Paddling Out in Raglan

Raglan, 50 kilometres west of Hamilton, “is your archetypal surf town, with annual surf contests, a busy surf school and a bohemian buzz reminiscent of the 1960s,” Kerry van der Jagt writes for The Age. ‘Our town is a colourful comic strip of characters,’ director of the Raglan Surf School Charlie Young says. With his long grey beard plaited into a pirate braid, this ageing surfer is a character himself; when Charlie’s not surfing, or teaching surfing, he’s talking about surfing. Arriving from California in 1988, as a burnt-out executive looking for a seachange, he found the holy grail of surfing in Raglan. He tells me Raglan still harks back to the golden age of surfing, but artists and musicians have also discovered the town.”