RIP Pete Bell

Pete was guy known to many through his surfing travels, laid back lifestyle and his love of surfing and the natural environment. Well known Greymouth surfer Phil Harris reflects on the loss of Peter Stephen Bell (Pete 1956-2010)

I first met Pete thirty years ago when I was fourteen years old. Although only in his mid-20s, to us he was our ‘life-style surfing guru’, who took great pleasure in sharing his philosophy of life and his love of the natural environment.
Personally, I will miss Pete’s company in the line up in a way I’m struggling to understand. Surfing with Pete was special because verbal communication was difficult due to his profound hearing loss. As a result, like aquatic mammals, surfing became our medium of communication.
Early Kahuna meetings were famous for Pete’s slide shows. They always left a big impression on our local club members. Pete’s images of perfect line ups showed his love of the best surf breaks. His slide shows were always a mix of local settings around New Zealand as well as images from his international travel. A lot were of his native home in Perth, WA. He demonstrated to us the rewards of making an effort to get to the best days surf. Time meant nothing to Pete; his focus was on getting the perfect shot and the optimum surf experience. In recent years a group of close friends spent time surfing with Pete in south Westland. This got close to Pete’s ideal lifestyle; living on the cheap in bush huts, and surfing great waves with few other distractions of main stream life to interrupt his continuous connection with nature.

pete

Pete had strong convictions about taking care of the natural environment for future generations.    His love of the natural world was demonstrated by his hard work and dedication to revegetating the Cobden breakwater.     We all talked about doing this for a long time; Pete just got on and did it.
Pete’s fires were legendary. They drew everyone in – a place to get warm, to chat, to cook and finally, for Pete, to sleep.
Over the years, regretfully, as the demands of life grew, I spent less and less time around Pete’s fire.
I shared many years of good times with a caring, brilliant, humorous person.   It is with great sorrow, for a man deeply loved and respected by many surfers I say my final goodbye to Pete.
Phil Harris
Greymouth