page_title: Surfing in New Zealand
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Surfing in New Zealand / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Pumping Surf at Manu Bay, Raglan
context_page_description: New Zealand is a popular surfing destination, with a long history of the sport and a varied coastline with locations suitable for all types of surfing. The West coast is notably consistent, with big swells and high winds, whereas the east coast is dominated by cyclone season swells; the North island is notably warmer than the South, but less consistent; mean temperatures range from 7 °C to 20 °C, depending on location and time of year. Winter is more consistent than Summer, with a southeasterly swell. The climate of New Zealand is varied, so different surf conditions are encountered across the islands.
context_section_description: The practice of searching for better surf conditions led to the establishment of certain cities and towns as surfing centres, with a distinctive surfing culture. These include Raglan, Mt Maunganui and Gisborne.
  Raglan is particularly known for its consistent surf, and many people visit the small town to learn surfing from one of the local surf schools. Green Wave Raglan is currently the top-rated surf school in the country.
caption: RaglanManuBay
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1080", "Image ImageLength": "1072", "Image DateTime": "2019:03:12 20:50:45", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ExifOffset": "94", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1072", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1080"}