Boat Harbour.

Boat Harbour is a sketchy, barrelling right-hander on the Mahia Peninsula that breaks super-shallow over a rock shelf and tests every ounce of your ability to air-drop into a square-floored barrel. The wave fires so rarely that it demands specific NE swell with S winds to produce the conditions that make local Mahitians drop everything and descend on the lineup. The takeoff is genuinely confronting: a near-vertical entry onto a shallow ledge where the margin for error is measured in centimetres. Bodyboarders love it for the same reason surfers fear it. Mid to high tide on an incoming push provides enough water over the rock shelf to make the wave surfable rather than suicidal. Size ranges from 3 to 3m, with the quality rated excellent when it connects. Jump off the rock shelf near the tip to enter the lineup - watch for boats in the channel and sharp rocks on the entry. Rip currents and submerged rocks are the primary hazards. When it fires, the experience is unlike anything else on the Mahia coast.

Square-floored barrel over rock shelf where centimetres separate genius from hospital.