Dunedin surfer Jimi Crooks remembers the day well. There was a powerful swell at the Black Head quarry break. The waves were hollow and intimidating. Heavy. So heavy a lot of the young gun surfers from the area chose not to go out.
It was about nine years ago. Veteran Dunedin surfer and shaper, Graham “Carsey” Carse, now 69, was a sprightly 60-year-old at the time and was out in the water with the young and the committed.
A massive set wave loomed.
“Hang on a minute, Carsey is bloody well going for it,” Jimi recalls.
“I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but I need not have worried.”
Cool as a cucumber Carsey pulled into one of the best backhand barrels of his life and rode it cleanly. He blew the minds of those lucky enough to have witnessed it.
“That was legend right there,” Jimi offers. “At that age in that surf … it was truly legendary. The only other guys out were young chargers. It was a very, very heavy day.”
“A lot of people talk about doing things … Carsey just does them.”
Actions, not words.
Legend.
No doubt the word gets overused.
But every so often someone comes along who is the real deal. Then it is on us to give that person due recognition, because legends rarely blow their own trumpets.
News that Graham Carse has decided to call time on his iconic Quarry Beach Surf Shop and shaping bay in Caversham is that point in time.
“That was legend right there, at that age in that surf … it was truly legendary. The only other guys out were young chargers. It was a very, very heavy day. A lot of people talk about doing things … Carsey just does them.”
He has been part of the fabric of the Dunedin surf scene since 1968 – basically since there was a Dunedin surf scene. Carsey, his brothers and his mates found, surfed and named many of the now famous surf spots around the city’s coastline.
His retirement is an opportunity to celebrate the life and character of one of Dunedin’s most influential surfers, a man who has taken some serious body blows in the last couple of years with the heartbreaking deaths of his son Danny and wife Gaby. With each tragedy he has emerged strong, loving, connected to his community and, miraculously, still funny as all hell.
“What a character he is,” said Jimi, 30, himself one of the best big-wave surfers around.
“I love his sense of humour. He is just hilarious. He gives you that little side-eye look when he has just cracked a joke.
“Sure he can be gruff, sometimes even a little grumpy, but he is just a lovely, lovely guy with a big heart.”
“Sure he can be gruff, sometimes even a little grumpy, but he is just a lovely, lovely guy with a big heart.”
To walk the streets of his home turf – St Clair beach and the Caversham/South Dunedin area – with Carsey is to realise just how widely known, loved and respected this man is. It seems that every second person knows him, greets him, wants a word. Nationally pioneering surfers and fellow shapers speak with great respect and admiration for their southern counterpart.
He is a man of the people and these are definitely his people. Carsey is born and bred in Dunedin.
He went to King Edward Technical College and trained as a butcher upon leaving school. Later, his father George bought the Caversham Bakery and at one stage Carsey, his parents George and Joy, plus brothers, Stu, Murray and Les, and sisters Janice and Leanne, all lived above the bakery. Carsey also trained as a baker before going on to work at the Burnside Freezing Works.
Between his large and dynamic family, including his treasured daughter, Lisa, now 50, his grassroots links to the South Coast Board Riders Club and the Southern Rugby Club, and the thousands of people who have been through his surf shop, it is no exaggeration to say Carsey is one of the most well-known and connected men in Dunedin.
Yet he remains an enigma. He’s very economical with his words, can be gruff and forthright to the point of being damn right scary. Yet the man is all heart. He has amazing empathy and loyalty for his friends and family, and something few people know about him – he’s incredible with animals, very gentle and intuitive.
Lifelong friend and fellow surfer, Graham Dickie, 70, says loyalty is hugely important to his mate.
“Whenever you need him he’s there,” Graham said.
“He really is an enigma. Communication isn’t necessarily his strong point, but he has a heart of gold.
“When my mum died he was the first person at my door with a tray of savouries.”
The pair have been mates for 55 years, so there is a lot of history there.
“He is a multi-dimensional guy. He supports people. He’s hard working and creative, and has been one of very few one-man-band hand shapers in the New Zealand surf scene, doing everything himself including moving with the times so far as surfboard design goes.”
Graham, a veteran longboard surfer, believes Carsey has shaped some of the best custom longboards ever made in New Zealand.
“He is a multi-dimensional guy. He supports people. He’s hard working and creative, and has been one of very few one-man-band hand shapers in the New Zealand surf scene, doing everything himself including moving with the times so far as surfboard design goes.”
He makes everything from performance short boards, cruisy mini mals, twin-fin fish, tow boards, and big wave gun boards, one of which Leroy Rust was riding when he stroked into the biggest wave Jimi has ever seen paddled at Papatowai.
In many respects Carsey is an authentic old school hard man – surfing hard, partying hard and in his younger days, even enjoyed a spot of scrapping. But over the years he has emerged as a man with great compassion for others and a huge depth of character.
There is a whole lot more than surfing to this fellow, but the legend certainly began with his time in the water. And there has been a lot of it. Carsey has been surfing the Otago coast and beyond for more than half a century. 56 years and counting.
Gallery: Surfing Through The ’70s
Until a serious heart complaint side lined him in 2020, he was still surfing short boards, still surfing to a very high level. During his career he has done it all – short boards, longboards (hates to admit it) and tow-in surfing. Few read the waves as well as he does, his positioning is so good he always makes it look easy out there, his style is strong, commanding and very much no nonsense, like the man himself.
He has won eight Otago Men’s Open surf titles, one South Island Championship title, one Canterbury title and at national level he has triumphed as a senior, a master and most recently, the aptly named Fossils title (for Over 60s).
One of Carsey’s oldest mates, Jock Benfell, also 69, says Carsey was always highly competitive.
“He can be a pain in the arse in the water, but he’s my best mate,” Jock said.
“He can be a pain in the arse in the water, but he’s my best mate.”
The pair met at the gates of the St Clair Primary School in 1957 have been tight mates ever since, sharing what Jock describes as an unspoken understanding with each other.
From the time they discovered surfing on foam boards as 13-year-olds they basically lived at the beach, hard core right from the word go, living for the waves, camping at Waikouaiti in the snow, hauling huge 10ft wooden-hulled boards around the beaches with them.
“Graham was the right person at the right time for surfing in Dunedin, with his shop, his boards, his advice. He will always steer people in the right direction, whether its boards or conditions … unless of course he didn’t like you.
“Surfing has been his life. Surfing and fishing. And of course women. He loves women. He has a certain magic about him.”
Carsey got hooked on surfing when he was at school – understandably, living close to St Clair.
His good mate Terry Fitzgibbon remembers him as an eager grommet.
“Aged just 16, he and his mate Jock Benfell took a late bus into the city with their boards and covertly slept overnight in my unlocked ’58 Combi,” Terry recalls. “Why? Because Dunedin’s north coast was firing and Graham surmised I’d be heading out early the next morning.
“What a pleasant surprise to be greeted by the two keen, bleary-eyed lads at daybreak,” he continues. “Their ‘hitch-a-ride’ plan paid off that day with two great sessions in the briny. Just another novel ‘wagging school’ scenario by Graham in his lifelong quest for chasing waves.”
Carsey was the coach of the New Zealand team at the amateur World Champs in Japan in 1991, and has also taken college surf teams away to competitions.
The man himself says working with young surfers has been one of the most satisfying aspects of his long career in surfing.
“I love watching the progress of the younger surfers,” Carsey shares. “The other great thing about owning the shop has been meeting so many like-minded people.”
The Quarry Beach Surf Shop has always been a social gathering place for Carsey’s mates as they visit from around the country. And Friday drinks always had a genuine good buzz about them.
He first started shaping boards in 1989 after being laid off from the Burnside Freezing Works a year earlier. Carsey, and his mate Steve Teague, turned their surfing passion and knowledge into a surfboard shaping business, initially called Slick Sticks, but which later morphed into Quarry Beach Surfboards, named after the nearby Black Head surf break and quarry.
Over the years Carsey has shaped hundreds of boards, fixed too many dings to count and also shared his local surf knowledge with scores of surfers from crusty old rippers to fresh young grommets. Men, women and children, he has been a supporter and mentor to generations of Dunedin surfers.
He has earned his legendary status through longevity, through a generosity of spirit, through undeniable out and out surfing credibility, and, perhaps most importantly to many, through resilience. Anyone can shine when the going is good, but only those with true character survive and stand tall when things get tough.
And at times the going has been very tough, but Carsey has always shown true heart.
In 2003 he lost his sister, Leanne, in a terrible car accident. Carsey stepped in to help raise her son, Tyson. It is a tribute to the influence of Carsey that Tyson has turned out such a likeable character.
In July 2020 tragedy struck again. Carsey’s much loved son, Danny, one of the most talented surfers the country has ever seen, died aged 36 after a turbulent battle with mental illness.
It was at this time that Carsey rose from being simply a legendary surfer and shaper to a leader in the community.
At Danny’s funeral Carsey and his beloved late wife, Gaby, decided the often taboo subjects of suicide and mental illness would not be swept under the carpet, but would be talked about openly. In doing so they undoubtedly helped others, probably even saved a few lives, and furthered the cause of good mental health for all New Zealanders.
Several months later Carsey and fellow Dunedin surf shop owner, Leroy Rust, ran a surf comp at St Clair beach promoting openness and honesty about mental illness. The former freezing worker had emerged as an unlikely, understated, but very authentic leader in the vexed world of mental health.
Once again his actions were speaking louder than his words.
Life can be incredibly brutal. A year and a half later, he lost his wife and soul mate, Gaby. Also a woman of great heart, she never recovered from the death of her step son, Danny.
We are defined not by what happens to us in life, but to how we respond.
As a lifelong surfer pushing the boundaries Carsey has had his fair share of being worked by the forces of nature, the forces of the universe, but he has never been smashed as heavily as by the loss of Danny and of Gaby. Cruelly, he navigated both losses while being unable to surf due to his heart problem.
Few can imagine the grief that has been heaped upon the strong shoulders of Graham Carse.
But he is still standing, still a revered elder statesman of his community, still standing up for what he believes in, still making boards and plying his trademark dry humour … a humour indicative of an intellect he doesn’t really advertise.
Carsey is blessed with a genuinely robust emotional makeup.
At his core he has a strong ability to accept what he cannot change, take a hiding if necessary, pick himself up, dust himself off, and get on with it. He is a modern day warrior, straight from the streets of South Dunedin.
His sister Janice said there have been some very dark days for her older brother, but she can see the cheekiness coming back, the spark returning.
“He’s the best I’ve seen him for a while,” said Janice, 68. “Retirement means the pressure is coming off, this is his way of moving forward.”
“I think he is healing.”
“Retirement means the pressure is coming off, this is his way of moving forward. I think he is healing.”
She reckons resilience and an ability to hide pain are well-established Carse family traits.
“I hold Graham in very high regard. He’s been an amazing brother to me, always there when I needed him, so loving and supportive.”
She recalls him as a quiet, well-loved child. The naughtiness and the cheeky sense of humour arrived in his teens.
“He has a famous dry sense of humour, and also a knack for sometimes upsetting people without realising it. Once at a party he was introduced to a couple and he said to the woman, ‘so you brought your father along?’ They left soon after that, but that was just Graham being Graham.”
The word legend should not be used lightly. In this case it has been earned mightily. Graham Carse is a man of great spirit and integrity. People are drawn to him.
As you move on to the next chapter of your life we salute you, Carsey. We thank you for all you have done for so many. We love you mate.
Gallery: Graham Carse Career In Surfing
