First Things First Our small crew from Tracks arrives on the North Shore during interesting times. Tiger sharks have been roaming the seven-mile stretch tearing off legs like a greedy diner with his chicken dinner. Meanwhile, the Hells Angels have bought a property right next door to the famed Foodland supermarket. Everyone is waiting anxiously to see how much bikie gang muscle moves on surfing harrowed stretch and what happens when the Hells Angels chief runs into Eddie Rothman in aisle three at Foodland. There’s a world title to be decided and Australia’s claims to surfing supremacy are seriously under threat from a trio of Brazilians who torment Mick Fanning like The Three Musketeers attacking Rob Roy. There’s also a group of surfers fighting to secure or reclaim their position in the lucrative upper echelon of surfing, the WCT, where you get to decipher Strider Wasilewski’s questions and wear your own numbered jersey. With so much going on the plan is to keep fast and loose and try to explore some of the less visible aspects of North Shore life during contest season. The first thing I do after dumping my bags is head to Rocky Point to check the surf. In the modern era, Rocky Point lefts is the wave where the world’s best flyers show up to try and pull the biggest aerial of their lives. The warbly lefts jack and double up over a combination of sand and reef, sling-shotting surfers into crumbly-lipped sidewinders that transform into trampolines in the cross-shore trades. It seems like every wave at Rockies lefts is an opportunity to redefine surfing and when a few specialists paddle out together, the Rocky Point air show can be one of the most spectacular free surfing events in surfing. Aware that they may capture a manoeuvre at the zeitgeist of aerial surfing, the photographers congregate at Rocky’s, usually taking up posts along the craggy slab of volcanic rock that gives the wave its name. Companies like having their team houses close by because their surfers can be on it when the waves turn on, meanwhile the girls love it because the beach has a nice stretch of sand and there’s always plenty going on in and out of the water. A good day at Rockies can be like a little surftopian scene with crews set up on the beach, kids playing in the rock pools … Read more