With a beach almost in their backyard, father Steev and children Ruben (16) and Misha (11), of Ocean View, live and breathe the sport at this time of year.
The trio are competing at this weekend’s South Island championships, being held at St Clair Beach.
They will be joined by Steev’s brother Guy Wilson and his children Leah (13) and Eva (10), who all live in Christchurch.
It will be the third competition in as many weeks the six have competed in together. They have enjoyed travelling and staying with each other.
One of those past two events was the Duke Surf Festival, at New Brighton Beach, in Christchurch.
It is rated the country’s top competition and Misha claimed the under-12 girls title, while Ruben was fourth in the under-18 boys.
Steev did not place, although had won the stand-up paddleboard section the past two years. Both Leah and Eva were third in their grades.It is an impressive list from one family, although plenty of time goes into getting there.
With such easy access to the ocean, the Peyroux family surfs several times a day, particularly over summer.
That is the main training, although Ruben and Misha both have access to coaching and make use of video analysis.
Both have been surfing since the age of 3, introduced to it by Steev, who began aged 14 when he and a friend bought a secondhand board for $5.
Since then the surfing lifestyle has become a huge part of their lives.
However, Steev felt the commercialised image of what being a surfer meant was different from the reality.
"The funny thing about surfing and lifestyle at the moment, the past five or 10 years in particular it’s just become so trendy it’s incredible," Steev said.
"The surf coach in Southland, where we’ve just been, said there’s more people in the water now than there’s ever been.
"For the hard-core surf culture people, it’s actually quite rough, you get smashed around.
"The image of surfing of being healthy, carefree, cruisy, is actually at odds with the reality of how rough it can be, especially in Dunedin.
"When it’s big and windy, you know what it’s like at St Clair sometimes and there’s people out there surfing, they’re tough.
"That’s not cruisy or anything like that."
It was a great excuse to travel around the country and the family had done lots of competitions on the South Island circuit.
Both Ruben and Misha were leading their grades on that circuit with two competitions to go.
Alongside their surfing exploits both played football for Green Island and at representative level and attend King’s High School and Big Rock Primary School respectively.
However, surfing that will be their main focus over Easter, as they compete alongside many of the best from around the country at the South Island Championships.
The event began yesterday and concludes tomorrow.
