The WIld Wild Wave...

I've been hanging out in the Canary Islands for the last few weeks covering the season for Riptide and waiting for one of the biggest contests in bodyboarding history... And tomorrow, IT'S ON! Monday December 21st from 10am GMT... The Wild Wild Wave will be broadcasting LIVE via Redbull TV... It's going to be insane... Check out the live broadcast here... Woop!

 

sunbirds...

Another amazing Canarian sunset eve. Johnathon Livingston perhaps, heading off into the gold.

early blurry sessions...

Apologies for the lack of posts... again... 

The Canarian season, though full of sun and fun, is a busy time of year. My pasty Berlin bones have taken a while to get used to the early rises and long days in the water and the weather. No complaints though. Looking like a few down days coming, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into a regular posting routine. 

With the ideal tides peaking early in the morning at the moment, there's been a bunch of sessions well before sunrise. Not all that great for traditional surf photography, but good to mess around with different ideas. With just enough light to focus, i had a play around with some speed blur shots. Fun times. Bring on more experiments!

confital champ...

The final day of the contest was nothing short of incredible! Super fun waves, an amped and vocal crowd, and the world's best bodyboarders doing what they do best. In the end it was South African Mark McCarthy who took out the blue ribbon event with two near perfect scores for a total of 19.50! Stoked for him as, prior to the final event, he'd been scrapping to make the all important top 24 for next years tour. Congratulations pal!

 

 

 

contest coverage...

So for the last week (after some snow related transit delays) I've been soaking up the sun in the Canary Islands covering the final event of the IBA Bodyboarding World Tour. The waves for the early rounds were pretty dismal, but the swell finally kicked yesterday, making for some quality, wave related entertainment.

I'm covering the event for Riptide Bodyboard Mag, so check out their site (here) for a more comprehensive rundown, or log on to the Confital site (here) for a live webcast. Finals day today so watch this space for more updates soon...

 

The fellas chillin in the blazing heat

 

Dave Wing locking in, on the knee

 

Wing again taking shade against the Las Palmas skyline

 

Lowtide sunset at Confital

something a little different...

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. Lots going on and just not enough hours in the day unfortunately... But enough excuses. Today's post is something a little different, but probably more essential viewing/reading than any other post thus far...

At the end of November, I finally had the opportunity to visit what remains of Sachsenhausen, one of the world war ii concentration camps, in Oranienburg, just outside of Berlin. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned there between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands died of starvation, disease, forced labour, or were murdered systematically by the SS. Aided by the grey skies and bitterly cold December weather, it was a pretty overwhelming experience. Seeing execution trenches and gas chambers, just trying to imagine some of the horrors that would have taken place. Morbid, but fascinating all the same.

 

The famous slogan adorning the front gate which roughly translates to "work makes you free"

 

Tower A, at the entrance to the prisoners camp

 

The death strip, complete with barbed wire and electric fence

 

 

A typical bed in the prisoners camp

 

Prisoners barracks and kitchen

 

The execution trench

 

Remains of the gas chambers at "Station Z", the end of the line for thousands of prisoners

it's that time of year...

The first snow of the winter is always something to celebrate! We enjoyed our first dusting yesterday and twas a pleasure as always... Hypnotising flakes of white floating on the frosty morning air. All we need now is another two metres of the stuff in the alps thank you very much...

three six six thursdays... fingers crossed...

Lagging a bit on the blogging front recently, mostly due to the fast approaching madness of yet another move, combined with travels all the way through the festive season... No complaints though, just a little stressful... 

This time in November 2008, I was already lapping up all the goodness of my virgin trip to the Canaries. I'm keeping my fingers crossed there'll be plenty of days like this after my December 2nd arrival. Woop!

 

imogen johns, artist...

Penzance has pretty much become a second home for me since I hit the road again in 2006. I've just booked tickets to be there for Christmas, which will be my third in a row! It's an amazing part of the world and I can't wait to get back there... Friends, family and good times... 

Here's a pensive picture of my surrogate sister Immi in the green gardens of Mojo house in Relubbus (innit). She's really found her niche with a brush recently, and seems to constantly have new, inspired projects on the go. Always ace to see creative friends making waves x Check out her work here...

ferg's superbank...

My recent trip to the Baltic Sea brought memories of my 2009 winter in Ireland flooding back. I spent four months chasing swells up and down the coast with Fergal Smith, Tom Lowe and Mickey Smith, filming for "Powers of Three". Some of my fondest memories were cruising a little further north; touring, surfing, exploring and learning about all things Irish, care of tour guide extraordinaire Ferg. Just the two of us trying to get "a clip a day" in what were often less than inviting conditions. The day of this little clip brought wind, rain and hail before clearing to reveal an amazing rainbow and sunset. Somewhere in between the madness, Ferg managed to snag this dredging superbank barrel. Hope this season's just as good brother, for slabs and sandbanks... Woop!

three six six thursdays... why kitz you ask?

 So, earlier this week I resigned from my job in Berlin and will be moving back to the alps for my first full winter in three years. Am I excited? Yes. Yes I am. Even more so when combing through 30/366 images and finding these two bangers from February 8th 2008. Twas an amazing bluebird pow day so, from memory, I actually did more riding than shooting!

The first pic is of good friend Matt Hidding dropping off an annual Raintal windlip, with Saffa pal Paul Rayner shooting a different angle in the background. The second pic is actually from the end of the day. It's a small area with mostly short mellow bowls and no lift access so it rarely gets hit... but is well worth the short hike to pick off a couple of lines... Drop there, turn here, pop there, ride out, then hike back up and do it all again! I can't wait...

to the seaside...

Took a short trip up to the Baltic Sea in the last couple of days for m'lady's birthday. We stayed in a little town called Sellin, which is on the island of Rügen in Germany's north east. It was cold and rainy, but beautiful and exhilarating nonetheless. And great as always, to be near the sea.

white lines...

Just received the latest issue of White Lines, the UK snowboard mag. Gary Greenshields on the cover and a nice mix of British and international flavour inside. They also used one of my pics on their Wanderlust page, Chris Kightly boosting over the big kick in the Mayrhofen park. I should have a couple of ads in upcoming issues, and am keeping my fingers crossed for m'boy Ollie Plumley to get a run with some trick tips sequences. Roll on winter!

 

modelling on both sides of the lens...

So, here's a story for yall... While my brother NAW was here over the summer, he'd been helping out at a Berlin based, internationally renowned magazine called Lodown, doing some writing and proofing. Just before his departure, Lodown's editor and general man about town, Sven Fortmann, asked if he'd like to do some modelling for clothing company Irie Daily. Unfortunately Naw had to decline as he'd already booked his flight home, but added "I do have a twin brother"...

So yesterday began the start of my career in male modelling... Jokes... The shoot was really fun; a bit of makeup, some sweet threads, a lot of lighting and about 100 takes to get the right dynamic shot. It was really interesting being on the other side of the lens. 

Anyway, it reminded me of a catalogue shoot I did for a friend's clothing company, Enoka, back in 2008. Here's a few pics from that... Fond memories of good times...

three six six thursdays... a flying dancing bear

As the weather gets colder and Christmas edges closer, so the snow froth begins! With all number of friends making their way to the alps already, or getting their first shred on for the season, I've been feeling a little "city confined" recently. Scanning slides from the 2008 season isn't helping, but it's been enjoyable all the same.

On just the third day of January 2008, I spent an afternoon shooting a bunch of pics in the Raintal area of Kitzbuehel with Bevis, aka Mark Bell, alter ego The Dancing Bear. We shot a cool chute before he hucked himself off this windlip. Unfortunately this backside 3 turned to 5, which led to a knee in the face and a split chin. Thanks for putting it down for the shot pal!

panoramic practice...

I've been messing around with my Hasselblad Xpan recently, trying to get a handle on it before I head to the Canary Islands this year. It's definitely the most beautiful camera in my bag, and I really hope I can do it justice in the coming months! Nothing quite like the excited anticipation one gets waiting for a roll of film to be processed... Here's a couple of faves from the last year...

Sam Cullum, shifty front 3 in Kitzbuehel and Lucy Higgins, star jumping in Brighton.

robert and ralf...

A couple of summers back while living in Austria, I met, and started shooting photos with, an Austrian skateboarder by the name of Robert Klausner. He was a super chill guy who happened to ride for a friend's clothing company at the time. I wish we'd had more of an opportunity to shoot, but for whatever reasons, we only managed a couple of good sessions that summer. Hope life's grand Robert, if you're reading this, wherever you may be...

The first pic is Robert hardflipping over crusty St Johann flat gap, and the second is a friend of his, Ralf Edlinger switch treflipping off a Kitz loading dock.

it's rick james b***h!

Aside from the usual interweb entanglements, i've spent a good part of the last week scanning slides and archiving pics from my vaults so the next few posts will be looking back. 

This one's also a celebration post as it's my good friend Rick Barlow's birthday. I've shared a ton of good times with him after meeting in Kitzbuehel a few seasons ago. One of Frankston's finest, he's always an ace wing man to have up the mountain or on the town... Here's wishing you an awesome day brother! Woop!

three six six thursdays... NAW

After what has been an amazing five months of European adventuring, I had to bid farewell to my brother Naw today. We had our differences in the womb and I ended up deforming one of his feet, but we've been super tight ever since. He's my best friend in the world and I miss him already.

This pic is on the day of our 30th birthday, February 15, 2008, just across the road from his apartment in Burleigh Heads. I flew back to Oz for 10 days in the middle of a winter season so we could share our 60th together. Freaking amazing times. Love you brother. x

Hall-o-ween...

We had a pretty broad range of characters in our crew for Halloween haunting this year... A dead crack fox, a homicidal Indian, a good Max, an evil Max, a scary spider... and an Eri... a cute Eri...