In New Zealand it's known as the Deep South - the region stretching from Dunedin to the bottom end of the South Island. Look at a map and you'll see that this stretch of coast is in line to get pounded regularly by uninterrupted Southern Ocean swell. Much of it arrives in the 5m plus range, so in some ways the area has all the makings of a big wave rider's dream.

A Deep South big-wave scene has begun to emerge lately - a tight but significant core of eager and able surfers who are paddling and towing into ever more serious slabs of ocean. Centre (Rarotoka) Island and Papatowai are two formerly obscure spots which have regularly been ridden in the last few years, and new discoveries and previously untamable Shark Island-type waves have started to tempt those willing to brave the consequences and the cold.

But in New Zealand, size comes at a price. The trade-off for being the only part of the country to receive genuine big waves is the biting cold and radical weather. Even on glassy, sunny days, the full rubber kit from head to toe is essential. Winter days are often plagued by squally gales of such force that they make going outside an unlikely option, even for the farmers.

This is surfing in New Zealand at latitude 46 degrees South, in the heart of the Roaring Forties.

The Catlins Challenge

In late winter 2004 an open invitation went out to homegrown gun riders to come and take on New Zealand's premier rideable big wave at the remote coastal settlement of Papatowai. No entry fee, no prize money and no sponsors - just a challenge to ride the biggest wave over a four-week waiting period. And the event would only be held if wave faces exceeded 30ft.

The challenge came from the effervescent Doug Young, a Kiwi surfer with an ever-growing reputation in the global big-wave fraternity. Doug had recently been invited to the 2004 Red Bull Challenge held at Dungeons in Cape Town where, despite the waves never reaching the size required for the event to go ahead, Doug still managed to pick up the 'Deep Throat' award for the gutsiest performance in the sessions that did take place. In 2003 he also won an award for the biggest wave paddled into in either Australia or New Zealand, quite an achievement considering the big waves on offer in Australia and the quality of surfers who ride them.

He caught the award-winning wave at Papatowai, which has already drawn comparisons to California's Mavericks. Australian big-wave legends, Ross Clarke-Jones and Tony Ray, towed into it on a sunny, glassy 20ft day late in 2003, and they rate it highly.

Papatowai sits well inside an area called the Catlins - a large, mostly uninhabited forest park down a long, scenic but rugged road. The Catlins is hammered by atrocious weather, so days of over 15ft are frequent at Papatowai, but most are marginal at best, thanks to the incessant wind. On occasion the right variables of swell size, swell direction and wind combine to bring Papatowai alive and the main wave will peel for 200m, with clean, 20ft barrels.

"Surfers keen to charge this size for the fun of it, surfers who'll drop everything for the rush that only comes from big-wave surfing?these are the type of surfers we want in this event", said Doug in his emailed call to arms. He explained that a four-week waiting period would allow people to live their lives as normal "Until the swell hits".

It's a long drive to the Catlins unless you live in the nearest cities of Dunedin or Invercargill. For anyone else it's an arduous journey, and it takes a special kind of desire to head so far south and surf huge stormy waves in the frozen clutches of winter. Also, with no prize money on offer, it would have been easy for any of New Zealand's big-wave riders to find an excuse not to turn up.

Doug didn't have much company when he arrived and began waiting for the conditions to improve. It didn't dampen his enthusiasm though, despite three days of snow flurries and horizontal rain that meant even surf checks were impossible thanks to zero visibility. At least the swell was huge, which suggested it was just a matter of being patient and hoping the 60-knot winds would abate.

While some surfers began offering excuses for not to showing up, Doug was out on a limb with his loosely run, no frills event. It was looking like he'd be paddling out alone, and in stormy surf. But Doug knew that if no one else, the media would show up because, after the publicity he had earned already, it was clear they can't get enough of his never ending fountain of stoke (often confused with craziness).

Finally late one afternoon five surfers - Doug Young, Daniel Kereopa, Nat Parsons, Shayne Baxter and Panapa Ehau - paddled into the Papatowai line-up after Doug gave the green light on the 15ft plus wave size. They still had 30 knots of wind blowing across them, but the event was on. Many of the expected surfers hadn't shown up, including several big-name internationals that Doug had claimed were flying in from countries far and wide.

Daniel Kereopa caught the majority of the waves, underlining his status as New Zealand's best all round surfer. Then Doug and Nat Parsons caught one rail to rail with Parsons on the inside. It was one of a few notable rides that afternoon, at a wave that lends itself more to tow-in thanks to its lack of clear take-off zone. Hayden Brain, who was on hand as PWC water safety, had to make a premature retreat after feeling the initial effects of frostbite.

A few days later, three of them were at it again for a second session, which ended up being the final green light of the challenge. As expected, the mainstream media were there the whole time, alerted by Doug's well-written press releases. A crew began making a documentary on him and Daniel Kereopa, to be screened on national television, adding to both of their profiles and showing why prize money isnÍt always as rewarding as pure stoke.

The Rex

Rex Von Huben was one of the earliest big-wave surfers in the Deep South. He was a family man and underground legend who often surfed alone until his untimely death in a car crash in 1998.

Rex had often talked about putting together a big-wave event so after his death his wife Lorraine and good friend Kyle Davidson set about organizing one as a memorial to him. It became the Rex von Huben Big Wave Challenge. The inaugural Challenge was held in spring 1999 and it ran until 2002. Thirty surfers - later thinned down to 18 - from around the country, were invited to the Deep South to surf the biggest waves on offer over a two-week period. All expenses were paid and good prize money was offered, so almost everyone invited was keen.

After discussions with respected Kiwi surfer Rod Rust, they decided to base the event at a wave that broke on uninhabited Centre (Rarotoka) Island. Once a manned lighthouse station, the island, 7km off the mainland in Foveaux Straight, is sacred Maori land and home to a big lefthander.

Rod Rust was the lighthouse keeper in the early 70s and the first person to surf the island, which he mostly did solo. Rod recalls giant days when he didn't contemplate surfing, when the wave broke huge and clean, wrapping halfway around the island.

During the challenge competitors would stay on the mainland at Colac Bay where the local Ngai Tahu tribe would hold a Powhiri, a welcoming, and then generously hand over the Aparima Marae, a ceremonial building they could live in for the duration of the event.

Part sponsored by Quicksilver, their rider Paul Patterson was usually present in an ambassadorial role. Ross Clarke-Jones and Tony Ray we re also often in the background, sometimes acting as safety, and scoping out new tow-in possibilities.

The two weeks of the Rex was often spent waiting for a big enough swell to run the contest, and in the down times, surfing smaller waves in the area. While Kyle did daily PWC scouts to the island, the surfers were often at a loose end, and, with a tavern next door to the Marae, inevitably the Rex often became a giant shebang, where (mainly) beer was abused in varying amounts. Some abstained, while others partied non-stop. Most unfortunate were the few who kept away from the action as long as possible, then finally folded and hit the bottle - usually the night before the wind swung around or the storm cleared.

When it was on, everyone would be loaded onto hired fishing boats for the 90-minute chug to the island. The fishermen, some of them hardcore surfers themselves, were thankfully quite comfortable in the massive swells.

Although it never delivered above 15ft, the annual challenge ran for four very memorable years. The island's left is an ugly, thick, boil-infested wave that breaks close to a semi-submerged rock garden. It's an intimidating place and more than a few of the surfers openly disliked it. Even the fishing boats, which sat wide on the inside, had to periodically dodge random threatening waves.

Several guys charged it, like Brent Rasby, Andrew Patterson, Josh Burt and Daniel Kereopa, the 1999-2002 victors respectively. Other bravados included teenage Todd Robertson, 46 year-old Mick McDonnell, who famously said after one session, "I'm going to put my hands in a bucket of ice to warm them up", and Motu Mataa who rode a fifteen-footer that is probably the biggest wave ever ridden at the island.

One of the most colourful was Josh Burt, who rides thick 9' guns in 1ft surf upwards. He was one who badly timed a heavy session at the tavern, eventually taking the dance floor by storm. The same guy later provided the most bemusing moment in the history of the challenge. It was the first year, so perhaps he didn't have his bearings when he paddled into a Centre Island beast. He went right on the wave that only breaks left, culminating in a heavy beating and unceremonious delivery perilously close to the rock garden.

Catching Up

It was on the hill that overlooks Papatowai that I bumped into Kyle Davidson and Jamie Gordon for the first time in three years. They'd driven down from Dunedin to check out the conditions for Doug Young's challenge. Neither of them was particularly inspired by the stormy waves barely visible way below. Meanwhile Doug turned up and jumped out of his car into the gale force wind, hooting loudly whenever a large volume of whitewater appeared through the mist and rain.

Kyle may have organized the Rex von Huben Big Wave Challenge, a paddle-in event, but his focus is now on tow surfing. Jamie Gordon is his tow partner and a life long friend. It's not that these guys dislike paddling into giant waves - they are two of New Zealand's most accomplished and active big wave surfers. They just love the freedom that tow-surfing affords, enabling them to get into much bigger waves, many more of them, with far lesser floggings, and all on a much shorter board.

Both Kyle and Jamie approach their surfing in a typically Kiwi understated way. Like Doug Young they do it purely for the rush and Kyle especially is eternally stoked. He'll literally talk for hours with anyone that wants to discuss anything even distantly related with surfing. Jamie is more downbeat and only livens up when the waves are big or heavy, preferably both. Otherwise he'd just as happily roll a cigarette.

I had known that Kyle and Jamie were towing in at Papatowai, and a couple of other spots on a regular basis. One of their favourites is a small island a couple of kilometres off the coast of Dunedin. It's a marine reserve where landings are illegal. It's also only 100m long, but it has two heavy, hollow rights, and an even heavier left.

Early in 2004 a group of traveling Americans lucked into the left. One of them was Hawaiian Mark Healy who tried paddling in, with mixed success. Jamie says the left looks like Teahupoo in Tahiti, while Kyle reckons each of the three waves are unsuitable for paddle-in surfing. Either way, they're all sketchy.

Jamie and Kyle may not have been the first to surf it. Ton Egnot was a well-known Kiwi surfer in the 1980s who reportedly made the mammoth paddle over there to surf the right off the north end of the island. These days however despite a few other local tow-surf pairings, these guys are the only ones charging it every time it gets good.

The Island

In 2004 I decided to spend two months following Kyle and Jamie whenever Papatowai or the island looked promising. They knew a guy named Steve who lived by a river just south of Dunedin, who'd rent me a ski. All I had to do was wait for Kyle's call and then make the 500km journey south should any of their spots turn it on.

We had a few opportunities, the first being Papatowai in marginal conditions. It was my first time on a PWC, which wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the choppy conditions that made trying to photograph impossible. I was also on a two-stroke, which doesn't like idling, and despite only short periods of doing it, I quickly fouled a plug, which cut my speed to much less than that of a wave.

As a start, the experience didn't fill me with confidence because Papatowai breaks in front of rocks. I anxiously putted back to the sanctity of the rivermouth and Kyle and Jamie followed soon after with the average-sized swell beginning to falter.

I could tell Steve didn't believe me when I told him I'd hardly idled the ski. He mumbled a bit, changed the plugs, tested it on the river, and then sent me away again with it.

The following morning the Island was breaking, and although Kyle was initially dubious, it turned out to be 6-8ft, and on a glassy, sunny morning. We'd set out early, arriving at Jamie's house at 5.00am. Kyle went inside to wake him up and emerged some time later. "Gordie's been on it. He only got back an hour ago", he said with no hint of concern. Soon enough Jamie emerged, smelly but semi-coherent in a comatose sort of way and apparently still keen to surf the island. Jamie says the island has the heaviest waves he's ever surfed . "The wipe-outs are gnarly and I've been injured three times out there now," he'd told me. " Every time I get a gut feeling I should call it a day, Kyle tells me to go for one more - and I get hurt . I should listen to my stomach and not Kyle".

Sure enough Kyle handed his inebriated partner the rope and proceeded to tow him into a series of hollow, mutant waves. Jamie didn't make any of them, and he took several heavy floggings, which rapidly sobered him up. Thus straightened out, he began to find his feet and he and Kyle spent the next couple of hours towing each other into a feast of solid, sucky waves.

Over the next couple of months we returned to the island two more times. Each time the right-hander that breaks into the middle of the island was the only wave working. Kyle and Jamie towed into everything that came their way, including a handful of 10ft bombs.

Of the Island's three waves, this right is the most precarious to photograph because there's no safe channel to sit in. It didn't help that Steve kept renting me his most expensive skis. Not only were they not insured, the issue with not idling them meant killing the engine to take photos and hoping the ski would start again, and accelerate instantly when the inevitable rogue appeared. The real possibility of me, the ski and my camera gear ending up in pieces on the rocks was never far away.

New Possibilities

Kyle says he'll definitely be running some sort of big wave challenge in the future. At the moment he's just too busy with twin baby daughters, a house to build, waves to tow into and a forestry gang to manage.

He unreservedly maintains that Centre Island is consistent, big and absolutely a genuine option for big-wave surfing. "There are about six big-wave venues down here," he told me. "One or two of them will be 10-12ft or bigger once a week, every week of the year. It's a very consistent place for waves. We've surfed Papatowai for about six years now and I don't really think she's shown her true colours yet. Me and Gordie hope to be there when she does".

" We're definitely riding the biggest surf in New Zealand on a regular basis. We're finding new waves that have never been surfed before. One place we found involves a 40-minute ski ride to get out there. There's native bush right down to the sea and heaps of little Hector's dolphins swimming along with the jetski - it's pretty amazing," said Jamie.

And this is what's most exciting about the big-wave culture in New Zealand right now. With the difficult logistics of surfing in the Deep South, many waves will remain undiscovered for some time yet . The southwest coastline of the South Island, an area known as Fiordland, is still completely unexplored. But there's plenty of desire to find and ride them. Time and money present the biggest hurdles, and of course, the elements. Given time however, more and more bigger and gnarlier waves will be surfed. People like Kyle and Jamie, Doug Young, Daniel Kereopa and all the others, watched over by the spirit of Rex von Huben, will ensure that the limits of New Zealand big wave riding will keep being pushed a little further.

By Paul Kennedy © 2007