whole lot off, just snapped everything down to the butt. It was a full fiasco.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, we had a club member that just threw, no fault of his own, we were all out fishing me up and he goes mate, I can't get the airport to start and so we talked through a few things and we just stopped fishing straight away and motored over to where he was. He had his wife and kids on board all in life jackets, and so we took them on our boat and hooked them up and I said, oh look, we'll just tow you in slowly and we'll make a plan on the way in, because we're at the 50 meter mark and um, as we're heading in, I radioed and rang a couple of other boats and and so they all shot in ahead of us. So we had a crew on the beach and I just had someone manning the tow rope ready to cut the bridle if we had to. And I was just like we're going to tell you flat nuts, and if we have to, we'll cut you loose, and whatever happens happens. But we managed to get him into the beach rope and as we came close we set him free and the other guys ran outha that are refusing to join the club.

Speaker 3:

And there was one night they went out, the wind got up to 40 knots from the northeast and they couldn't start and they rang a mate who then rang a mate who launched the same size boat with three guys in it and it took them three hours of towing from the 30-meter mark against the 40-knot northeast because they had three guys in the broken down boat and three guys in the tow boat and they just went nowhere but, again, didn't tell anyone, went and did it on their own. When they got back to the beach they were like, oh you know, it was pitch black and they were like that could have been a bit of a muck up. And I said, well, your first big mistake was not telling anyone what you're up to, you know, and in those conditions coast guard's there for a reason as well that's the other thing.

Speaker 4:

We don't really have coast guard here either. You know like nearest coast guards, was it? Yeah, probably who either? Which is depends how big the surf is, but that could be you know, three hours away kind of thing. So just getting on the blower and calling for a tow isn't really a thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a few guys have mentioned that, like firstly, you touched on the importance of being a part of a club, because then you've got like a support system, but also a knowledge base and a group of mates that you can always reach out to. So would that be your first suggestion as become a club member the fishing club, if you're, you know, wanting to fish out of Piha, so you have a bit of an on-the-ground knowledge from the guys out there doing it regularly.

Speaker 3:

Well, on-the-ground knowledge from the guys out there doing it regularly. Well, anywhere you're fishing from, if there's a local club, it's good for you know Pihau's good because you put it out there on our chat pages that, hey, we're thinking of heading out on a fish on Saturday and you hear from everyone else that's going to go. And then you know, ring around, have a chat with the boys how did they get on last week or last month and what depth were they at? So it sort of cuts out a lot of the guesswork. And then you have your monthly meetings. We have a bit of a get-together and a couple of refreshing sarsaparillas, shall we say, and just a general sort of knockabout with your mates. It's good.

Speaker 1:

Further up the coast is Craig Ross from Muawai Sportfishing Club. Nearly four decades of beach launching behind him. He's got some stories and some solid advice.

Speaker 5:

I've been a member of Murawai since I was probably 13. I'm nearly 50, 50 in a couple of weeks. Yeah, before they were a member of the Carver Cruising Club, but there weren't a lot of game fishermen in the cruising club, carver Cruising Club. So that's why we joined Murawai. That was the old man back in the day. There was no one sort of in the corporate cruiser club, it was fishing the west coast harbour fishermen. So, yeah, hence we joined the Mirawai club. And then, 37 years ago, I suppose, do you?

Speaker 1:

remember your first trip out west and what gear you had, and did you learn any?

Speaker 5:

I did, yeah, I barrel-rolled boats. So, yeah, put them upside down. That's how I learnt how not to do it. Yeah, I was lucky enough to be brought up the old man and my uncles have done it since they were young so I had to torture the ropes with them, you know, and the 12-footers, and, yeah, sort of learnt that way. But no, I've only, to be honest, I've only had two. The wave picked me up from behind and then another one.

Speaker 5:

I'll just tip along on the side coming in on a double wave, you know, but not not in much water, so I've been pretty lucky really quite often when we go out there will be a couple of boats and we I always sort of hang behind, let the other guys go first and go behind them. We had a mate and my father-in-law in a boat in front of us. They went through a wave that was a bit big for the for them and they end up flipping right out backwards. And it was quite a big day. They were floating around on the surf and there was a strong current heading north.

Speaker 5:

So luckily I had my son-in-law with me, a strong boater, and we sort of buzzed out To Ross up. He dislocated his shoulder. He was the first guy we got on board because he was having trouble. Robbie was having to hold him up. He couldn't swim yet. They all had life jackets on and then a big set was coming in. I was trying to get Robbie to let go of the boat. There's no way he was leaving the boat once he had decided.

Speaker 5:

Luckily Louis was strong enough and threw him in as well and then got in a position where we could take on the next set. And then I got our boat sorted out because we were half full of water by that stage as well and got our stuff sorted out and then back to the beach. And then Ross ended up in an ambulance. He had dislocated his shoulder quite badly. It still popped out when we dropped him in. And then me and Louis, the son-in-law, we went back out and had a mate drop me in the water. We both got the other boat back to the shore, Just swam a rope to it and dragged it back up. Just a bad timing is the main one. For instance, I've seen they're just not patient enough to wait for the sets to roll through and take a good day.

Speaker 1:

So far, we've heard how quickly things can go wrong out west and how knowledge is passed down through generations. Mark Gill breaks down the prep needed before you even think about launching from the beach.

Speaker 2:

You have to be using the right vehicles. You can't be going there in your front-wheel drive Mazda, demio, you know. Any half-decent four-wheel drive vehicle will get you on and off there. Drive to the conditions, drive near the low tide mark. You don't want to be up in that soft sand causing a nuisance where the people are stopping and having picnics and the likes, obeying the road rules. It's people going out there speeding and they're going to get these places shut down so we can't utilize them. It's a generational resource. It's been there since before time and we've had the privilege to utilize it with vehicle access and get us to some of these awesome fishing spots. And it's just taking the time and getting the gear right goes back to when you're rock fishing, to any form of fishing or any expedition or trip. You're going on.

Speaker 1:

It's the planning, it's the forethought craig r Ross talks to us about reading the sand, the tides and the swell before towing his boat anywhere near the water.

Speaker 5:

So predict how. I mean quite often if we haven't been out for a little while, we'll go run out there and see how soft the sand is, see what we're in for before we even get out there, you know. But during the season or game season, we're out there every second or third day, so we're in for it. But I normally let my tyres down before I even have to worry about getting stuck. I've got a compressor on my hoax so I just dump my tyres. So 10 PSI is a good number. A lot of guys don't like going that low, but at 10 PSI you can tow your boat pretty much anywhere. And I suppose, checking at Wilson's Road in particular, if it's been windy, there's quite often trees across it or something across it. You know in your way and Elliot's coming the opposite way that can jam up the track as well, because it's only a. I don't know if you've been out there or not it's quite a narrow track. But no, just making sure you don't get stuck, because it's hard with a boat on if We'll always have another vehicle and let him go first. So if we do need a tow he's already in front, because you can't get around when you're stuck on that track and quite often we'll just take two vehicles anyway, just to make it easier.

Speaker 5:

And then, I suppose, getting to the beach, I always sit and watch. If it's a big day, I'll always sit and watch the surf for an hour half an hour depending on how I just get a bit of a pattern going. See, good, the lulls are that are coming through, and quite often not this sort of going on what I have taught my son-in-law and my son how to read it as well as quite often I'll try and find a hole in the beach, like a hole, where there's a rip going out and quite a calm patch beside the rip. I'll launch into the hole. So you got, yeah, but a deep water to sit and do.

Speaker 5:

But then I always try and go for the roughest bit you've been looking at, try and get that calm there, and then, if you do get in the shit, you've always got the calmer area to run into as a backup. So I always try and get out where you know it's going to be bad Not bad, but the worst bit. If it's good enough to go through there, you can go, but you've always got a hole or a channel to swerve into to get, if a big one does come in, you know, rather than if you're trying to launch into the channel and it closes in, you've got nowhere to go.

Speaker 1:

Back to Mark. He reckons your best defence is planning, knowing the surf, knowing your set-up and don't cut corners.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to the weather forecasting, there's a lot of apps and websites available to us. It's working through what you find useful. There's a lot of information out there that's not very good and quite pointless in my opinion. I more or less stick to Windy. I'm quite a firm believer in that site. I've used it for a long time and it's quite reliable in my opinion. Also, using surf websites and forecasts with their swell energies very, very helpful on the West Coast, and it's very important to always check the size of the tide. It's more or less wind, swell, tide size. They're the three most important facts and then the wave energy that you get from the surf Forecasting is the most accurate at that, and then you can make a formed report for what you want to go out and do and if you can achieve it. So once we get to Little Hewer, where the Manukau Club members predominantly launch, we've got beach access there onto the harbour, so it's quite a safe beach. Still, it's got a few lessons there. We're not on a concrete ramp, we're on sand or shingle and a lot of guys do come unstuck there even, but we don't have any swell as such Moving around onto the coast.

Speaker 2:

The piha is quite a unique spot launching down the south end. There you have to be a club member to launch there. To get the key access they've now got a tractor tractor. The piha club's got a tractor now for their club members to use as well. That beach is quite hard to launch at because the sands can be quite soft at times and it's you need to have local knowledge because of the sandbars out from Piha and that they're always forever changing. You always hear the old guys talk about it didn't used to be like that and you always have to remember everything changes everywhere. So launching out at Piha is quite unique and you have to be a club member, so that kind of distills any random guy from ripping down there, you know. And then out at Mirawai is the same thing. There They've got the down the south end, they've got the key access there and the gate and you have to be a club member at Mirawai and attend a safety briefing. That's only for down the south end. Any Mirawai, anyone else on Mirawai, anyone else can launch.

Speaker 2:

Launching into the surf is quite complicated. You need to have prior experience or you need to have someone there with the knowledge that's done it before, because it is a dangerous launch, that's for sure. Spinning a boat around with waves coming through, it's not easy. Having to hold the boat while your driver goes and dumps the truck up the top of the beach above the high tide mark, running down and jumping the boat, you've got to push it out, nose out to the surf, it's not easy. And once you're on the boat, you've got to wait for the time to get out. Once you make that call, you've got to make the right call because otherwise you'll go up and over, and there's a lot of guys over the years up Mirawai and up Ahipara. They've gone right over Same.

Speaker 2:

Retrieving the boats coming in on the beach is dangerous as well. A lot of guys have accidents getting on and off the boats. At surf beaches. You need to have experienced guys around you and that's why it's essential to be joining clubs. If you want a beach launch, you need to be joining clubs like ahipara, mirawai. Piha can't speak highly enough of the mirawai ahipara boys, of how they they handle their beach launches. There are second to none on the west coast surf beaches joining us again at chris and duncan is lifesavers.

Speaker 1:

they've seen what happens when fishers gamble with the ocean, and here's how Duncan puts it.

Speaker 3:

I worked with a Dutch guy when I was young, an apprentice, and he said something very pertinent was luck is for the unlucky. So if you're going to rely on luck to get you out on the West Coast, prepare for it to run out, because Murphy's always there. He's always got a little hand in the background that will make everything you can line up can turn to shit in the heartbeat, and you've just got to be prepared for that really.

Speaker 1:

That's the whole reason I'm doing this, boys, is to just try. And you know like it feels like a perfect storm at the moment, where fisheries on the East Coast have been depleted, places are being locked up, it's harder to secure a feed. Social media is showing great fish being caught out west and people are going hey, I want to go at this, but half of the reason the fishery is so good out west is people can't get out in a lot of weather patterns because you want to play it safe and you're not going to push those risks right yeah, exactly, and I mean it was about 15 years ago.

Speaker 3:

Forest and bird were pushing to put the west coast as a marine park, which meant you could recreational fish. It was notifiable. We went into the meeting to try and get that abolished. And there's this panel of people there and they were arguing the point and I said, oh look, I can take three of you up tomorrow in my 14-foot tinny-off piha. And the guy's like, well, what are the conditions? Like I said, oh, it's four metres and there's a 30-knot sou'wester. And he goes, you're going fishing in that. I said, well, no, that'd be stupid. But I said that's. My point is that the coast is self-governing. You know, some summers, as I say, you can do 150 hours on the water on your outboard, and other summers you're lucky if you do 10 hours in the whole season. So it is good, you know, go out in the morning and catch a feed and be home in a couple of hours. Or you know, go out in the morning and it blows up and you've got to come home how do you battle the planning?

Speaker 1:

look, we've got a weekend, all right, boys, we'll go out, you know, in two weeks and you take time off, work, maybe for a thursday, friday or something like that, and then the weather isn't playing ball, but maybe it is. How do you make that call like, what's the reality for you guys is, is safety first? Or you know, do you see guys push those weather windows? How's that play out?

Speaker 4:

Not in the club. Normally Most guys are pretty conservative, you know, Like everyone in the PR club is pretty willing to just go. No, not going.

Speaker 1:

Is that a club kind of? It's been passed down from some of the older boys and the younger ones are embracing that. Like you know, one's there to be a hero kind of thing probably.

Speaker 4:

It's probably just not worth it. You know you have you have the pucker factor a couple of times and just you know it's just just isn't worth it. It's it kind of ruins your day as well. If it's real stressful getting off the beach, you know best days fishing is when you chuck the boat in, cruise out, stay dry. Everything's easy. When you've got to negotiate some surf before you've even got off the beach. It kind of ruins the day.

Speaker 1:

And for you guys, it's not just negotiating the surf, it's also negotiating the surfers and other people in the water, because you're pretty much going through a lineup where guys like to catch those waves.

Speaker 3:

And quite often than not, they're using the same rip and the same holes that we're using to get out there, you know, and so this is especially when we come in during summer and the game season sale. I'll get a guy up either side looking forward, you know, spotting surfers, and they're just talking to me the whole time. I've got my eyes on a swivel, your head on a swivel, but yeah, I mean swivel, but yeah, I mean. The only only incident I can ever think of is we were launching the boat. We're standing chest deep and this guy on a longboard just surfed straight into the side of my boat. Now it's a six meter surtees, pretty hard to miss, but he just came planning along the wave and buffed straight into it and called me everything under the sun, so I didn't know what else to do.

Speaker 4:

Really, I was a bit gobsmacked on that one so once you launch your options to turn around and run away from a set or something and non-existent most of the time you know, once you, once you pointed the nose at the horizon, you're going that way. There's no turning because you just you'll mow down half a dozen surfers. If you try and do that, yeah you're committed.

Speaker 1:

You are committed and and you need to power through at times as well when you're going out. I guess it's probably easier going out than coming back in when you're behind the trough and you can't see what's in front of it. Is there a difference for you guys, you know, leaving the beach or returning?

Speaker 3:

On the busy days we'll actually sit out the back and make a plan. And it may be we cut inside the surfers and then parallel run along the beach. And that comes from our experience, you know, in the surf club being able to pick your way along the back track along the beach and maybe take a wave broadside. But it is, it's just don't go in guns blazing. You sit back, make a plan, execute the plan and then prepare for a fucker.

Speaker 4:

The other thing is when you're landing on a beach it's not like crossing a bar, where you sort of sit in the trough halfway between the waves. Coming onto the beach is best to sit on top of a wave so you're as close to the peak as possible without tipping over the front of it, and then you're perched up high and you can see everything. Yeah, you know, the waves only come in from behind you, so that gives you the maximum working room. It's sort of counterintuitive, but it's best to sit on top of a wave.

Speaker 3:

The thing about being a crew on a boat on the West Coast too is you know your crew is as much part of what's going on as the skipper. They can see stuff that skipper may have his head down trying to find the fish and next thing you know there's something going on he wasn't prepared for.

Speaker 1:

So there are a few guys doing the solo missions, but it's pretty rare or it's in the smaller boats really that those guys or jet skis or that kind of thing, that guys are going solo, otherwise you're in a crew.

Speaker 3:

Preferably In the bigger boats. It's easy Well, you're launching on a beach, you've got to have someone to hold the boat. Chris has got a nice little stady that he can go out by himself quite happily. But again, it's having the knowledge and the skill set to be able to do that.

Speaker 1:

What's the reality for those guys listening of when it does go wrong in close? Uh, a boat getting flipped near the bar. So you've been through that, chris. Did I flip that?

Speaker 4:

you did. Yeah, I flip a lot of boats normally try not to make it my one.

Speaker 3:

But the orange ones we don't own, so we don't care about those too much yeah, so the surf, surf boats are made for it.

Speaker 1:

But for a guy going fishing, you've got tackle, you've got all sorts in the boat anchors.

Speaker 4:

If I saw it coming, like if my engine stalled in the surf or something like that I'd take to the sea mate, I'd get as far away from the bloody boat as possible. And you're swimming home, you know, the thing that scares me is to go over, you know, get flipped over backwards or something and have the boat come down on top of you and then you've got. You've got anchor warp, you got an anchor flying through the air, you got nylon, just all sorts of crap in there that you just don't want to deal with.

Speaker 3:

So if I saw it coming, I'd pull the pin early and get away from the boat, you know life jacket on because you're launching, you got a flotation device and you're away from anything hard that can hurt you. At the end of the day, um, insurance will cover it. You know it's only a boat, whereas insurance doesn't cover life that well. Once you're dead, it's pretty permanent. The obvious one is engine failure, which can be fuel, it can be maintenance, it can be battery, it can be a combination of everything. And if your engine's dead and you're broadside to a wave and it's solid, you don't really want to be there.

Speaker 4:

I mean, there's a good chance your boat might be okay but if it's not and you're flipped over with, then you know it's a bad place to be. I've seen that on the raglan bar a few times. You know where guys go over. I think there's been maybe four or five drownings where they've found them inside the boat after it's gone over, you know. So yeah, I just I just wouldn't want to deal with it. You know that boats are pretty bloody hard and the other thing is once, once it starts to go, you know, if a wave's caught you and you're about to get pooped or you're broaching or something, there's not much you can do. You know, because you can't move around, you've got to hold on to the boat and the name of the game would be just don't get to that situation. You know, abandon ship pretty early is what I'd do.

Speaker 3:

Because I mean, at the end of the day, if you've got a six, seven metre boat, it's got a hard top and you've got your life jacket on that hard top upside down and you're under the hull, that life jacket's going to help you float inside the hull, which may not be no air in there, and it makes it really hard to get out. You know, get out outside the boat again. So you know sort, you know sort of the worst-case scenario would be heading out to sea. I've been, we've been out and coming home and I've just said to everyone make sure your life jackets are done up. You know the conditions were that bad that I was just like if we need to get out. You know today's the day, a lot of my mates sort of scoffed at it once we hit the beach. But that's the reality of what we do and you know, prior preparation prevents piss. Poor performance is a classic um and if everyone's ready to, you know, get out of kansas if you have to.

Speaker 1:

If the skippers go, they go our final guest is dr mckinney from drowning prevention aotearoa. Don't let the title fool you. Mick's no ivory tower type academic. He's a straight shooter who's been waist deep in this stuff since the 80s. He started as a lifeguard at united north piha surf life-saving club. He's seen it all and he doesn't sugarcoat it oh, it's all planning.

Speaker 6:

Hey, what's that one? The four p's? Poor performance. Oh, planning prevents piss. Poor performance, five, you know it couldn't count, you know. Yeah, mate, it's all, it's all planning.

Speaker 6:

If you're going to go for a fish out west, you you got to know the conditions and what's happening. You rock up there and if there's a very big groundy swell coming through, it can throw a curveball at you. You know, if you don't know the conditions and all of that, you're in a hiding to nothing. It's the simple things you know. Like you're waiting out, youading out, you think you're sweet as you're at waist depth and all of a sudden you step into a hole. You know it might be low tide and then all of a sudden you're up to your pretty chest or neck and you're not a good swimmer and oh, how can it break? Loose Waves come in, they wash up the beach and then that water's got to head out Now and that's when you'll see the water running into holes, into the deeper part, and then that just cracks those rip currents. So literally on the west coast you could be standing knee-depth and then five meters away, it's over your head. It doesn't even have to be a strong current feeding in there. If you're not swimming you're not getting out. I've rescued numerous bods um inshore close and it's um, not even that big a surf, it's just deep water, and there there's enough current for them which they can't swim against. You know, they're not strong enough. If they're on the west coast and this is a broad generalization mid to high tide is generally the safest time and then when that tide, because there's a lot of water on the beach and it's getting pushed up. But when that tide swings and it's outgoing, then a lot of additional water wants to leave that area and around low tide it's just generally really nasty. Um, out on that west coast, those guys really know what they're doing and they'll be chatting about it and like but my mates, they cancel so many trips, the keen airs, you know, oh yeah. And then it's like oh, bugger, it's just a little bit rough. Just like the PRTC Fishing Club, you know they cancel or postpone their fishing comp twice because of conditions, rightly so.

Speaker 6:

It's that local knowledge, but it's an interesting one, like launching off a beach. Now I've rescued a few bods and boats out there. Actually, one time guys were in just like a little Renko Ranger, I think a 15 on the back and they had like three bods in it and started off in the morning, you know, and it was probably only two, three foot and then it sort of peaked to sort of four or five, you know, and they just didn't have enough oomph in the engine to get in. It's that local thing launching off the beach, but there's a hell of a lot of skill in there. It's like even just getting your boat down there, you know, and little tricks of the trade, you know, obviously, with your tyres and stuff, knowing where the sand's hard and soft and where you're going to launch. But you've also got to be really careful, like Pia's quite a popular beach. So if you're going fanging down the beach so you're not getting stuck, you've got to be aware of kids and other people around there. And you'd feel bloody terrible if you come screaming around the corner and you bowl a kid because, oh, I've got to go flat out to get across that soft sand. And it's the same thing as when you're going out through the surf, particularly at Paya, around the Nun and Key Isle, and that A lot of guys are surfing there.

Speaker 6:

You've got that rip there and they just hang up the point crack some waves, and that's where you go out in the boat. It's a lot easier when you're heading out because you can go slow and you can see and you can pick your way out. You can always see sort of in front of you. But if you're coming in after evening fishing, if you had a few beers not a good idea. You're probably not thinking straight. Not a good idea. You're probably not thinking straight. Probably a bit tired. Swell might have picked up, could be full up with bod surfing and it's quite seedy and you get it wrong. So all of a sudden you're committed and you're cruising through a pack of surfers.

Speaker 6:

So it's really important when you're launching in those places, look after not only yourself but other people, and that's it. You always want guys spotting and giving you info when you're in the boats, like where the surf is yep, you know, and then just keeping an eye on it. Yeah, a lot of it's got to do with the tide as well. It's sort of it could be like a consistent swell, all good, same direction, same swell period, and then the sweaters and the tide changes and then the whole dynamic of you know the ways of breaking off the rocks or bars changes. So all of a sudden, generally when you're in, going out, geez, I might have shifted five or ten metres. So it's just that understanding of geez, where am I coming in and out? You know, and you've got to look after not only yourself but other people, you know. You know guys surfing got just as much right as anyone in the water, so you've got to look after them as well.

Speaker 1:

Duncan, you've got to look after them as well.

Speaker 3:

Duncan from Pihar sees it like this. Yeah well, death is permanent, you know, and you can be as confident as you like and be as much of a smartass as you like, but Murphy's always there to level out the playing field. And even for the most experienced, like one of our most experienced fishers out of Pihar. He's got two boats, he's flipped a small boat three times now and he's out more than anyone I know and again wears his life jacket. But he, you know, he just thing is I fish more than anyone, so it's bound to happen. Well, yeah, I don't agree with that either.

Speaker 1:

Chris explains how quickly it can escalate.

Speaker 4:

On the sea. You know like problems compound, small problems turn into real big problems real quick. So you want to insulate yourself against that sort of stuff as much as possible. You know it's one of those things where you might learn the hard way but you might not get to learn it. You know, if you don't make it through the first fuck-up, you don't get another go. So things like if I go on my own, I have my EPIRB things like that really worry me. You know, like if you, if you fell out of your boat or something, that's kind of a major concern.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and obviously always wearing a life jacket and I normally have like my flippers are in my boat as well, just just in case you know you might have to get around the outboard or something like that are there been situations where you guys or older members have pulled some of the youngest aside and said, said mate, don't do that, or you know, maybe we saw you out there pull your head in kind of thing, or guys going fishing. Are these conversations had on the ground?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely yeah, we're band members, and with the band comes a revoke of using access to the beach through our dedicated ramp, and then, yeah, we just take it pretty seriously and you know's, it's not necessarily the skipper that can be in danger. It could be, it's the people they take with them, and if the attitude of the skipper is one of not really giving a shit, then the people around them take that on as well and it just it can lead to major issues we don't have a lot of that, though I most of the guy, because all the kids are in the fishing club as well.

Speaker 4:

so most, most of them grow up here and they kind of, you know, they learn the gig by osmosis anyway. So it hasn't happened. A couple of guys have been booted out of the club for being idiots, and yeah, that's.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's an exception and generally, yeah, a couple of situations. The apple didn't fall very far from the tree, so unfortunately they didn't stand much of a chance of an evolution's not really on their side.

Speaker 1:

I guess the main point I'm getting at here is the club has embraced this kind of safety culture that is becoming generational through the club with the young kids. They're getting this from a young age where someone who's not in this environment and they're coming from another part of Auckland or somewhere else to give it a go they're missing all of this culture that you guys have around. A club that keeps you guys safe, respects the ocean yeah pretty much.

Speaker 4:

I mean, there's a lot of lessons you kind of get from the clubs that you just things you just wouldn't even think of, you know, if you didn't have the other guys around you. Because you hear, you know, every time some you know a little fuck up happens to someone you make sure everyone knows about it.

Speaker 3:

You know well, the classic was this summer. You know I'm pretty fanatical with maintenance on my boat and for whatever reason, my bilge kept filling. I went back to tighten the bung and rip the whole bung and and uh, mounting plate clean out of the out of the um, out of the bilge. And uh, chris was on the wheel and I turned around and just went oh, we're fucked. But again had the wherewithal on the boat. To, you know, wrap some plumbers, sparky tape around it here's a big sinker and bash it back into place and just keep it on it for the rest of the day. And then I came back to the club and said to everyone look, check your bones. It's not ever something I ever thought I'd need to do and, being a surtees, it had two bones. The first one, I replaced that straight away. Second one checked that, boom, that came out too. And then did my homework and got the appropriate sealants and fixings and made sure that was done. And then I posted that on a forum a bit and it wasn't naming and shaming the boat, nothing wrong with the boat, it was something I'd never considered. And that was seven miles out at sea. We had a fountain of water coming into the boat. So it's just, and you know, went back to the club, sat with everyone, told them of my mistake, owned it and shared that knowledge which the launching and retrieving of boats at the beach, you know, for one day could be one end of the beach and a week later is the absolute other end of the beach. And just being fluid and able to do that Again, knowledge shared with guys that are going out.

Speaker 3:

I've got, I wouldn't say, an extensive toolkit spare change of plugs in case something goes wrong there. You've got to start your bastard or CRC and just, yeah, ropes and tapes, and just you know. Now I've got even more spare bungs and rubber stoppers and it could be the bill of a. You know marlin goes through the side of your boat and puts a hole in your boat. I've heard guys using carrots to bung those up. But just you know, if you had a single battery boat, have a jump starter or a backup battery system that you can, you know, get yourself going. I've got a dual system. So always make sure the batteries are topped up before I go. Um, it's just, one of those things is um, if you're not sure don't go.

Speaker 3:

I mean, we had a, a um, a guy the other day borrowed a boat off a mate that hadn't been used in four years, took it out pretty marginal conditions, I'll say. No one else went and I went to the beach just to watch, make sure he launched, okay. And uh, just I was a bit worried why he didn't sort of exceed five knots when he's crossing the outside bar. When he came back in later that day waiting for the tide, and came in on the high and he just said that wouldn't go any faster. It was in sort of limp mode.

Speaker 3:

And when I talked to him prior to going I said well, you know, you've changed the field, done all that and all that. And when I spoke to him afterwards he goes oh, I didn't really change the fuel, I just added some fresh. Now this boat hadn't been used for four years, it should never have gone out on the west coast. And what I said you know, did you get service? Did you do all these things that any normal person possibly would have done? And he was just like, no, no, but you know, it's been on the West Coast before, it should be fine. And I was like, well, that's exactly the wrong attitude.

Speaker 4:

So I keep quite a few spares in mind because, look, I'm either fishing off PR or I go on the Kuiper quite often and you know that's pretty big and there's also a bloody great big hairy bar out there.

Speaker 4:

If something comes, you know, your ground tackle comes adrift or something. And so I have like spare fuel lines, fuel connectors, like things that, like you know, if your fuel line, your connector broke or something like that, you're pretty stuffed. So I have all those spares. I've only got a 40 horse so I can pull start it. So I have all the tools in there to get the top off the motor, so I can get a rope around. I've got a little bit of rope that I can pull, start it with A jump starter, one of those jumper packs, bit of rope that I can pull, start it with a jump starter, one of those jumper packs. They're only like 200 bucks and it's because that that'd be a major, you know, for me if, if I'm on my own and the motor dies or something, that'd be quite serious and loads of CRC as well, just because you know, bit of water in the wrong place and you and your stuff just to um give an idea of how you're.

Speaker 1:

When you said you're fishing the Kuiper, are you going up to Wilson's and going off the beach, or how are you fishing?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I fish off Wilson's sometimes, yeah, so that's pretty remote on your own, but also just out near the graveyard and that.

Speaker 1:

So those spots you know pretty well-known spots, but if your engine didn't start and you didn't have the tools to fix it because you guys are, what you're saying is you're pretty self-sufficient to sort shit out yourselves. But if someone wasn't and they're trying to call Coast Guard, how long would that in reality take to some of these spots, even off PR or the likes? For someone who goes on the Coast Guard channel and says, hey, I can't start the engine, like are we talking hours before a boat would even get there.

Speaker 4:

Probably to the graveyard. You'd be going an hour. The Coast Guard's in Hellensville, so that's a bloody long way away. And you know what concerns me. Out there is in a small boat. You get your anchor working its way down under the sand and then, if you get the tide coming in, sometimes your anchor's buried so much that you can't pull it up and your anchor ends up pulling your boat down under the water. So there's that. And if you combine that with, say, you drop your pick because your engine wouldn't start, you could be in serious trouble. You know you've got no. You either set yourself adrift and cut your anchor rope and you're floating around the mouth of the Kuiper on your own with no options, or you're looking at maybe potentially getting pulled under by a swell or something. So yeah, that's why I'm pretty cautious up there. And if you were launching off Wilson's Road, you're on your own, you're not getting anything, you know.

Speaker 3:

But again, maintenance. You know what your gear's like.

Speaker 1:

Mark thinks this is the best way to prepare for the wild west coast.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So the best way to get if you want to start fishing out anywhere on the west coast is to join a club. Local knowledge is important. Come along to a club meeting. There's multiple clubs, doesn't matter where you are from Raglan to the Hoki to Ahipara join a club. Local knowledge is the knowledge you need.

Speaker 2:

When you join a club, you meet other like-minded people and you can buddy up with other people for your first crossings. Quite often there's um group group chats or messenger and the likes about the conditions, who's going out. It's always better to go out with other like-minded individuals at the same time. You've got other sounding boards to bounce your ideas off about conditions. You're not on your own, obviously.

Speaker 2:

When we want to go fishing, we want to fishing and your mind can captivate you and trick you into going when you shouldn't be going, and we're all guilty of that to a degree. Having the club there and sounding those ideas out, if you're barking up the wrong tree, they'll tell you pretty quick Pull your head in. You know you're going to have an accident, and that's really essential, especially for us younger guys. We like to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and it's always good to have an older club member tell us nah, mate, you don't want to be doing that, and those are those lessons that we need. And having that advice there, I can't speak enough of it. It's kept me out of the mischief, I can tell you that much.

Speaker 5:

Craig says the same from the Muriwai Club. We're always, if anyone wants to know any tips or whatever. We always talk about it and we're always forthcoming, whether it be off the beach or through. The bar is a big one as well, because we do a lot. If the beach is too big, we can normally get out the bar, maybe another half a metre higher type thing, so a metre and there's always we sort of stick together as a group going through there. If there's any newbies, we drag them through behind us and then tell them where to put marks in for the bar as well.

Speaker 5:

There are a lot of guys that won't listen and they think they know it all and go out there and go full bore into a wave and wonder why they hurt their crew. Club members. You can apply for a key, go through a locked gate to get there and then tone through the cutout. You've got to have a decent sort of car to get through the soft sand anyway. The worst I've seen is guys that just launch in a rush, jump in and just go straight out and hit a big set and hit the waves full wall.

Speaker 1:

Here's the kicker. Despite how dangerous beach launching is, Chris and Duncan surprised me. They'd rather launch off the beach than take the Manukau Bar on. And that says it all.

Speaker 3:

You get the old common wind against water which you end up with standing waves as well as the swell coming in. You know, the North Channel at the Manukau is a classic and that's taken a lot of boats over the years and some very experienced skippers with it. You know Some big boats with all the power in the world and they just get caught and then that cycle of wind against water, standing waves, they can't push through it and a wave comes from behind them, just mows over the top. So you know, you've really got to know. I mean again the Manukau. I've been the southern entrance a few times, done the northern a couple and I'd rather take on the bar at Piha any day than that body of water.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I'd prefer launching off the surf beach as well, because once you hatch a plan and there's a lull, it's all over in two minutes.

Speaker 3:

you know, coming into the manukau, sometimes it's like 15, 20 minutes of it with your head on a swivel and shit coming from bloody everywhere yeah, we went out one day when the mates um, 6.7 certies here to 200 on the back, so all the power in the world and we shot out of the manukau at the northern channel and it was dead flat. And he cut across the bar at the head of the manukau and fished all day Again. Full cast was for it to pick up and it did. And I said to him heading home and he's a really experienced skipper I said, look, whatever you do, don't follow your track. We're going to have to find the bar and go around it. Anyway, he's sort of off in a daze, not really thinking, and I looked I was down the back sorting out the bilge and sorting out some other things, and I poked my head up and there was just a set of four meter plus waves marching towards us and the one two back was breaking and I just said, mate, could you just go hammer time and don't look back.

Speaker 3:

And uh, he pushed the, push the throttle right down and then turned around. He goes what the fuck? And I was like, yeah, mate. And then I said then I looked at the sounder and he had followed his track back and we luckily outran that one. But I just said to him. This is the whole thing. All the conditions in five hours have changed from a day on the lake to you know. Could have been bad news for us.

Speaker 1:

Thankfully this one didn't end in disaster, but next time we talk about when it does. Same crew, same coast, but of a different tone. From boat flips to near misses, rescues to hard lessons. Our next episode dives into the bad news, the stories we don't like telling but we need to hear. If you fish the rocks or run the Manukau Bar, don't miss out. Catch you then. The NZSFC Pod and Reel podcast is brought to you by funding from Maritime New Zealand.