Hover to advance photos and view full-screen
Conner: “I think we had some bad luck when we first went to New Zealand because for a couple of days it was stormy and really mushy. It was not a recipe for waves. We hadn’t really slept, and everyone was going with really high expectations for right reefs and sick barrels and sick beach breaks. It’s kind of a group mentality with everyone. Once one person starts to lose it, everybody starts to lose it.”
On day one the group flew out of Auckland to the South Island, to a college town where they’d be staying, down near the bottom of the world. Down by Antarctica.
They drove to the beach to check the waves and right away, new local friends appeared to say hello.
Dane said, “Hi, I’m Dane.”
“No fucking shit you are!” a kid told him. New Zealand really loved Dane, like a lot.
But the waves didn’t seem to. The sandbars [...]