Welcome to our eleventh issue of Halves titled ‘THE PINE TIMES’.

The unknown is a beautiful thing. It embodies all the exciting things in life: surprise, adventure, risks, rewards and sometimes ghosts and sharks too. Mum’s always stressed the importance of “going someplace new every year” a slogan she probably saw on a Flight Centre ad but I totally back the statement. It’s good for the soul to see new places and try new things. Norfolk Island doesn’t exactly spring to mind when you think of an intrepid excursion to foreign soil, where top-knotted Euro dudes strum their missing-string, surf-stickered acoustic guitars and faux-Rolex selling groms block yet another flawless sunset. Norfolk ain’t no Indonesia or Sri Lanka, nor does it try to copy its Pacific Island brothers, Fiji and Samoa. Located a short flight north of Auckland and only a mere 8 kilometres by 5 kilometres in size, with its tiny population of approximately 1400 permanent residents. We would soon find out this dark horse island is unlike any place we had ever been before.

Today, with the Internet at our fingertips, seven-day forecasts, swell maps, and wind charts, it is easy to get carried away when it comes to the next blip on the system. It’s Tuesday and you’re already getting calls about the weekend. “Where should we surf? Where should we go? Yeah, I think it will be on. The wind sucks on Sat morning, but then it swings and the period pulses…Geez it’s going to be cooking!”

Then you have four days to dream up visions of how good it is going to be. It is a blessing, but also a burden, that the human psyche is very positive. What I mean is, when you look forward to something, it’s not like you imagine it is going to be shit, do you? So when you have days to build on your imagination it often becomes the case that reality doesn’t live up to the projection of the mind. So what is the answer? How do you set yourself up so you’re not just hit back down?

No expectations.

NILDESTINATION is a long-weekend road trip with Luke Hynd, Alex Dive and Sean Kettle. Bugger all planning—no set destination and no expectations. Escape the real world for a while and discard all expectations about what the waves could or should be like. Anything will be fun. Big thanks to our friends at Dragon Alliance for helping make this possible.

Check out the full story in DGZ Issue 14 on sale December 17th

You can also view the short film by clicking here.

It went something like this…two campers, an interesting mix of surfies from three different countries -Rangi Ormond (Whangamata, NZ) Jesse Steelman (California, USA) and Asher Pacey (Gold Coast, Australia). With three weeks on our hands the only plan was, not to have one, except to have as much fun as possible exploring the South Island of Aotearoa. We ended up checking out the West, East and South coasts as well as everywhere and everything in between, if it wasn’t for the ferry to Stewart Island, we would have driven there too. Somewhere along the way the journey morphed into ‘Tail to Tip’ and we decided it would be a good idea to then drive all the way to top of the North Island. Clocking up well over 4000ks on the road in three weeks. The following, as always, is a photographic diary of the good times shared in the water & on the road.

Welcome to Halves Issue 08, the Cyclone Pam edition, everything that sent North Island surfers into a frenzied panic. Extreme swell forecasts, bruised keyboards, wild weather, the anticipation and finally perfect waves in novelty locations. The following is what happened over March 15th – 17th 2015. Take a flick through the pages and enjoy.

Welcome to Halves issue #7 the Southboundsnakes with Billabong NZ. This is a trip about getting on the road and going surfing. From Coolangatta to Sydney. It’s about small towns and late nights, car games and endless shit talking. What follows is a breakdown on all the intricacies of the tour, from “posting the cherries” to “snakes on juice”. Without further ado, these are the snakes.

Halves is a free online zine put together by DGZ.

Half the format (Digital)
Half the page count (56 pgs)
Half the words & Half the price… (No wait it’s even more than 1/2 the price its free!)