When you really love doing something and you turn it into a business, it’s bound to succeed… Zoe Hawkins-Wilde meets windsurf school operator Pete Smith.
Does Pete Smith have the best job in New Zealand? As owner-operator of the Auckland Windsurf School in Pt Chevalier, Auckland, he’s doing what he loves, what he has always wanted to do, five days a week. And yes, he goes windsurfing on his days off.
Pete was raised 30 miles from the sea in Essex. His early encounters with the sport of windsurfing were as a young boy fishing at a local pond and combing through magazines for pictures of windsurfing.
“The UK is not ideal for windsurfing, but I was determined to somehow get involved,” he recalls. “It was pretty massive in the 1980s. I was hooked on the exotic photos we saw from overseas, but my first experience was on a pond in Essex when I was 16.”
His next step was a fortuitous move to a town where the water was pre-warmed by a nuclear power station. He sailed hard to perfect his craft in the sport and realised that becoming an instructor would be a great way to fulfil two of his lifelong aims: windsurfing and travelling.
Soon years had passed. Pete had lived, wind-surfed and worked in the UK, the Greek Islands and the Aegean Sea off Turkey, experiencing light and much windier conditions. He’d bounced around to a range of windsurf resorts in Egypt, Barbados, Maui, and other places. He had picked up a host of qualifications and was sought-after as an instructor. “It was
a good life,” he says.
Eventually, in the late 90s, he found his way to New Zealand, escaping the UK winter. He met Brian Smith (no relation), proprietor of the then Tamaki Sailboards store in Panmure, as well as the NZ Boardstore in Pt Chev, where he was employed to run Brian’s off-shoot business, a small windsurf school in Buckland’s Beach.
Then in 2007 Pete, having met his Kiwi wife Chloe in 2004, decided to settle in New Zealand, subsequently purchasing Brian’s windsurf school, along with just six beginner boards and rigs.
By 2010 the business was starting to thrive: Pete had built up not only a loyal customer base of individuals, groups and schools, but the Auckland Windsurf School had really formed its foundation as the hub of a community at the boat ramp in front of Pt Chevalier Sailing Club.
Today that community is highly visible. Windsurfers and those wanting to watch or learn about windsurfing come and go all day, by foot and in their cars. There are the daily regulars, like the affectionately-named ‘Mad Bruce’, who Pete says is likely Auckland’s keenest windsurfer. He appears each day to sniff the breeze, contemplate a sail and have a yarn with whoever is around.
There are the hard-core and skilled speedsters who fly backwards and forwards for hours, faster than the wind, practicing for competition, or just for the thrill.
And the learners – people of all ages who just want to give it a go and see if they like it.
Pete’s teaching talent is clear. He is able to engage sailors at every level and give them what they need – whether that’s sage advice about reading the wind and tides, providing skills coaching or equipment hire.
The equipment routine is a big part of his daily life. He has 45 boards in total – enough to take out school groups. A lot of these are stacked neatly in his trailer but more are in storage at a local garage.
SUP has proven a great entry point into watersports for people and helped keep Pete’s business busy at times, too. “Paddle-boarding was massive when it first came out, and really helped me grow the Auckland Windsurfing School,” he says. “It’s a chance for people who don’t do any watersports to get involved in something, it’s super-easy and it keeps you fit. It was a massive craze from around 2011 to 2016.”
Windsurfing’s popularity has ebbed and flowed. While kitesurfing took some of the share for a time, windsurfing has now reclaimed its lead, partly due to the advent of foiling, plus the introduction of shorter, wider boards which have revolutionised the sport.
Pete was never a fan of kiteboarding, shying away from the danger aspect. But he has embraced foiling, adding a stable of foiling boards and associated equipment to his fleet.
He says the difference between windsurfing and foiling is a bit like skiing and snowboarding. While you can pick up skiing fairly quickly, you get hammered learning how to snowboard. It’s the same with foiling, but persist for a few days and you can cruise along.
“Foiling doesn’t make sense at the start. You drift, out of control, but once you find the point of balance, you are proficient straight away.”
There is certainly a bit of magic at the Raymond Street beach where Pete operates in Pt Chevalier. Down a short, narrow road that opens into an expansive carpark with a boat ramp, it is also home to Pt Chevalier Sailing Club. It’s about 10 minutes from Auckland CBD and just a few minutes from the Great North Road exit of the Northwestern Motorway.
While there are many places in Auckland to windsurf, only a handful are suitable for sailing in most wind directions.
At Pt Chev that is everything but an easterly or sou’easterly – both directions are rare in Auckland, anyway, with the prevailing breezes from the southwest and west.
“In my opinion it’s the best all-round venue. It can handle a big range of wind directions,” he says. Pete also has a great relationship with the sailing club, where he also runs the Waterwise programme, and with the New Zealand Boardstore just a few hundred metres up the road.
“The board store is a big influence. It was opened in the 1990s and has brought people to the area for windsurfing,” says Pete.
Right now, Pete is riding the lockdown wave – taking it
a bit easier than he has done in previous years, working with fewer people, and not pushing so hard. He really enjoys one-on-one lessons and seeing people progress through the sport.
“Since the March 2020 lockdown, people have been keen to get into something new – New Zealand is great like that,” he says. He has taught around 6,000 people to sail in his career – close to half of those in Pt Chevalier, and like all good teachers, Pete loves it when people decide they are keen to continue with the sport and enjoy all the benefits it offers.
“The thing I like most of all about windsurfing is that it’s a sailing sport. It’s easy to go fast. The gear is compact, will fit in a car, and you can go out in massive wind range once you are experienced. Being in control in very light and very high winds are fantastic skills and thrills.”
WATER NOMADS
While Pete has his home hub at Pt Chevalier, Heidi Bader of Water Nomads has turned her passion for windsurfing into a business that travels the country’s best and most extreme windsurf spots.
Water Nomads has provided long-term, top-of-the-line gear rental for international visitors to New Zealand, but since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has pivoted to bespoke windsurf holidays for experienced sailors who want to challenge themselves, meet people, and travel to new places for a customised windsurf experience. These places include Taranaki and Doubtless Bay.
“There are so many places you can go windsurfing in New Zealand, but some are a bit intimidating by yourself. We give keen windsurfers the ability to explore them with some guidance and support,” says Heidi.
