The West End Wiggle 2025
11-13th of April, West End, Ōhope Beach
We're truly honored to bring you all another West End Wiggle for 2025. We’ve had an incredible 5 years of The Wiggle, we’ve met new friends, witnessed word class surfing, danced until the wee hours, and we can’t wait to do it all again in 2025.
The Wiggle 2025 will include:
The Men’s & Women’s Invitational Traditional Longboard Surfing Competition, The Aotearoa Surf Film Festival, APRES SURF Party, The Wiggle Art Exhibition, Tag Team Surf Competition
Apres Surf 2025
APRES SURF IS BACK for 2025, and we’re excited.
This year’s lineup features the vibrant sounds of Queentide all the way from California, DJ Klaus & Skip James. Accompanied by a food truck village & bar by Mata Beer.
Apres surf will also include the art exhibition viewing and The West End Wiggle Invitational prize giving & longboard giveaway.
Art Exhibition
Welcome to the 2nd West End Wiggle Art Exhibition. This years exhibition pays homage to all things print. Featuring local, national & international artists of varying abilities & styles. We’ll be displaying original artworks with accompanying prints available for sale.
Supported by The Framer and the Whakatāne & Ōhope Community Board.
FREE event
Location: The Wharfside, 340 Harbour Road, Ohope, New Zealand
Time: Friday 11th April 10am - 9pm, Sat 12th: 10am - 4pm, Sun 13th 10am - 4pm
Aotearoa Surf Film Festival ‘25
The Aotearoa Surf Film Festival is coming back to The Wiggle in 2025! We’ll have an outdoor screening of the film festival following the art exhibition viewing inside the Wharfside. Accompanied by a food truck village and bar by Mata Beer.
FREE event
Location: The Wharfside, 340 Harbour Road, Ohope, New Zealand
Time: Friday 11th April around 6-7pm (tbc)
What you need to know
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Happenings For 2025
(Schedule coming soon)
-The Men’s & Women’s Invitational Traditional Longboard Surfing Competition
-Apres Surf Party
-The Aotearoa Surf Film Festival
-The Wiggle Art Exhibition
-Tag Team Surf Competition
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Where to Stay
West End, Ōhope Beach is a small beachside community in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, that offers a range of different places to stay. The competition takes place at the Western End of Ōhope beach and the beach stretches for approximately 9km to the East with accommodation options dotted the whole way along. Whakatane is the township that serves Ōhope beach & also has a range of accommodation options if nothing can be found to suit in Ōhope. There are several hotels & motels in Ōhope Beach & Whakatane to choose from which can be found on booking.com. There are also many house or unit rentals on AirBnb. Additionally, there’s a large camp ground at the Eastern End of Ōhope Beach that could be an easy option for those on a van roady, the campground is an approximately 10min drive from the competition location. There are also several freedom camping options around Ōhope that those with a self contained vehicle can utilise. Use the quicklinks below to help find a place to stay.
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Getting There
To get to the Wiggle you can either fly or drive to Ōhope, Whakatane. Whakatane has a small airport that is serviced by Air Chathams but you can only fly from Auckland & they do not allow longboards. The closest airports serviced by Air New Zealand are Tauranga Airport or Rotorua Airport but again the smaller planes that use these airports do not allow longboards. The closest airport that you can fly to with your longboard is Auckland International Airport and from there it is a 4 hour drive to Ōhope Beach. If you’re driving- the road is your oyster, but if you’re coming from the South Island you’ll need to jump on the ferry. If you’re planning to travel to The Single Fin Mingle in 2025 there will be a convoy of surfers traveling North to the Wiggle from the Mingle after the event.