BK onsite last month at the Pauanui Women’s Surf Festival

The name Kennings is synonymous with surfing in NZ. I'm pretty sure every interview or story about a Kennings starts like that too. Either that, or royalty and dynasty get bandied about. It's accurate.

Taff Kennings was a star in the seminal 60's Children Under the Sun movie. A member of the very first international NZ Surfing Team, he went on to write a regular surfing column in the Sunday Star and compete at the national level for many years. Next gen- Lynden dominated the '80's early '90's in both short board and Longboard. Nipping at his heels, Ben and Jos were Billabong NZ's poster boys, they backed it up with consistent contest results and NZ Junior Team placements. The third gen of Kennings clan also adding to the trophy cabinet. Lynden's son Dune is a National Junior and Open Champ, Ben Kennings' daughter India recently captained the Whanga team to victory at the North Island Scholastics Team Festival.

This is an interview with Ben Kennings. BK literally has been going to the Nationals since he was in nappies, and he has the scars to prove it...

BK: I cut my eye when I was 18 months old at the National Champs. It was the Piha National Champs so it must have been 1976 or something like that. I was in the back of the station wagon and there was a Leed lemonade bottle that had been rolling around the back on the Piha road, it was still all gravel at that time. The wagon was kind of on a hill and the bottle rolled out and hit the tow bar and exploded because it had been fizzed up. And the neck of it exploded into my eye and cut my eye half. They didn't get the helicopter, so mum had to drive me in. Dad didn't want to leave because I think he was judging the event. I think they pulled my eye out, stitched it up, and stitched up the eyelid, that's what, a bung eye. I've got like 80% vision out of it. So it's not perfect. It's pretty blurry, but I've lived with it for my whole life. Being in hospital would be one of my first ever memories and it's probably hard to say that when you're like 18 months. I can remember the nurse holding me and pointing out mum down in the car park and us both waving out. This seems to be the first memory I've ever had.

A Billabong back cover ad, circa 98, after the cover the back cover was the most coveted shot in a magazine

Your Dad, Taff and older brother Lynden are well known surfers. Were you aware that you were born into this NZ surfing dynasty.

BK: Probably not when you're young, I reckon, because you just started surfing because you're in a surfing family. So I don't think you realise that when you're young and probably not so much in the community either. But it'd be when you left your community and then you probably got some benefits. As you grew older, you could reflect and go, yeah, I knew some of the older guys on the Whanga Bar or that people were probably a little bit more friendly or know who you are. So I think it helps in that way.

Definitely my first trip away by myself was to Piha, the Jesus Classic in the late 80’s, and I stayed with Lynden and a bunch of his flatmates, I think Bazza [Daniels] was there and a few guys like that. We went to the Piha Rassa and I can still remember Simon Avery buying me a bag of chips, and other guys that were there; the Boonarts, Wedge etc. Because I was staying with Lynden, I got a shoe in. Just got the shoe in and then they kind of know who you are or say hi and stuff. And so I think then you definitely realise it then, I was 14 or 15. I even got to surf for Keyhole in a tag team challenge at the Dunedin Nationals in 1990 as the junior thanks to Lynden.

Bk under the hood in Samoa early 00’s on one of the to be mentioned Billabong jaunts, Raglan’s Luke Hughes on the shoulder

So, to carry on from that, growing up around your parents' peers, and the Whangamata environment and that it's full on surf town. What was it like growing up in that surf community in the 80's?

BK: We all surfed as a group of groms, it was Digger and Chrissy Davie, Jesse Webb, Scott Casey, Matt Honeycomb, Alex Rankin, Jesse Hoskins, and then there's a bunch of other guys, Giffy, Jamie Riley, probably forget some. You went out, surfed and hung out. There wasn't a heck of a lot else to do, that was what we did after school or before school.

The other thing we did when we were young is being a surf town, we hung at the surf shop, nonstop. If there was no surf, we were hanging at the surf shop and we had 3 surf shops. We were at Saltwater Surf shop, nonstop, and they had the factory out the back. So you're either checking a board if you're getting a board made, you're hanging at the shop, pestering Pete Mitchell. We had a basketball hoop there. We'd play basketball all day and hang out. I don't know whether it was good for sales because you had 10 grommets all hanging out the front. It might be a little bit intimidating, but they were always super accommodating. And that's something that you probably don't do these days. You know, you go there and talk about stuff, you get the faxes from the ASP and the rankings that would be up on the wall that you'd analyse.

Fricken legend line up here, back row Alan Byrne, Occy and Ronnie Burns. Down in front L to R, Jossy and Ben Kennings, Chrissy and Dan Davie

Part of where I was going was, having someone like Bob Davie in the community, meant that people like Occy, Rabbit, Ronnie Burns and Allan Byrne came through town.

BK: Oh, yeah! That was the biggest day of our lives when, Occy, Ronnie Burns, Rabbit and AB come through. Trying to get time off school. They surfed in the morning and they were ripping, we were dumbfounded. They came and did a little thing at school, and then I jimmied my way into Digger's place after school because that's where they were staying. I got to meet them, got a photo with them, got my poster signed. So, there were heaps of opportunities like that.

There was another one, um, where we had the QS at Raglan, and Lynden brought back Gary Green, Dog Marsh and Paul Sargent. We had 2 weeks of endless pumping Bar. And we thought they were going to miss it, but it kept going and going. They all surfed the Bar. Shane Powell was another one that was there, so it was pretty crazy. They surfed pumping Bar for days and then they went over to the QS. At the time we were picking Kiwifruit on our orchard, I couldn't get the time off because we had to pick all the fruit. So that was pretty hectic, but the Bar was pumping and there were some amazing photos in the magazines from those sessions and Sarge got heaps of footage that never made his videos either.

Was there a moment where you went; this is pretty cool. I like this surfing thing.

BK: I don't think there was a singular moment. But I remember certain waves when I was a grom. We were at a Nationals in Gisborne, and I remember getting my first green wave at Northern Makorori. Getting pushed in and going along a green wave and being blown away, then heading towards this rock, which I had to jump off and avoid.

I can remember on the beach at Whanga thinking, I got barrelled, because I kind of pulled through the back of a wave and went through the lip and then through the back and I thought I could feel myself in the tube. Ones like that where you remember them forever and a day, but I guess that green wave at Makas would be the main memory, it's always stuck in my mind.

Pretty good wave to have as your playground growing up huh! Like this print, you can buy it **HERE**

Do you remember your first Whanga Bar barrel?

BK: Nah, nah, I don't reckon I do. I remember a lot of good barrels out there. I remember my first surf out there though; I paddled out with Dad and it was quite stormy, overcast, it was pretty average and I fell off and my leash string broke. My first surf, and I was floating on the inside, crying, and Dad didn't come and help me. Bam was out and came to help me, tied up my leash and told Dad, hey, your son's crying. Dad's like, oh, he'll be all right. But that was my first time on the Bar. I remember it clear as day.

I do remember my first cover shot out there, Groundswell magazine. [We laugh, and reminisce as it was a pretty darn good water photo of BK I got in 1994]

When you surfed on the Bar when you're young and you see all those older guys, and some of them are still out. Like Dad and Shanksy, they are still out there today. You always remember Spart surfing the Bar and Lynden, Big Joss-Joss Jocelyn. Brod obviously, he's still out there now as well. But yeah, seeing those guys all the time dominating the takeoff. And then it was Pete Anderson and Bam Rae and all those guys as well. Pretty crazy.

Was there a realisation that it's also going to be your moment, where you're going to be a top dog?

BK: I haven't got there yet. There was probably a bit more of a hierarchy back then. I mean, it's still pretty strong, you were off the side or you were getting the 2 to 3 footers off the takeoff rather than the 4 to 5 footers, you know, you got the leftovers. The hierarchy is still there and those guys that have been at the top have been at the top for 40 years.

BK, shall we go with the cliche, Only A Surfer Knows The Feeling? Teahupoo 2003

You've seen, endured and enjoyed surfing's popularity. It's wanes and peaks from the 80s, right through to now. What eras stick out as memorable?

BK: As a grom, everything always seems bigger. Like you'd go to the Nationals and I've been to every Nationals since 1989, apart from one when I was overseas in 2003. They always seemed amazing, you'd watch all the top surfers; the guys, Lynden's age and Glenn Campbell and Ratso competing, Jason Matthews and stuff is like, holy, pretty iconic. And then you're part of some of those teams growing up as well. Some of the New Zealand Juniors teams. I never made an Open team. I remember Lynden being in them and coming back through Hawaii when we were living there for a little bit when we were kids. He came back through with Wayne Pitcher after the English ISA's. The grom events you'd go to were always quite big.

ohh jez, 1996??? L to R Kelly Lovelock, Scotty Casey, Jos Kennings, Ella Willis, Scott McNabb and BK. On an ill fated MAX TV shoot. 4 foot the day we arrived, 1 foot the next morning.

As you get a little bit older, you pick up sponsorship and that was huge back in the day. Started out getting boxes of Billabong clothes, Bolle sunnies before John Snelling got Oakley and free boards from Pete Anderson. Then you got to go on surf trips overseas, which rarely happens now, probably for most of the New Zealand surfers. Those kind of shoots are real special. Whether it's Samoa, Tahiti or Indo and they were long trips. Buit also the New Zealand missions too, photo shoots to the Far North, Great Barrier, specialty Billabong Challenges. There were other trips when you'd go away overseas with one of you guys as a photographer from the surf mag, whether it's G-land, the old school Bali-Nusa Lembogan-Lombok-Sumbawa round trip, the Aussie trips that people would go on. I think those were the times when the surf industry was probably making the most and hence spending the most on marketing. And then as that gets cut back or all the marketing budget goes to Aussie and gets determined by an Aussie, then it's a little bit harder to get money out of them for New Zealand initiatives.

BK in the FFN on the Billabong credit card

I don't think the surf industry is as big now. I think the surfing population is bigger, but surfing was always funded off the back of the apparel companies and they're not spending the money they used to. Probably because they're not making the same money either.

How did you possibly scam going to G-land for your honeymoon?

BK: Haha, I didn't go to G-land for my honeymoon. I went to Nusa Lembogan, which is pretty close. But I did tag on a week at G-Land after my honeymoon, and Gina went home by herself. Very lucky to have a nice wife who probably swore and cursed at me under her breath. We got married in Bali at Uluwatu. So it made sense to try and tag something on. The one and only time I've ever been to G-land. So, it was pretty cool. And I got a cover photo out of it. So, it was a good outcome.

Most people know BK as the longest serving employee of Surfing NZ, he's done the mahi that is for sure. 23 years in, his current role is Chief Executive. 23 years working for a sporting body, suggests that that's more of a vocation rather than a sensible career decision. What were your drivers start working at SNZ and how have you maintained that drive?

BK: I used to write about surfing or do any projects at school on surfing. The teachers would sort of, not harass you, but they'd always make a remark, oh, you almost did something without mentioning surfing. And then as it turns out, you end up working in the surf industry, which I kind of look back on with a bit of a wry smile. Most people that work in sport they do it because they love sport, and of course, I love surfing, I love all sports, but I love surfing the most.

Surfing and snowboarding are pretty on par. It's that old adage, if you can do something you love for work, then you never have to work a day in your life. It is like that. You get to work on surfing and you're doing a job where people are active, they love to go out in the water and that’s a big positive.

Whether it's teaching kids to surf, the Boardriders club here, or any of the programs we deliver or watching groms progress through, you know, from being a grom right through to getting in New Zealand teams and going to the Olympics. To be part of some of those things is special.. I'd say most people in sport administration believe that they're giving back in a sense. Making it better than when they were young.

Bk, no stress sitting in an outrigger off the edge of Tahiti

Being involved in sports administration, it seems as though it's so easy to be dragged into all the negative stuff. How do you balance the gatekeeping and the diplomacy; do you have to consciously balance that?

BK: Yeah, I don't know if you ever balance it, but you learn to deal with it. I think in sports administration there is rarely an off switch. There's always something you could be doing, could be doing better, should be doing. You'll finish your 9-5 day, you're often dealing volunteers that finish their day of work and then they're doing the volunteer stuff. They'll be ringing you at night or messaging or emailing. So there's not much an off switch. But in terms of balancing the good and the bad, I think you have to rely on data and facts. Anybody that comes with criticisms, as long as you can identify those, try and resolve and champion the positive parts. I think, and that's probably something that people don't do enough in New Zealand because people can often look at a negative viewpoint rather than the positive. So it's just reminding yourself all the time.

With the technology you've got now as well. You can survey people and you've actually got data that pulls a group of people together rather than individual comments. I think that’s probably the biggest one and comparing it year on year as well. It's not always good, you have those ups and downs in sport and the economy all the time. But as long as you can compare to other years and see what you're achieving, if you're achieving more or less, and then try and work to improve that.- ends

…AND Deeeeen

30 minutes with Ben Kennings

Catching up with Andrew ‘Pando’ Robinson