{"id":265985,"date":"2026-02-03T19:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265985\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T19:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:52:10","slug":"surfings-elite-are-coming-to-raglan-but-i-was-there-when-a-great-slipped-in-to-ride-our-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265985\/","title":{"rendered":"Surfing\u2019s elite are coming to Raglan. But I was there when a great slipped in to ride our waves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world\u2019s best surfers will descend on Raglan in May for the World Surf League Championship Tour. Ex-local and former young person Luke McPake remembers the day he and his mates spotted a 90s legend riding the left-hand break.<\/p>\n

At the lookout above Indicators there\u2019s five of us grommets and Dylan\u2019s dad sitting in the car. The surf looks average. Average waves in Raglan are pretty good though.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s somewhere around 1996, our grommie gang is aged 12-14, we have salt-spiked hairdos and we are the most annoying little shits in a town that unknown to us has a bright future, but for most of our childhood seems to be battling through a permanent off-season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in the world of surfing this town has value like few others \u2013 and the whole place is ours. (It definitely isn\u2019t, it just feels that way when you\u2019re 12 and a whole community of parents and neighbours are supporting you to have fun surfing.)<\/p>\n

At the Indies lookout the rain is coming down and in the back seat the four of us wriggle for a view of the break. Beyond the car window the sea is grey, and the rain has darkened the smooth volcanic boulders of the foreshore to a deep black. The surroundings are of zero interest to us though, we\u2019re focused on the surf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The waves aren\u2019t lined up, but the light northerly wind is making the faces kind of clean. There\u2019s only a few people out, bobbing black specks, anonymous from this distance but people we probably know by name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A goofy-footer takes off at the Indies peak, smashes the lip and begins to race through The Valley \u2013 Indicators\u2019 fast-breaking inside section. We bring our eyes to the crack of the fogged-up car window. It\u2019s only an OK wave but the goofy-footer is racing, weaving to generate even more speed, choosing\u2026 a kind of perfect line, but the wave starts to lose power. No problem, the goofy-footer has built up so much speed he streaks out onto the shoulder of the wave and gouges a huge roundhouse cutback, returning to the wave\u2019s power source right as it starts to re-energise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the car we\u2019re mesmerised.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Rob Machado!\u201d a buzzing, pre-pubescent voice jokes.<\/p>\n

Our eyes track the goofy-footer through the screen of the window, he hits the lip vertically, sending spray flying, but he hasn\u2019t lost any speed whatsoever \u2013 crazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Something\u2019s happening, there\u2019s a wild energy forming amongst the groms in the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pre-pubescent voice cries out again \u201cIt\u2019s Rob Machado!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Again, the goofy-footer smashes the lip and this time his fins release into the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh\u2026 My\u2026 God!!\u201d Another squeaky voice stutters in mock disbelief that has come full circle back to actual disbelief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s schralping!\u201d (say it with me: Shh-RELL-ping)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the car we start to believe, maybe it really is Rob Machado \u2013 Californian surfing icon, pipe master, world no. 2, Kelly Slater\u2019s bestie,<\/a> and star of Taylor Steele\u2019s seminal surf films Momentum and Good Times.<\/p>\n

It was Rob Machado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here in Raglan. And he had Taylor Steele with him too.<\/p>\n

\"RobA picture of Rob Machado circa. 1995, which the author wishes he took, but didn\u2019t. (Photo: Getty)<\/p>\n

Olly Coddington was the grommet that recognised Machado before anyone else that day. \u201cIt was like an actual high, heart racing, tingly, that\u2019s freaking Machado. He\u2019s so smooth, so fast, he sticks everything, this guy does not fall off, and he\u2019s doing stuff on a wave you\u2019d only see in surf movies,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re 12 and all the adults in your orbit are seasoned surfers there is a lot to learn. Our classroom was the corner of the Raglan Surf Co., where the wetsuit racks and TV were situated. We would sit there for hours breathing in the fresh neoprene vapours wafting off the brand new wetsuits and analysing the style of every surfer ever recorded to VHS.<\/p>\n

There were two kinds of vids, Aussie ones and American ones.<\/p>\n

The Australian ones were colourful and relatable, full of blue water, golden landscapes and aggressive power surfing, but\u2026 kind of boring. The American offerings had tail slides, airs, skateboarding fashion, Slater, and music called pop-punk, and something about the NTSC to PAL conversion gave them a cool, washed-out filter, like they were beaming in from an alternate timeline.<\/p>\n

The Taylor Steele video that had just dropped was Good Times<\/a> \u2013 Coddington was a fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Aussie vids were awesome, but the American dudes were higher-ranked, and they were doing more airs, more progressive surfing \u2013 not saying that that is better surfing, but at the time it was like \u2018whoa, yeah cool, give me airs!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Cederman of the Raglan Surf Report<\/a> was another air-obsessed grommet gang member.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose videos were the most important thing for my surfing progression. You couldn\u2019t just go for a surf and see someone out there doing airs, because it didn\u2019t exist in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

We harvested these movies for biomechanical data harder than a Hollywood motion capture studio, analysing the twist and flex of every joint, the foot placement, the fingers skimming the wall of the wave, the facial aggression of a cutback and the casual attitude displayed after a life-changing tuberide.<\/p>\n

So it was no coincidence the groms ID\u2019d Machado through the rain from half a kilometre away \u2013 we\u2019d been studying the vids, and what we experienced through the drips on the car window that day was like that d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu kind of knowing, the knowing before knowing when you recognise your best friend\u2019s body language from across the park, or the other side of the mall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GromsAlways meet your heroes: L-R Luke Cederman, Leon Santorik, Dylan West-Haywood and Olly Coddington pictured out front of Raglan Surf Co. with filmmaker Taylor Steele and surfing legend Rob Machado. (Photo: Olly Coddington)<\/p>\n

Machado\u2019s shredding in The Valley that day put surfing lore on a higher plane for us groms in the car \u2013 for surfing is full of tall tales and word of mouth exploits, but to see Machado\u2019s blazing forehand attack with our own eyes made the world of tall tales a little less tall, and our own aspirations in surfing a little bigger. Here\u2019s one of the best, here\u2019s what\u2019s possible at this spot, in these conditions, today, right now.<\/p>\n

For the groms, the afterglow of Machado and Steele\u2019s Raglan visit was a slow burn. It pushed Cederman\u2019s aerial surfing progression, but it also had a grounding effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re a kid you really idolise people, as like, these gods of surfing, but you get to see that they\u2019re actually a real person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thirty years on Coddington still admires the famous visitors\u2019 generosity. \u201cThey were really giving of their time, they weren\u2019t too cool for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked him if he was amped for the World Championship Tour event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stoked for the new generation of grommets, they\u2019re gonna be so frothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author wishes to thank Cynthia, Sheree, and the Hughes family of Raglan Surf Co. for facilitating life-changing video viewing sessions, and for sometimes allowing hot chips to be eaten while sitting on the floor in front of a TV in a pristine retail setting.<\/p>\n