New Zealand’s Rusty team rider Jonas Tawharu along with long time collaborator Oscar Jones have released their latest surf video titled ‘Rusty Part’ (watch it below!) and just like most of their previous work, It’s full of great surfing & cold waves which is exactly how we like it! Since we’re all still stuck in level 4 lockdown and can’t surf, Leroy caught up with Jonas about his new surf vid, life in Dunedin & his favourite Rusty Surfboards:

Hi Jonas, How are you doing though this latest lockdown mate?

Hey bro! It's been pretty boring here in Kilda, Sam and I are just playing cards all day haha.

Good to hear the boys are finding something other than surfing to keep entertained… what’s your go to?

We have been playing heaps of 500, it’s fun as. How about you, it must be epic out Aramoana!?

Yeah things are all good out here, thanks. Lockdown isn’t so bad when you live walking distance from the beach! It’s been flat and onshore the whole time, otherwise… who knows.

Have you been checking the waves? How’s it been out front?... tempted?

Not checking any waves really, hopefully it ends soon…

You can say that again! Anyway, enough of that.

Congratulations on your latest video with Rusty! We were thinking about featuring the video on our Hydro blog alongside a wee interview/Q&A with yourself and some links to the boards you ride - if you were keen???

Yeah, no worries, always happy to help hydro with content stuff.

Awesome mate let’s get into it.

For those that don’t know, you originally came down from the Mount for Uni and have ended up staying on. How long have you been living in Ōtepoti, Dunedin now?

 I have been living in Dunedin for four years now.

Having mostly avoided the Scarfie vortex, it seems you’ve made better use of your time than many students with getting to know the city and its surrounds. What have you enjoyed most about living down south?

The south has a different feel to other parts of Aotearoa. I think the people are a lot friendlier and welcoming. That big city hustle is pretty polarising to most people's attitude and lifestyle down here.

That’s nice to hear mate. So, you’ve met local St Clair skater, musician & videographer Oscar Johns and teamed up to make a few cool clips together including ANDA, Self Titled & of course ‘ILLEGAL’ alongside Sam, Jack & Elliott. How long have you been working on this latest film?

This clip, we probably used footage from the last two years. It was tricky to fit in missions with other work obligations.

Do you have any memorable sessions or moments from your time filming this part?

A great moment is always getting some hot food on the way home!

Haha, I’ve heard you’re a sucker for some hot food on the way home from a surf… what is your favourite joint, and what’s your order?

Haha, I am a sucker for a scoop of hot chips from that cart in Owaka. Also, Port Chalmers fish burger is everyone’s favourite!

The Port Chalmers Fish Burger…more famous than Chicks Hotel? Almost! Now, that brings me to the next question, music selection can make or break a video part, how do you and Oscar choose what songs to use?

That is true!

We used a track from 'School Fair'

A new band rising from the industrial warehouse area of harbourside Dunedin. We used a local band because it hopefully helps them a little and, also Dunedin still has the best music scene in NZ!

Cheers to that! We’ll be sure to keep on the lookout for more from ‘School Fair’.

Now let’s get surf technical, what boards were you riding in your latest Rusty part?

 5'9 Rusty Slayer 2

5'8 Rusty Blade

5'3 Classic Keel Fish

I believe all those models are up on the racks at Hydro Surf too.

Yeah bro, nice models…What volumes are you riding in the Blade, Slayer and Twin? And what’s your height weight? It can be helpful info for others to draw comparisons to their sizing recommendations.

I am about 5'8 at 70kgs 

So, my Blade/Slayer are about 27.4 L

The Fish is about 28L

I think Dunedin crew want to add a litre to their boards because of how much wetsuit gear we have to wear in winter.

That’s a good point, most of us could benefit significantly with a bit more volume. A full rig of cold-water neoprene can add anywhere from 4-6 kgs to your weight.

What do you like about each board & what surf conditions does each board suit best?

The Slayer 2 is a must have for heavier conditions.

The Blade is a good all-around performance board and the fish is good in both big and small waves.

If you were to pick a 1 spot around town which is in your mind the perfect match for each of those boards, what 3 breaks would they be, and briefly, why?

My favourite spot is St Kilda, it gets heavy enough as well as soft and mushy for all those boards. Just got to make sure the JW bogans pick up their rubbish!

Good man. We surfers take so much joy home from time spent at the beach, least we can do is get rid of some rubbish in return.

Many will be wondering, why do you like to ride these short & wide keel fin fishes when the waves are big & barrelling?

Initially when I got The Fish from Rusty Preisendorfer I was coming back from a major ACL injury, so it was a bit of a safety net to start with. But while I found those fishes were a little sketchy with late drops etc, they are so fast and drivey in some conditions that they can become hard to look past.

Do you have a preference for fin set-ups?

I not stuck with anything, I think both thruster and keel options are great depending on what you want to feel.

If you could only ride one Rusty board for the rest of your life, which board would you choose?

I think for now it would be the stock 5'8 Blade. It's kind of boxy but I'm pretty sure it's based on Occy's 1984 pipe board.

How good is that photo of Occy! The Lord!

I must admit I’m sort of surprised and intrigued that you chose the Blade of those 3… the hype for this model seems to have fallen short of reaching what I would have expected its full potential to be. Could you please give us a little more insight as to why you choose this board?? Also, do you have yours made with channel bottom or without – I see it’s offered in both… have you tried both?

The Blade is essentially just a regular all-rounder performance shortboard drawn from a mid-80s inspired high performance shortboard design. Updated models of The Blade come with a more refined rail now and seem to be way better than the earlier boxier models. I have channels and ones without channels, I think I prefer my boards without channels, I'm not sure why?  It seems this board has a lot of vintage looking features with its flat deck/boxy rails, but it goes good and looks really different to standard shortboards from over manufacturers.

Awesome Jonas, thanks for your time, you’ve nailed out some good info for us and our readers. The Friday 3pm Covid Alert Level’s update is coming out in about half an hour... fingers crossed next time we speak we’ll be looking at a surfing being legal – again. Say Hi to Sam for us, we all miss him at Hydro. Yehhw!

We’ve got a whole bunch of Rusty Surfboard models at Hydro including all of Jonas’s favourites: The Blade, The Slayer 2 & The Classic Fish. If you ever want to know more about these models or any Rusty Surfboards then ask away, we are surf nerds and are always down to chat about surfboards. Don’t forget if you’re keen for any Rusty surfboard model be it stock dims or custom, hit us up & we can make it happen!

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