IT'S BEEN A FUNNY OLD DAY

phantom Teahupoo

2012-01-14T04:48:00.000Z

This below is a piece of moving art recorded Chris Bryan. This is exactly the kind of thing I live for, being able to see Teahupoo maxing at such a slow speed is an honour in my lifetime, I can't count how many times I've watched this. It's like being at IMAX not knowing where to look on the screen as you can see every detail. One part in particular at the end when the surfer slips and turns upside down looking straight at the inside of the lip exploding on the reef a few feet from his head. I cannot start to think what would be going through his mind or his pants! You can see how when a wave of this speed and power stretches the water leaving strips of air bubbles in the lip, I have seen this before in a couple of my shots at Bumbaloids and Rielys. I do hope one day I get the honour to photograph such beauty and capture things going on not usually recognised by the naked eye.
A big high five to Chris and Billabong

Not so liquid storm...

2012-01-08T04:01:00.001Z

"Liquid Storm", what does this name mean to me? I chose this name after the countless storms that are created during the north Atlantic winters. Storms so vicious that since bouy data has been recorded open ocean swells have been recorded to have hit over the 60ft range.

Liquid Storm stands for exactly that, storms at sea and bigger the better. Since I left Ireland I haven't exactly lived up to my reputaion of shooting big surf in any conditions, more so the freezing cold raw conditions that I grew to love and could hardly wait during the flatness of summer for Autumn and Winter to swing around.

A lot of people who don't surf don't understand the passion of it all, how you become so engrossed in a storm, a particular reef to fire that nothing else seems to matter. Your heart starts to race at the first sign of it on the weather maps, sure there a plenty of times when the storm comes to nothing but that makes it all the more special when all the elements come together-wind, water and slab.

I remember shooting Dave's barrel at Mullaghmore that day when everythng came together. The hooting from Paul and Barry as they watched with awe. Mikee hooting all the way from picking dave up till when they came to the boat, and Dave's grin, wow Dave's grin said it all. I showed him the sequence and we couldn't stop giving each other high fives and hooting like mad men. This is what Liquid storm stands for, but...

...at the moment my life has taken a bit of a change, not in what I want but what actually has to temporary happen until Ireland picks back up and there's work going on there again. It's been a year now since I got back to NZ, so at the moment I'm driving a brand new 280 ton crane in shake city(15 earthquakes since i got back 24hrs ago from Xmas break!). My life at the moment is work driven as we work 7 days a week, althou I did get 2 weeks off over Xmas to chill out.

So for a while longer I won't be living up to my Liquid Storm name, I apologise to all that follow what I do but mark my words I will be amongst it all again in the future in bigger and gnarlier surf. My passion and vision will never go away and will never change. I want to photograph big heaving barrels and I want to photograph the 100ft wave first hand, it's out there and it's definately rideable.
slàinte

Here's a couple of shots from shake city and some waves I saw on my time off.

My 280 ton crane


Homes torn apart by the earthquake

Here's the cliff the house in the previous photo fell down!

Shipsterns

2011-12-05T07:42:00.000Z

This little clip is tells of what really happens at Shipsterns when it's big, expect gnarly wipeouts

shipsterns from Dave otto on Vimeo.

My first Teahupoo trip on Magicseaweed

2011-11-16T05:29:00.000Z

Clik here or on the picture to take you to the article

Teahupoo

2011-11-04T18:46:00.000Z

This is just a quick blog and won't have all the shots I want to put up as time is running out as I have a 2 day drive ahead of me to the south island for a work transfer to quake city(Christchurch), more on that in another blog. Anyway I managed to get a week of work and scramble to Teahupoo for my first visit. what an awesome place, a true heaven on earth apart from the extremly hungry for pale skin mosquitos! I absolutely loved the place, so here's a couple of pics and my apologies for making it a bit rush repacking but will post more up in the coming days
Bon voyage

NZ's biggest environmental disaster

2011-10-12T07:26:00.000+01:00

Well how the hell did this happen? A reef known internationally before the 2nd world war, a reef tha'ts been used for diving, fishing decades and a reef I was flamn' hoping for a bit of big wave photography during the tropical cyclone season. It sits around 18km's off the Mount and only a few km's off Motiti island, so if a ship has to avoid an Island surely it would've known about the reef. With sonar eaquipment onboard and pre mapped out course in the ships computer to avoid the reef you just have to wonder was it an insurance job? A reef close to land so emergency services wouldn't too far away , quite a few empty containers onboard and not a huge amount of oil to lose money on you just have to wonder, insurance job or not?
No matter what it shouldn't have bloody well happened. The bird life, fish, penquins, seals in the area are all going to be heavily affected, already dead oil covered birds and fish have turned up on the shores. And it's probably not just oil either, there could be substances on board classed as R29 which is hazardous material that reacts with water, what the hell that'll do is anyone's guess. You can't blame the government for it, it wasn;t there fault but surely a little more could have been done to stop the sludge reaching our shores.
I just heard they can't even determine what the birds are that are washing up dead and covered in oil, everything in the sea and everybody that has something to do with the sea are going to be affected which brings me to my next bit, being back in NZ for 10 months and having not a great success seeing big heavy waves I was really looking forward to this tropical cyclone season to head out and explore Astrolabe reef and others not far away which are now indefinately out of bounds, I'm pretty pissed off and my heart goes out to those who are going to be affected by this environmental disaster.
My parents have retired at Papamoa and they enjoy there daily morning walk down the beach, I can't imagine they'll be able to set foot on sand for a while now. All the holiday makers that bring much needed spending to the little shops and fruit markets in the area and also enjoy the golden sand and surf will almost cease for the summer, it's a snowball affect.
What do you do...

The reef

A small dream come true

2011-09-30T22:25:00.001+01:00

I've been fiddling around with a logo for well over a year, finally I have a logo I am stoked with and hopefully you guys will be too. Maybe some day it might end up on clothing as this is something I'd really like to give a go at but for the moment it will be proudly on my photos. The logo will be stretched and warped to suit various things but here's the base. It's not often you do something and guinely think yup this is the way I want it, there's nothing I want to change about it, cool bananas I say.
So with some luck I will see some heavy waves in the years to come and take a few shots, thanks Dave for the much needed advice and thanks to you all for following my work.
Sláinte

Parrty time Irish style

2011-09-13T08:50:00.000+01:00

On the way down

Well the game was pretty average from an Irish point of view but when it's like that the entertainment is the spectators. Some of the outfits were so funny with 2 guys pictured below wearing lycra suits in Irish colors and if you look behind them on the left you'll see me in the photo laughing at them. Americans were dressed in there stars and stripes with great pride especially when they scored a well deserved try at the end. Getting in and out of the stadium was a breeze and back into town even easier, maybe Auckland should take a few tips from New Plymouth...
Once we got to town we went straight to the big tent outside Peggy Gordons and had 1 of the best nights I've ever had in NZ. The Irish educating us Kiwis how to party, not a fight all night, no agro, no one was cursing at the top of there voice when losing a drinking race. The irish were just stoked to be there, smiling, laughing and easing back a few pints enjoying the band that rocked the whole place, it really took me back to the west of Ireland and with all the green around, Irish accents and smoking hot dark haired pale skinned young ladies it felt like I was actually back in the green Isle. The band had so much energy, I would without a doubt go see them again.
Anyway it was a great weekend, congrats to Ireland for the win and a big congrats to USA for stepping up and playing some great rugby, thanks to all the Irish for a great day and night.


Almost but not quite

Paul Rennick RIP mate

2011-09-01T07:51:00.004+01:00

“Hey mate how's it going?”

I replied “Pretty good, nice little swell here”

The young dude sitting on a bar stool outside an Amusement centre looking over my shoulder at the surf repleid back”You Australian mate?” in his best Aussie accent

“No, I'm from New Zealand”

Trying to wind me up the dude replies”You're sure mate, you sound like an Aussie”

“Yes I'm sure, any good surf spots around here?”

Now he stands up and says”Couldn't tell an Aussie me secret spots now, you sure you're a Kiwi, say 'fish n chips' then” and proceeded to grin that cheeky grin when I said it. Back in 2000 that was my first time I met Paul Rennick, a real character that couldn't pass up a chance for a laugh. That nite we met in the Strand bar and had a good few too many beers exchanging surf stories, over the next 11 years we had some bloody good times.

He's a bit of eye candy for the ladies. I remember one night in Dublin we were walking out of a pub and he cheekily decided to grab a handful of the young gorgeous woman's cheek that was in front of us, she turned around and looked at me with a huge frown and was about to say something and I said “oh no it wasn't me it was him” pointing to Paul grinning away beside me. Expecting we'd both get a slap, she took one look at Paul, her eyes lit up and she smiled at him and said “Well hello, I'll forgive you if you buy me a drink”!!

Paul lived life, he loved to party and loved the ocean dedicating himself between surfing and kite surfing. He loved his family and help looked after his dad Tony, fundraising was a thing he enjoyed and took great pride in it, always one to help others out. Paul mate we all going to miss you, thanks so much for all the good times, smiles and laughter. You truely made all our lives brighter. You were a big part of my life in Ireland and a huge part of Strandhill life for everyone

RIP mate.

Emily sent me this great story of Paul and I just had to share it with everyone
"Hey Aaron, thats a nice tribute. Its so sad, I cant belive it. I was telling my friend about him yesterday, and I told her about one of the first times I met him- I was working in Outer Point, and this fella hobbles in on crutches saying he has a wetsuit he needs fixed.
I was like, oh yeah, no problem, they can patch up a seam pretty quick. He starts taking it out of the bag, first the top half, then a leg, then another leg split open from ankle to hip- he was telling me the guys from the ambulance had cut it up to get it off him when he crashed his kiteboard, even though he was begging them not to ruin his good wetsuit!
I was a bit dubious sending it back, but when they heard his story they decided he deserved a new one! What a character, he'll be missed."
Emily

Kasia emailed me this story as well
"Very sad, I still can't believe it. Paul was such a character!
Few years back at one of our kite gatherings in Strand Bar (and probably after few too many drinks) I finally managed to find my "missing" hubby deeply in conversation with guys at the bar. I approached him from behind, gave him a cheeky bum squeeze, put my arms around his waist... and then somebody said - "you know his girlfriend is just around the corner?!" Only then Paul turned around with a cheeky smile!!! It was first time I really met Paul :-) ...

Ken sent this in,
First time I met Paul I was working in Dublin on a building site. It's a long time ago now. It was a Friday morning and I had arrived on the site and getting stuck into work so I could leave early. I had been chatting to him through the day and at break time I was at the van getting something when he comes outside. He spotted the surfboard in the back and came running over," where are you going with that," I thought to myself, who is this joker. I said I was heading for Sligo after lunch for the weekend. With that he was straight in,"I'm going with you, don't leave here without me". We had great craic all the way down and shared many a Friday journey to Sligo while he was living in Dublin. From that day on we where friends. He showed me some secret spots to surf and I convinced him to give kiting ago and sold him his first kite. I'm forever grateful that I can call him a friend. When I heard the news my heart sank a thousand league's. To Tony, his family & Blathin I am truly sorry for your loss. Thinking of you all. To Paul wherever you are I know your dreaming up some crazy idea that will somehow come together. Your friend forever. Kenny

RIP Paul. Sincere condolences to family, friends and all who loved you. My heart goes to Blaithin."
Kite Kasia

Pacific Liquid Storm

2011-08-30T08:27:00.006+01:00


Towards the end of the road

   Is it the perfect storm I ask, well the answer to that question would be debated forever so here are a few things to consider. Firt of all how damn lucky we are, how many people from the Chathams, Polynesia, the Americas to Alaska will enjoy this swell smiling from ear to ear as they glide along the long period glassy walls of LIQUID produced by a STORM pasing under good old New Zealand...millions?
   Tahiti was hugely perfectly wrong with waves ridden on the tow day rediculous, beyond belief to say the least. After some mammoth waves rode on Saturday they went back to running the Billabong pro the next 2 days allowing the best surfers in the world to have the wave to themselves with no more than 3 people in the line up, how sweet is that. Kelly took the honors to re claim the lead in the title race, some say he was over scored but really who gives a toss, they just got one of the best barrels in the world to themselves.
   I'm stoked that all this was broadcast on the net live to all who couldn't be there and shared with joy around the world. Now as the swell spreads from Tahiti it will smash into all of the Americas including Hawaii and a shit load of islands inbetween that aren't regurlary documented then onwards to finally gently caress the Alaskan coastline. Think for a second how many miles of coastline the swell will hit? How many breaks known and unknown will be going off, beach breaks, river bars, slabs, reefs, point breaks and how many waves will be ridden by this 1 Liquid Storm...?
   If I find any stories as it hits I will try to post them on this story so keep an eye on this page, and oh you might've figured out by now I'm not anywhere near these waves and maybe you're asking the question why am I'm posting all this,,,the luv, passion of it and to keep me alive inside

Clik here for a Puerto shot on magicseaweed

Clik here for surfline's take on the swell

and here for surfline's Puerto experience

Hawaii

Teahupoo

Teahupoo ohh my Teahupoo

2011-08-28T09:56:00.008+01:00

If things had gone the way they might've I could have been on one of those boats today at Teahupoo witnessing some of the heaviest waves ever surfed there. Unfortunately at all ended weeks ago when I couldn't get a day off work but hey I can't cry about it too long and just have to stay tuned to the net and watch in awe the videos and photos streaming ontot he net faster than a cheetah on steriods. The last hr facebook has been saturated with shots, surfline has stuff up and youtube's going nuts. Fair balls to everyone surfing it and for me I'm stoked there was such good photographers there like Ted Grambeau and Kirstin Scholtz to record it for all to see. Here is a couple of ahots and vid from the net so far

Clik here for ASP full coverage from yesterdays Tow session

Clik here for ASP photos

Clik here for Surfline photos

Clik here for Magicseaweed photos

1000 frames per second camera

Movie of movies

2011-07-02T08:04:00.000+01:00

Usually I wouldn't blog about this sorta thing but with excitement still running through my veins I just had to share. I went to see Transformers at the big screen, when I mean big I mean Imax 3D bloody huge. I go to the movies to basically see the impossible made possible which is generally Si Fi, normal movies I feel as though it would look and feel the same on a normal TV so I don't go to the flicks that much.

I'm not a huge fan of 3D because if you're watching something that's not computer generated it can be as fluid as a mobile phone upload. But this is without a doubt in my mind the most visually stunning movie (apart from surfing movies of course) I have ever seen and seeing it on that massive white tarp Imax just made the experience even more mind blowing, the 3D is astonishing and a long way on from the daft Jaws 3D. I was completely captivated with the movie, at several times ducking for cover as objects seemed to hurtle straight towards me. The Transformers themselves a lot more detailed and the matrix style super slow motion showing that off. The story line was actually an interesting one with twists all the way.

I left dazed and confused from what was and was not reality, to seperate the 2 just did not compute with what I just saw, so if you want to take my advice go see it in 3D at an Imax is a must for things to do this year, absolutely stunning

Teahupoo's little brother

2011-06-24T10:04:00.001+01:00

When I was looking through some shots online from the past week of Teahupoo there was one that stood out, but stood out in a different way. Like i'm sure i've seen a smaller version of this shot somewhere, then it dawned on me, a photo I had taken a few years back of Ferg at Rileys, a place very close to my heart and how lucky I was to be in Ireland when it was being explored. 2 totally different country's, one cold and the other warm, one surfed by every big wave freak in the world the other by just a handful of people but when you look at both these photos there is an uncanny similarity. Obviously not in size but most certainly in shape and definately in power and if you don't believe me just ask the guys who have had broken bones, near knocked themselves out and joints disjointed @ Rileys!

This Teahupoo shot was on Lairds facebook but it didn't say who the photog was which is a damn shame as it's a great shot, so my apologies to the photographer whoever you are for not crediting you the photo.

Laird

Ferg

The road untravelled

2011-05-22T07:12:00.000+01:00

Most weekends I try head off somewhere different, hopefully where there's surf but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. Surf or no surf you can still see some beautiful places and beaches in NZ. I think I've done close to 5,000km's the last 4 weekends I've been out and about. A lot more blue skies than I'm used to, getting burnt even in the days close to winter. Here's a couple of shots some roads not usually taken, another frieght train left and so surfable but you'd need a ski to negeotiate the rip and the paddle. It was barreling it nut off, if you look closely you can see people in the foreground considerably smaller than the wave off in the distance...

May 17 Shippies overload

2011-05-19T10:45:00.004+01:00

Well on the 17th of May 197? my mother brought me into this glorious world, 30 odd years on on the same day Shipsterns has a fit, some of the photogs, film crew, surfers are calling the biggest surfed yet. Biggest or not these guys are feckn nuts, just look at the photos and video in the links below, it will blow you away. I really want to see this place break and take a few shots back with me, bring on next year maybe...

Clik here for "Australian Surfing Life" photos

Clik here for "Surfline" video

Clik here for "Jamin McLean" footage on vimeo

Stoked

2011-05-14T00:44:00.003+01:00

Got an email from Paul @ Strandhill surf school saying he wanted to use 1 of my photos to put above his shop. I just got a photo of it and holy shit it's huge, so you could say I'm stoked to say the least. There's no other place in the world I'd rather have one of my photos displayed. It's amazing how a small coastal town in the west of little old Ireland can change your life forever, simply amazing...


"Welcome to Sligo", hell yeah Strandhill style

An Autumn Mother's day

2011-05-08T06:37:00.000+01:00

Foamville

Sally Fitzgibbons takes the Subaru Pro Women's ASP

2011-05-03T08:54:00.001+01:00

The glorious Mount Taranaki

Event winner Sally Fitzgibbons

Well I would've had these shots out a couple of days ago but I was waiting for a response back from a website and unknown to me the main person is on holiday. It puts me in the spot of do I put them out myself or wait. I think i've waited long enough so here we are, some shots from the Subaru Pro in my backyard of Taranaki. I've tried to put a shot of everyone in here, my apologies to Sally for missing 2 of her heats and not getting the best shot of her.
Sally Fitzgibbons took her 2nd win in a row and deservedly so. Showing she was serious about wanting this event scoring an impressive 18.45 in the 1st round, continuing onto a score of 19 in round 3 getting a near perfect 9.75 in the process. The dropping tide on the Saturday gave for extremly testing conditions creating a horrendous rip just as Kiwi and Taranaki local Paige Hareb entered the water for her quarter final against Coco Ho. The rip so bad no waves were had in the first half of the heat causing the judges to call for a restart. Unfortunately for the local supporters Paige did not proceed any further but she definately did put up a good fight in the frustrating rip. Coco then got knocked out in her semi by event winner Sally Fitzgibbons.
Carissa Moore who was leading the ASP rankings up to this event came up against Fitzgibbons in the final, unfortunatley for Moore the waves just did not come her way. This event has set the stage for the rest of the season with only 50 points seperating Fitzgibbons and Moore. It was a fantastic event, the waves were a bit small but the surfing more than made up for it, hey at least it wasn't howling onshore and pissing down!
Here's my results...
-Tube of the comp went to Tyler Wright for her pre-comp barrel on a smoking right

Best floater - Paige Hareb on a bit of a sucky wave, I'm pretty sure she had a big grin after she made it

Best wave - Carrisa Moore taking apart a near 6ft wave

Best tail slide - Kiwi Sarah Mason for really pulling the tail around on nearly every turn

Cutback - Chelsea Hedges for a beautiful fluid cutback

Verticle hit goes to Stephanie Gilmore

Best Karate kick - Alana Blanchard during a warm up with good mate Laura Enever

Brightest wetsuit - the outrageous pink/orange suit of Laura Enever's

And last but not least, biggest smile goes to of course Sally Fitzgibbons

Alana Blanchard

Carissa Moore

Claire Bevilacqua

Coco Ho

Courtney Conlogue

Jessi Miley-Dyer

Melanie Bartels

Paige Hareb

Pauline Ado

Rebecca Woods

Silvana Lima

Sofia Mulanovich

Tyler Wright

Cheers girls for an entertaining few days, it was an absolute pleasure and honor in photographing everyone. Good luck with the rest of the season and I hope yas score some pumping waves.

thanks
Aaron

The TSB Subaru womens pro NZ

2011-04-28T08:11:00.000+01:00

It was a windy day but the women surfed really well considering the conditions. A bit on the small side and cross offshore. Paige was surfing with dedication really ripping it apart, it showed in her scores as well, going on to win her heat. I wasn't expecting much seen it was so wwindy but I tell you what it was really entertaining surfing. It was great to watch and the spectactors lining the hill and beach were cheering and clapping them on. Everyone was getting sandblasted but no one seemed to care, we were all stoked to watch some quality surfing. I would write some more but i'm off to the pub...

Paige surfing with aggression

Silvana Lima

Rebecca Woods

Sarah Mason

Jessi Miley-Dyer

Pauline Ado

Claire Bevilacqua

Little roadie

2011-04-11T03:17:00.001+01:00


Morning perfetion

Took a 1200km road trip to Gisborne at the weekend, I knew it wasn't going to pump but I just wanted to see what the set ups were like. I wasn't dissapointed as I saw some not bad waves, stoked. Also saw a few odd ball things, now cows all they do is eat, sleep and fart. When they're laying down they're still chewing the greenery, so I was quite suprised to see this mob below sunning themselves on the beach with not a patch of grass around them. Funny old day.

Tolaga bay warf

Slabtastic

Where's the rest of it...oh there it is below

Incoming

2011-04-06T09:03:00.000+01:00

One hell of a rain storm last weekend, this shot was taken at midday

Dorian's a freak

2011-03-27T05:04:00.001+01:00

Shane Dorian paddled into possibly the biggest wave ever paddled into. Just looking at this footage freaks me out and then to top it off he pulls into a massive barrel on the last wave. We will see how big they say it is at the Billabong XXL awards, but I'm guessing it's more than 50ft...

Walsh and Dorian on a Tuesday... from Justin Clark on Vimeo.

Rags to riches

2011-03-20T07:39:00.001Z

Took a bit of a tiki tour at the weekend...along with 500 other surfers. Raglan was pretty wedged, you couldn't even get a car park at Manu or Whale bay! I was stoked myself as this was only the 2nd time I've ever been to Raglan and this time it was pumping. Staying in the local caravan park there was feck all sleep had with some nut bag coming home drunk screaming and crying her boyfriend dumped her, woke everyone up and continued for 3 hours, I'd dump her too! Althou it allowed me to be up at the crack of dawn checking out the bay. When you first round the corner the waves take your breath away, then as you look around you notice more and more multi million dollar houses. You can't but wonder if they have surfing in there blood or they just like the view of all the beat up cars crammimg up the roads.
Seeing that everyone seemed to be focused on the points I decided to extend my travels a bit more on the way home and found a huge left at the bottom of a valley, and an Indo looking left and right, sweet days work.
Stoked

Morning light

Hmmmm

Not a soul in sight

Indo?

Impressions of Indo II

A little strand...opps beach

2011-03-02T07:08:00.000Z

Been a while since I last did a blog on my own surfing photos, since Hawaii! A little swell crept in from Tropical cyclone Atu last week, unfortuantely I didn't get to where I wanted to explore but ended up on a long stretch of strand. Yes I said strand, I know I am in NZ but Ireland still is in my heart. Anyway just a few beach shots from Atu in the land of the long white cloud.

Filth, pure filth

2011-02-14T01:51:00.030Z

Sorry Roo but I knocked your photo, sweet shot.

Clik here to see more of Roo's work

This is what's been going down the last few days, unfortunately i'm not there but thank the webster for youtube and facebook to keep me sorta sane, will add clips as more comes in the coming days. Some pretty amazing surfing went down at the 1st towin comp in Ireland organised by Paul O'Kane in junction with The Irish Tow Surf Rescue Club and sponsored by Billabong and Monster energy at Mullaghmore. Paul did an amazing job putting a lot of this together, if it wasn't for Paul this would not have happened this year so a big thank you to him. Even though I wasn't there on behalf of everyone I would like to thank the RNLI from Bundoran and Sligo, The Irish Tow Rescue Club, Billabong, Monster Energy, which ever council gave the ok which I think might've been Sligo to run the comp and The Pier Head hotel at Mullaghmore. It sounded like an epic day. Apararently there was hundreds of people watching the comp, great turn out and support for the extreme sports people. Bring on next year...
Results:
1st. Eric Rebiere/Benjamin Sanchis
2nd. Peter Conroy/Glynn ...
3rd. Andrew Cotton/Al Mennie
4th. Gabe Davies/Richie Fitzgerald
Gabe also got best Barrel, it's in the clip below at around 28sec in, Richie also got most gnarliest wipeout

Roo has an awesome photo in the Irish Times, just clik here to view it

This the latest clip is pretty wicked, it's good to see a few camera people putting there heads together to do a pretty cool clip and using there imagination. Keep an eye out for a documentary maybe later this year by these talented videographers. 4 different angles. The water angle is sooo close to the action that it makes me fell like a scardy cat not being closer myself in the sessions before. Big congrats to Peter Martin, Peter Clyne, Dave Mottershead and Daniela Gross. Well dones guys, cool bananas

Mullaghmore Head "Tow in Surf Session" from Mully Productins on Vimeo.

The latest and best footage so far, 3min 10sec in...

The following clip insane barrel at 28sec

This next clip at 2.08 in, what a barrel

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Also more from around Ireland

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more to come...

Biscuit fun

2011-01-01T20:12:00.001Z

Have been hanging around and getting to know my awesome nephews better I haven't seen for nearly 8 years. Having loads of fun along the way. The bro has a cool little pool that one of the boys just loves to dive into about a foot of water! They have so much energy it tires you out just watching them hahaha. We also went to the lake and dragged them around at high speeds often getting airbourne. So much fun, I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. The lake is class with beautiful surrounds of mainly bush and hills. I can hardly wait till the next time we head out, cheers boys for the laughs.

launching

Superboy

Hangloose

Hang on buddy

2 waves, 1 county...

2010-12-30T19:47:00.001Z

Been living on the East coast for most of the year I didn't get much of a chance to catch the swells. But what swells I did get were pretty damn impressive. So here's 2 of the best swells of the season I caught up with at 2 totally different breaks in 1 county. Happy new years to ya all and hope 2011 treats everyone with good fortune and great waves. Some parting advice, I could rattle off over a dozen breaks virtually unsurfed in Ireland, quality breaks so go search, walk over that hill where beyond could be your dreams come true, it won't kill you...

The Mighty Mullaghmore

Dave before he got barrelled of his nut

Mikee loving it, his favourite big wave

Neil eyeing the beast up

Pete getting the ride of his life

Rick cruzzing it

Prowlers perfection

Paul just chilling out

Richie look behind ya mate...cool & calm

Barry about to get engulfed but makes it

Jeremy's 1st wave in Ireland...ever!!

Al charging it

Cotty going for gold

Jeremy Flores takes Pipe Masters in memory of Andy

2010-12-16T22:51:00.003Z

Andy Irons - Photo Brian Bielmann

The Pipe Masters in memory of Andy Irons is one I will never forget. Andy was a great surfer and will be remembered by all.

Jeremy Flores takes his first tour win this year picking his barrels carefully and tactfully. A well desreved win taking out 10x world champ Kelly Slater in a breath taking semi-final with a long long barrel, probably the longest of the event. Once again it was Backdoor that produced the goods with the north swell.
Yesterday saw consistant 4ft barrels, lite winds and sunny enough to burn me face to a crisp even thou I had 50+ sun screen on, a hat and sat most of the day in the shade! Gotta luv been a red head. It was an awesome day of waves yesterday and there was some incredible barrels had. Today was a bit more inconsistant but what waves did come through were taken advantage of. A big crowd was around for all 3 days and about 2 million worth of cameras! So here's a few shots from my perspective and probably another 200 photogs! Congratulations to Jeremy and good luck for next year.

Hmmmm...a bit close maybe?

This is what you tell the judges if you don't want a 10!

If you know who this is & she's over 21 can I have her phone number please?

Meanwhile at Off The Wall this sorta shit was going down...

Pipe hosts first womens event

2010-12-16T04:28:00.002Z

Steph

First time in history a womens event was held during the Pipe masters, there wasn't a lot of waves had but when they did come through World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Hawaiian Coco Ho (HAW), and 2011 ASP Women’s World Tour qualifiers Tyler Wright (AUS), and Alana Blanchard (HAW) made the most of it. Tucking into barrels at every chance and going for gold. The battle for the Vans Duel for the Jewel was courageous and entertaining with Steph taking the honors and the Womens triple crown. Tyler Wright got an epic tube that could've contested for the win, unfortunately for her it was after the hooter. Just a quick note as i'm heading out on the beer now, so will post up tomorrow what happened with the mens.
Once again big congrats to all the girls in the event who did the rest of the crew proud and big congrats to Steph, well done.

Wahines of Hawaii

2010-12-15T05:45:00.001Z

The photo above tells a story of it's on. The young lady was out ripping it up, surfing really good, picking off waves as they came to her and making them. It's seems a lot of the guys here have some sorta point to prove. I saw blatant snaking, taking off on waves that weren't even there's. Then they would try to pop an air or rediculace maneuver and not even try to make it, they just try to get as high as possible then kick the board away without even attempting to land it. This guy ended up head butting his board, result i guess...
So todays shots are dedicated to the Wahines on Hawaii keeping it real

Kim Diggs

Gabby's girlfriend

Gabby

Quincy Davis

Coco Ho

Pipe oh dear...

2010-12-13T05:33:00.000Z

Just up from Pipe

Pipe still hasn't really done it's thing yet so I thought I'd better throw a few shots from the other day up. They're having a tad bit of bad luck with thee ol' surf. A few waves been breaking on each side of it thou. So before i ramble on about much more here's some pics from day 1

Not Pipe's day...

2010-12-09T06:28:00.001Z

Not Pipe!

I walked down to the Pipe Masters today early thinking I might be one of the first photogs there..errr ummm NO I wasn't. Had to be at least 100 when I arrived at 7:30am! Still thou I got me self a cosy spot down in front looking into the barrel of about 45 degrees. The 600mm lens photogs must get pissed off with the 400mm lens photogs, then they get pissed off with the compact camera people and then they get pissed off with the stoned spectators who just stand in front of everyone hahaha. Pipe wasn't breaking at all really so the comp was held at Backdoor. It was good early in the morning but the winds swung slightly and gave it a crumbly look later on. Some sik barrels went down. I took a few shots amongst the madness then decided to look elsewhere for waves. Found this spot going off it's nut, the perfect big wave paddle spot. About a dozen guys out at most and it was firing. From what people were saying the best it's been for a long time. These guys were ripping it, serious drops, pulling into insane barrels and carving it up. They were really going hard so I've knicknamed this session the "The real Billabong ******* Masters"

Backdoor, OTW, photogs & snapped boards

2010-12-08T04:29:00.000Z

Better bring a bit of a quiver

Well the day finally arrived for me to see Pipe breaking, actually it was Backdoor but can't complain, best waves today I saw thou was at Off the wall, little bigger than Backdoor and more of a barrel. When I saw how many photogs were in the water I was glad I'm a beached whale photog, I can't get my head around how they don't hit surfers or get run over, was a bit freaky to watch. OTW was pretty impressive to watch, so many barrels and broken boards. It wasn't big at all but clean and hollow. Some nice waves down at Rockpiles were being had by a lucky small crew of 3 or 4 while the other breaks had up to 50 or so on each. I'm pretty stoked to see it pumping at last and it looks good for tomorrow's Pipe day. Bring it on
Happy days

Ahhhh hahaha you have to be joking

Ohhhh crap

The classic Pipe shot

Waimea and sunsets

2010-12-06T05:25:00.000Z

I had a Guinness yesterday and they poured it into a glass from the freezer that was about 3/4's of a pint, oh they also poured it in one pour...yup tasted like crap. Watched Tom Carroll surf in front of the gaff and he's still styling, he's almost as wide as he is tall!
Went for a bit of a walkabout today down to Waimea, there's a big arse rock at the south end of the bay that people jump off...into pretty shallow water! It was funny sitting up on the hill watching them as when the traffic went past eveyone would be looking at me as if I was from another planet being the pasty white red head. Quite the contrast to Ireland. Came back on The Bus and watched the sun set and just chilled, little waves today, the cleanest I've seen so far. Here's a few pics
Aloha

Waimea

The Eddie Aikau opening ceremony

2010-12-03T23:33:00.002Z

I could show a few surf shots from yesterday but it wasn't about the surf. Yesterday was about Eddie Aikau and the opening ceremony, the surfers, friends and family of Eddie's. It was quite moving when Clyde got up and spoke some words true to his heart. Everyone stood in silence as all listened on. Then a final prayer followed by the traditional cheer by all. When all this is going on you forget that the likes of Ross Clarke-Jones who has been to every event bar 1, Tom Carroll, Sunny, Twiggy, last years winner Greg Long and Clyde are all in front of you. The reason they are here because they're the best of the best at true big wave surfing and deserve to be there, they too are humbled and moved by it all. When the cameras were allowed in it did go a bit apeshit but only for a few minutes until they all went out into Wiamea Bay sitting in a circle a couple of hundred yards off the beach holding each others hands for the final respects to Eddie.
Once back in on the beach the music kicked off and food put on for everyone. The cameras went away and everyone respected everyone. It was a surreal experience and will never be forgotton.
Aloha

Clyde Aikau

Ros Clarke-Jones

Tom Carroll

Shane Dorian

Kelly Slater

Nathan Fletcher

Treehouse view

Rocky Airshow

2010-12-02T03:10:00.002Z

Took a few snaps at Rocky's this morning, everyone must've been drinking redbull. A lot of airs, but sad to say only a few were made, what's the point I asked? Well I guess I'm putting them on me blog and others will go into mags from other photogs, but keep this in mind when you look at the shots, F*#K all were made.

Hawaii flatness

2010-12-01T05:32:00.001Z

Well it's the flatest period for 26 years for this time of year, I can't complain thou as I was pretty lucky in Ireland. What to do when it's like this, just swim and lay around. Something I have noticed here compared to the icy Isle is your batteries in cameras, phones etc last a lot longer, yippie. A bit of a sore head this morning, had a bonfire on the beach with a few brews and small bit of Puerto rum...that's the fault of the girls who were recently at the Puerto comp. Not much to report so i'll leave yas with a shot of flat sunset from this evening. A bit of surf maybe tomorrow...

Expressions of Fun

2010-11-28T04:31:00.001Z

Another day in paradise, huge tides today of 0.4m! hahahaha. Sun was blasting out agian, with a few waves to be had around the waist to chest high. Shooting with the sun blazing is a bit of a treat for me and you get the most insane crisp photos. When you can get so close to the subject there facial expressions can be halirious. Pretty stoked with it all really apart from getting burnt every day no matter how much sunscreen you put on, I have now resorted to wearing long pants which is a shit load hotter! Another thing I luv here is the sound of all the V8's, you can really here them coming a mile away, such a pumping sound amongst the calmness of everything. Anyways here's a few shots from todays journey.

Happy days today

A mistake but sorta worked

hahahaha

Paradise found

2010-11-26T19:24:00.002Z

The first thing I noticed when I hoped off the plane in Honolulu was how thick the air was, my lungs were for a moment going into spasms. I had been travelling for almost 30hrs since leaving me mates place in London, with arriving at midnight it was too late to head to my accomodation. So I tried to get some sleep perched up against the warm concrete wall, another 8hrs of no sleep. I finally got to the house at 9am and really wanted to hit the hay but I knew Sunset was only going to be good for the day then the swell's going to dissapear.
The walk to Sunset is 5mins and I can see it from the end of our path at the beach, what a beautiful view with the golden sands, crystal clear water and green palms everywhere. I was pretty tired at this stage and had no interest in shooting much as I was finding the heat a bit errr ummm much, everyone was saying it was cold!
There were some nice waves at the contest, unfortunately Kiwi girl Paige got knocked out in round 2 but I was stoked I got to see her surf. Later that evening I just sat down on the rustic seats at the end our path and watched the sun set thinking I'm so frign tired right now but the view was too nice to walk away from.
It's really mad here, everyone is pretty much in bed by 9pm and the whole place is quiet and peaceful, so after about 50hrs of a couple of 10min naps I finally got to sleep and man did I sleep, a dreamless deep sleep.
The next day was Thanks Giving and I went for a wander down to Rocky's and took a few snaps, so many good surfers here, the most of them out were locals. The women here really rip, they go hard out there giving it to the guys. On my way back I got invited to a house just down from where I was staying for some thanks giving dinner and beers, sitting on that balcony surrounded by people I didn't know looking over the ocean it dawned on me, this is paradise, it's winter but the water and air is warm, lots of surf and friendly people. They don't take it for granted either, everyday they make the most of it.
This is only the first 2 days of my months stay, burnt to crisp and luving it.

The view from out walkway from the house

Carissa Moore

The view

My time in Ireland

2010-11-21T23:51:00.001Z

Here's a few shots of my life in Ireland, that to me are important and others life changing. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
cheers and fairwell
Aaron

Zoolander party in Strandhill

Halloween party in Strandhill

Mum & Dad visit

My very first surf photo with a digital camera

Just good mates

The bro visits and my photo in the best bar in the world...The Strand of course

The big swell, that whitewater is at least 200ft high!!

My first ever Tow photo, Cotty the man at Aileens...the passion starts

The legends of Strandhill

"PROWLERS"

My first outing in a boat to shoot, Tom DH at Aileens

Rileys

The Surfer's Path does an article on me, such an honour, cheers Alex

Rolling Stones

Up close & personal at U2

Paul O'Kane, first time Prowlers surfed in early 2009

Mikee Hamilton charging big Mullaghmore

My fairwell party, Strand bar

Prowlers pumping top to bottom

Cotty at Prowlers

My first surfing magazine cover, cheers Cotty

Cover baby

2010-11-20T14:20:00.003Z

I think it's any photogs dream to get a cover of a magazine, it has certainly been something I've wanted for a while now. I'm stoked to say I am a very happy chappy as I finally got one of my photos on the cover of a surfing magazine, good on ya Wavelength, thanks sooooo much. The timing of it all is pretty insane, as it all happened pretty much a week before I was to leave Ireland for good and at a "Prowlers" where we have been trying to get pumping for a long long time. On top of all this it's of Andrew Cotton who was the very first person I ever photographed towing in a few years ago at Aileens...ever, how frign freaky is that!? Also my camera had stopped working the week before and I got offered a 50D from Richard Johnson (cheers mate, but we still going to beat yas in the rugby), which is another 5 megapixel greater than my 40D, so i had a better camera as well. Saying that thou, camera or no camera I still would've gone out to watch Prowlers break. Now with all this happening the way it did and all the coincidences it's kinda freaked me out a bit, hence why I haven't blogged in the last while, still trying to get my head around it all.
So a big thank you to Tim and everyone else at Wavelength, cheers Richard for the camera, and a special thanks to Cotty who totaly deserves the cover, you're a little legend mate. Keep charging
cheers

Also the new issue of Tonnta is going to be out on the shelves next weekend just in time to fill those Xmas stockings. It's a pure photo issue so grab one quick before they go, beacause this one will sell out fast. I luv the cover of this issue, something totally different and looks really amazing. Good on ya boys

Eye of Prowlers

2010-11-12T18:07:00.002Z

What a send off...

2010-11-09T08:15:00.001Z

I had a speech in my noggin all sorted it for my farewell party, but when I stood up and turned to everyone who had came out, all I could say was "Shit". I nearly lost it and had to try and pull myself together. I never dreamed this many people would turn up. Finally a few words came out and we started the slideshow. Everyone was hooting and with the odd "ohhhh noooooo" for the wipeouts. We then proceeded to have a few drinks, maybe 1 or 2 too many for most as the surf was good the next day but most stayed in bed. At one stage every corner I turned in the pub a shot of god knows what was put in me hand. It was so cool talking to everyone and partying it up, a long time coming. I've always respected Strandhill and what this little beautiful seaside town stands for ever since I first drove around Knocknarea back in August 2000. Thank you so much everyone for making it an extra special nite, a nite I will never forget. It was great to get the whole gang out in the Strand again. Here's a couple of shots courtesy of me good mate John Heffernan.(by the way that was your fault for the jagermeisters as I had to pay you back for that stomach churning drink you made me have hahaha)

When I thought my time was over here in Ireland and I could just chill out for a few days, a swell came in that we've been waiting for for 5 years. Conditions were pretty much perfect. I had written off "Prowlers" for me as there was only just over a week for me left in Ireland. The timing of it was uncanny and surreal. Only 4 hrs sleep was had over the last 2 nights, so I wasn't feeling the greatest. But there was no way we were going to miss this. Prowlers was beyound expectations breaking alot heavier than we all imagined, the slab only a few feet below as it drained off. Cotty was the test dummy and rode it with confidence and style. I can't really say too much more at this stage but Paul reckons he was gunning it at almost 60km/hr to flick the boys into the beast. Check out the Irish Times anyway, Cotty scored the front page, legend Cotty. Big respect to Andrew Cotton, Al Mennie, Paul O'Kane's insane driving, Richie Fitzgerald, Barry Mottershed, Jeremy Johnson and the boat driver Daniel. Thanks for the send off Ireland. Ireland and all the great people and surf will always be in my heart.
cheers
Aaron


Cotty going hard

The crew

Strandhill's Angels

Tow board Irish style

2010-11-05T17:47:00.000Z

Tow surfing has changed my life and I don't even do it! From the first time I photographed tow surfing it has taken my breath away. Ever since that day, I have lived ever day for heavy and big waves. The excitement of it all, watching and documenting the crews charging these slabs has been inspirational. There was no way I was leaving Ireland without a piece of everyone I have photographed towing. So I had Mark McGuire from Power Source shape me this tow board. I decided it would be fitting to have the Irish flag gracing the foam. 2 layers of glass went on then it went on a bit of a tour around Ireland getting the signatures of the tow crews. Finally after a long few months it is now complete with a final coat of glass to seal in the memories.

Thanks everyone for the great times and memories and for being patient with me and meeting up to put your stamp on it.
Cheers Mark, your a legend.

Great to be back on the west

2010-10-12T20:25:00.001+01:00

Blimey, ever since I came back to the good old west coast it's been non stop. Within days of first arriving back I was sitting in a boat watching Aileens do her thing. A week later I was shooting the Easkey open for 2 days with the sun beaming down, and the surf was pumping! 2 days after that Mullaghmore reared it's head, allowing me to get a few snaps from the water angle with even more sunshine. Then yesterday was a cloudless day, I was thinking this can't get any better. Then along came today - I went for a bit of a drive to Glencar waterfall, as I was driving along I looked at the lake to see a perfect mirror image of the mountains. It was absolutely stunning, think I sat there for about 2 hours, enjoying the view, the sun and the chirping birds. Life is bloody great, it's going to be hard to say goodbye to all this.
So here's a few shots from yeasterday and today

Mullaghmore by Peter Martin

2010-10-09T22:24:00.003+01:00

Mullaghmore Head 05/10/2010 from Peter Martin on Vimeo.

This is so well put together. Take your time everyone and take it all in.

Tranquillity

2010-10-09T16:13:00.002+01:00

There is a sense of calm amongst the madness of the 30ft walls of water romping in

Sun & Fun @ Mullaghmore

2010-10-06T18:46:00.001+01:00

I didn't really expect the sun out all day and man did the boys have some fun out there. Out on the water there was Mikee Hamilton, Dave Lavelle, Paul O'Kane, Barry Mottershead, Richie Fitzgerald, Neil Britton, Peter Craig, Rick Hutton, Dylan Stott, Kurt Rist, Andrew Cotton, Al Mennie, the boat driver Michal Czubala, my mate Mick and me on the boat watching the show.
Everyone was towing into some nice waves and if you think they should've been paddling like Al, well take a good close look at this shot, pretty damn heavy. Fair balls to the big red nut for giving it a go paddling thou. Thanks to everyone out there for making it a very memorable day, one I will not forget, cheers Michal for driving the boat.
Keep an eye out for the next Tonnta as hopefully there might be a couple of shots squeezed in, in time for the up coming issue out in a few weeks.

Mikee on the first wave of the day

2010 Billabong Easkey Open - Finals Day

2010-10-03T21:18:00.011+01:00

It was a crackn day at Easkey. Once again the sun was out most of the time, offshore winds and a good swell running. Easkey Britton said "this is the best conditions for the whole 2 days in the history of the event from what I can remember". The contest itself was blasted into full throttle with everyone making the most of excellent surf. Every final was too close to predict a winner, with the contestants pushing each other wave after wave. It made for great entertainment watching from the grass area below the towering caslte ruins. Well done to all who entered the event, i haven't got all the results yet, but these will be posted when I get the full information. I do know that Fergal Smith took out the open mens and Nicole Morgon won the womens open. Congratulations. Here's a few pics from the day

Clik here for the full results

2010 Billabong Easkey Open - Day 1

2010-10-02T22:23:00.003+01:00

A day to remember, offshore winds, a bit of sunlight and a pumping swell. Conditons were probably one of the best in the history of the Easkey open. I was only there for a short while but got some good quality surf shots as everyone was ripping it apart enjoying the waves. I'm not sure who's who, but here's a few pics from the day. More to come from tomorrows finals.

To photograph for the passion or for the money...

2010-10-01T12:54:00.004+01:00

Photographers around the world have shown surfers what is out there through mates, mags and these days the net, expanding the imagination of the travelling surfer chasing that dream photo of Malibu, Cloudbreak, Teahupoo, Shipterns and so on. But what is it that drives us? For me it's not about the money, althou it is a bonus and the mags shouldn't get your hard work for free.

I just love shooting waves and if I think I have a crackn photo I will send it in to the mags or up on me blog to give the surfer some recognition. But and it's a huge but, if a photo is of a surf spot that is still being explored, an unknown to many, a bit of a mystery, surfed only by a few, and when you look at it - it sorta makes it obvious where it is, I would keep it to myself for memories and would not expose the place for the sake of a few notes to fatten my wallet. This is what tarnishes us photogs with a bad name at times. Just for a moment, imagine you have been surfing somewhere with a few mates for 10 years or so, then someone pops over the hill, takes a few snaps and next thing it's on the web in a matter of days. How would you feel knowing now the whole world knows about it. There are huge consequences in surf photography, you have to think about how it's going to effect everybody and everything by publishing certain photos.

Yes I have had a lot of photos published. But the surf spots would have already been documented on the net or in mags and most people would know about it, or shots of places that I have found, never been surfed. If you found a spot that no one had surfed and got your mates out there to explore it, by all means do what you want with the photos as it's your spot and no one can take that away from you. If there's a shot you have of someone in a barrel and all you can see is the wave that in my opinion is ok as well. I have a collection of shots on my hard drive no one has seen, and until I think I justify putting them out there, they will be staying locked up But hey this is just my opinion, it's a free world and I am far too opinionated.

My dreams come true

2010-09-26T11:25:00.001+01:00

Finally I managed to shoot Aileens from the water when it was barrelling, still smiling now and will be for a long time, big thanks to Pat the boat driver and everyone who made my day what it was

Follow your dreams

It's almost time

2010-09-07T16:23:00.003+01:00

It most certainly has been a very rollercoaster ride for me the past week. I am now an unemployed bum, with finishing work at the end of last week you would think that i would be a happy chappy but the next day was a total freak out for me and it ended with me missing the swell of the summer in Clare. If I really wanted it I could've made it to Clare in time but my brain was just trying to juggle around what's about to happen in the months to come. Yes I am finally heading back to NZ for possibly good leaving behind the best bunch of people I have ever met, some bloody good mates in there, the last 6 years in particular have just blown me away with things I never thought I would see and to have the honor of photographing the rise of Irish big wave surfing and the people involved is a part of my life I will never forget. I truely believe the 100ft wave is possible here, it may be 10 years in the making but mark my words Ireland will break that boundary one day and I hope it's one of you guys. So why am I leaving? I have 2 nephews that don't know me and family that I have not seen in a long time, if they were living over here I wouldn't leave. So with all this rattling around in me noggin, i want to leave-no I don't want to leave-yes I do and so on I got a phone call from a guy I hadn't seen in years, Rory Martin rang to say he's opened a bar in New York called the "Blue Haven" and he wants some of my prints on his wall in big sizes, wow, that just blew me away and it really hit home that I was so lucky to be in Ireland doing what I did. Ontop of that Rory wanted me to sign them, it's a pleasure Rory and hopefully I'll be over at some stage to have a beer. I will keep shooting away where ever I get to and hopefully will have some stories to tell in the coming months. Anyway I hope to have a bit of a party before i leave so I will keep everyone posted with that, probably November I'd say
cheers

Prints for Rory's bar the "Blue Haven"

Irish coast guard rescue exercise

2010-08-21T15:52:00.000+01:00

I was coming back from the Aran islands and the coast guard rescue helicopter did an exercise on the back of the ferry, it was pretty cool to watch considering the ferry was still motoring along at i'm guessing around 20knots. Here's a short clip of it

Mickey Smith's beautifully shot and told short story

2010-08-19T21:51:00.002+01:00

Mickey Smith is an amazing photographer, videographer and downright nice bloke, and what I have just watched has to be the most beautiful inspiring piece of video I have seen. The peaceful clarity of this short film leaves you with a sense of what is real in life, stripping away the crap that is happening around the world and leaving us all with what truely makes us happy, reminding us you cannot buy this sorta thing. Get out there and experience it, get amongst it. Mickey if you're reading this at all, thank you

Stills vs Motion

2010-08-16T20:39:00.001+01:00

Here's the final result in "Stills vs Motion". Hopefully this will work, with a bit of luck we'll get some waves soon with a small bit of an onion out there forecasted in the next week in the mid atlantic it might be the start of the hurricane season. Now this contraption of mine wieghs in at 10 pounds! And the tripod another 7. I'm not sure if i'll be able to hold it all together on a boat but feck it i'll give it a go otherwise it will be a land based affair. Once again thanks to Graham who put my collar idea into reality, lucky it was carved out of a solid block of aluminium with the unexpected added wieght hahaha
so stay tuned in the next 5 months...

Wipeouts

2010-07-11T16:48:00.003+01:00

There's something that I have always never understood and that is why are there hardly any wipeout photos in surfing mags? Personally I don't think they are a negative thing, it's just part of surfing and what happens in particular when you're learning or riding heavy waves. Some are serious thou but most are just a bruising of our self belief we could've made the wave and brings us back to reality that you have to be joking to think you were going to make that, it also pegs the confidence down a level if it's heavy enough. It's always a reaction of "ohhhhh shiiiiiit" from me when ever i see a wipeout in a video and I just end up cracking up laughing. I think if there was a wipeout page in mags every issue you would see some pretty freaky and jaw dropping photos. And it's even good to see the the top surfers miss timing things as well, they are human after all but the biggest reason that guys like fergal and Tom here wipeout is because they're pushing themselves so hard that eventually they have to come unstuck but doing this they get to know what there limits are and it works for them if you have seen any of the insane stuff they've been doing the last couple of years. So here's a couple of shots of mine and a video i found on youtube as well.
Please take not: There is alot of F$%& this and F#@% that in the video so if you have any kids my advice is to put some blue tak in their ears...

Tonnta issue #7

2010-06-29T19:38:00.000+01:00

Well it's one of my favourite things i wait for, it sorta crept up on me this time as for me it doesn't seem that long ago the last issue was out so a big congrats to everyone involved. Going by the cover it looks to be another great issue with Portrush area as the main story, a bit on Mexico and a few other suprises. Go grab yourself a copy before they run out again. By the way if anyone has a copy of Issue #5 they don't need could you email me at hangtennz@yahoo.com as I don't have any copies left, would be much apreciated, there's a limited edition 18"x12" print of mine up for grabs for the first to get me a copy.

Cool bananas

Funny old days

2010-06-27T17:26:00.005+01:00

1. My bedroom is on the second floor and overlooks the backyard down to the back fence and into the backyard of the neighbours place. I was looking out the window of my bedroom on a particularly sunny hot day recently watching my flatmate's dog digging up the garden right down by the back fence. Curious to know what treasures Fin had buried there I looked on in anticipation for a few minutes while he was going for gold, next thing I heard was a loud and sharp "Oi!", shifting my eyes slightly up to over the fence into the neighbours backyard to see a stunning bikini clad woman laying down pointing at me with what I assume is the husband standing beside her, red faced and pissed off and both thinking I was perving at his wife. To make matters even worst I yelled out to him before even thinking what I was actually saying "Sorry mate, I was just looking at the dog"!!! This made him very agitated so as you would do I quickly closed the blinds, grabbed me keys, ran to the car and took off before he could come around with a baseball bat or something, not really the right thing to do.

2. I was in the dining room having me breakfast and noticed a big old slimy slug on the sliding door window moving slowly but steadily to somewhere new. I had a bit of a brainwave and proceeded to put some sweet raspberry jam in front of him to the right and then some really hot chili dipping sauce at equal a distance from him on the left to see which one he would be attracted to, if I was a betting man I would've put my money on the sweeter jam but after about 10 mins of slugging along he was all over the chili and loving it but something went wrong as when he had almost eaten it all Mr. sluggy pants just fell off, i think it was a bit much for him. And that black trail is his poo, you could actually see it moving inside him and coming out the other end...

Mr. Sluggy pants was not hurt in this experiment

3. My good mate Dave is a bit of a genius with the old video camera, I decided that my trusty old car was nearing it's end and with the clutch and brakes in not great shape we decided to have some fun with it so here's a clip from one of Dave's surfing videos of us having a funny old day...
Thanks to Dave for letting rip apart your dvd and put this segment up
clik on his blog here http://danidave.blogspot.com

Roll on Autumn

2010-06-20T18:40:00.002+01:00

Blue skies, next to no wind, how long is this going to last. Great crane driving weather and sunbathing(if you're not a redhead!), shame the building industry has gone tits up. Roll on Autumn I say or a couple of hurricanes to unusually track north instead of east. Any swell that has come in recently has been on the small side with only the exposed dredging dry reefs showing a small bit of shape twice in a couple of months and to get it right you have to be pretty well clued in on what's out there. Ferg has the right idea to quickly and rightly so head downunder to take apart a few roaring forties storms and knowing the Ferg he will score bringing back with him a big smile and shitloads of stories. So I was looking through some shots today and came across a couple of shots from 2 very memorable sessions we had last Autumn/Winter. The right rarely surfed and this was the first time that we know of it had been surfed at the time with Paul O'kane taking to it like a fish in water and the left is a ledging heaving beast of a wave when the swell gets huge, Mikee Hamilton comfortably home on a medium size day at one of his favourite playgrounds, Mullaghmore. Ah memories are sweet...roll on Autumn

Mr.Rejeb does it again

2010-06-13T08:49:00.001+01:00

I love the stuff this guys does. The time and affort he must have to put into this would be painstaking, all for our viewing pleasure. Watch it all as it gets pretty insane at the end, i just don't know how he did the aerials.

2 weddings, some models, spring time & fresh meat

2010-06-13T08:35:00.001+01:00

Been a while since my last ramblings but to be honest I'm working and the surf seems to be flat during the weekends so not alot to report. Althou my weekends have been busy with 2 weddings in scorching heat, well scorching for Ireland and me being a redhead didn't take to nicely to the big yellow fireball so alot of liquid was drunk to compensate, maybe too much... It's bloody amazing to see ya best mates getting married as it's one of a very few times in their's life when all the familys and friends from both sides get together and just have an awesome day, everyone is smiling, laughing and cheering plus a few crying, stories been told that would usually never come out. Cheers guys and gals for inviting me to your special day.
Some random shots from my little Limux camera in the spring time as well, driving miles to these weddings on the black tarmac passing under static unimginative grey concrete structures everything seems lifeless but now and again amongst the concrete jungle we have created pops up a bit of colour from nature herself, so bright you just can not miss it, these only flower for about 4 weeks but the vast fields of them is pretty cool. Their's another random shot here where i parked the car on the main shopping street and when i returned a meat ruck was parked in front of me. It was a bit wierd as it was on a busy Saturday and loads of familys around with kids were freaking out, the guy was carrying these carcasses on his shoulder to the butcher with a real bloody pair of overalls on!
Last but not least is a shot i took a while ago but it just reminds me of what is out there when the surf does come in. Don't be a sheep...go search as there's plenty out there

Suzanne & Joe

Julie & Ronan

Me mate woke to this out his Hotel bedroom window the morning after the wedding!!

Back home going off

2010-05-23T21:41:00.002+01:00

Raglan's one of the jewels of NZ with 4 sections to it, here's a video clip of it breaking only a couple of weeks ago, this is the inside section Manu bay...imagine what outside Indicators was doing 800m out further!!

A bloody good mate

2010-05-07T15:44:00.003+01:00

I had just woken up with a bit of a hangover after being on the beer with John, I dragged my sorry arse out of the stale air of the bedroom through the lounge and out onto the balcony of my 2nd floor apartment, the steel cold and damp under my feet, the air crisp, with every breath my vision came less blurred looking out beyond the green paddocks my eyes started to focus on a wave peeling off in the distance, clean and lined up. Turning me phone on my voicemail was prompting me, a message from John left at 4am, it went like this...”hahaha I'm pissing on your balcony”, John lives in the top apartment! Standing there listening to that it just dawned on me where exactly i was standing and it hadn't rained over night!
A month or so later i had to move out of my apartment and used this as a favour and asked him if i could move in for a month or so while I find a new place to stay...4 years later i finally moved out! Over those 4 years i got to know John and he's one of the most genuine blokes you will ever meet, he tells it the way it is and has a joke for any situation. John will do anything he possibly can to help someone out and his knowledge of everything is astonishing. If you ever see him walking down the beach with his surfboard you'd swear he's a kook as John wears his legrope on his front foot which he reckons he's so used to it now it feels too weird to change it, but he is far from a kook, being surfing for a while John surfs pretty good and has some pretty big gonads and drive to find new spots and surf on his own, not because he wants to surf by himself thou it's because he kinda gets a bit over excited when driving to the surf and a passenger will
generally last just the once. Althou since getting married to his beautifull wife last year i do believe that he has calmed his driving down a bit.
Anyways the reason for this is something i should've done a while back, a thank you for what you have done for me over the last few years, letting me stay without hesitation, making me laugh so hard that i got stomach cramps, the nights on the beer and showing me you can make your voice go squeaky when inhaling helium from a baloon through your nose hahaha, that was so frign funny, the wicked surfs we've had especially the session at Brandon bay and some of those gem of spots you have showed me.

Cheers john, you're a feckn legend

Joe had to cover one of John's eyes so he only saw 1 white ball...

Tim Bonython's "Sessions 2"

2010-05-03T11:15:00.003+01:00

Well I have been waiting for this for a while and finally it's out. The insanely rediculace new movie "Sessions 2" is now available to buy at www.volatile.com . Check out the new trailer by clicking here . Some of the shit that's going down in the trailer alone is beyond belief. I am a big fan of Tim's and i know this dvd will not disappoint. I remember that first photo of The Box that came out in the late 1980's as this is probably where the first real heavy gnarly slab hunting in Oz was started, the first in my mind anyway, slab hunting has changed dramatically since the introduction of skis and this is where they find their home in big gnarly heavy stuff. The last 2 years have been off the frign scale and Sessions 2 looks to show it off big time, hats off to ya Tim and can hardly wait to get my copy. It certainly has inspired me

Image pulled from youtube footage from the new trailer of "Sessions 2". copyright Tim Bonython

Blog update

2010-05-02T12:01:00.005+01:00

I must apologise for the blog of recent, youtube vdeos been half cut off and photos no quite fitting properly. I think now i have sorted this out, bigger images from now on on the front page and the video clips will now fit properly so happy days, if you see any problems i have not just send me a comment, no worries.
cheers
Aaron

surfing sheep

2010-04-30T19:46:00.002+01:00

hahaha i just had to put this up

Wave porn

2010-04-25T06:54:00.003+01:00

Right so, it's sunday morning and I can't sleep in. I just can't stay in bed & never have, I mean what's the point in lying there doing nothing so I decided to put a few shots up of a few empty waves. The first of which is kinda a funny story. I was in the pub back home with me mates the night before and I remember saying to them i'm only having a few jugs tonite as ******** is going to be filth in the morning, i'll pick yas up at 5am. Now this particular spot is not well known and is known to be very fickle so a crowd there is usually just us maybe 3 times a year. Well they all said it wasn't going to be great and were going to keep drinking. I left just before midnight and hit the hay, waking up I had butterflies and jumped in the trusty wagon and tore off to*********. It was still dark when I was putting the wetsuit on but i could hear it breaking, the wind was lite and offshore. I ended up taking this photo after surfing it by myself for 3 hrs, & yes that is marram grass, meaning lots of sand and one hell of a perfect long point break. By the time i got out of me wetsuit it had turned onshore then me mates turned up. Me still frothing at what i am saying is the longest rides i have ever had was telling the boys they missed it, of course they didn't believe me...until I got the photo developed. Most of the photos below are early morning & empty so why sleep in if you're missing it.

To shoot stills or video Aileens style

2010-04-17T15:13:00.007+01:00

At heart my passion is surfing photography but i've always had it in the back of my mind to do some video as well & seeing some of the crazy videos coming out of Ireland recently has to inspire you to look seriously at it but this brings me to my problem, when you're always by yourself doing this sorta of thing do you stop shooting stills and do video for the day? If it's epic you might miss out on the photo of a life time in full res and the oportunity of getting me first cover. So a while back it got me thinking why not make a collar that'll fit on my big lense on my stills camera with a mount top and bottom so you can have the lense mounted on a tripod with a video camera mounted to the top of the lense...sure i've only got a limux compact but it records 720 HD and not too bad as well. So I set out with the idea in mind & gave it to my good mate Graham who took all the measurements and carved it out of 1 solid block of aluminium & did a cracking job I must say. I know i have put this in me blog before but this time i have the results. So it was at Aileens or is it Aileen's? Who cares, anyways it was at the cliffs of Moher earlier this year, below is the stills results and at the bottom is the video result which you're better off to go into youtube and view it in 720 HD, the video camera is mounted on top in the centre with a height adjuster to allow for the slightly different angle when you zoom in, works a bloody treat if you ask me.

Me collar

Click here to watch full screen

Fergal's Aileens barrel

2010-04-07T23:55:00.005+01:00

My apologies Ferg...

2010-03-27T19:56:00.005Z

As we say back home "i screwed up", earlier in me blog i said this is Tom Lowe but out came Carve mag and it's frign Fergal Smith. Sorry about that Ferg, so to fix my balls up i have put here the full sequence of Ferg's unreal barrell at Aileens. One of the most insane barrells i have seen there, for someone so young he certainly does charge, i think his philosophy must be go hard or go home...

Al Mennnie's book of...

2010-03-21T07:42:00.006Z

Never in my life have i read a book front to back cover without putting it down. Right from the opening page you know Al has put his heart and soul into this..."Dad, you are my inspiration. If our love could have saved you, you would have lived forever". The start of the book goes thru his younger years about his family, surf comps and how the big wave passion came about, always these parts of books are not so action packed but you need it to get to know a bit about the person to understand it all. Not long thou into the book Al is talking about his travels and big wave stories ands steps up about 10 knotches in a fast action packed read that i could not put down, actually as the pace grew i felt my own reading getting faster and faster wanting to know what happens next. "I dropped and began to glide into position as Duncan pulled away at speed and the wave stood like a 6 storey office block. As i got to about half way down it, it just lurched on the reef and grew massively above me, I thought i was a gonner" Al talking about the epic Dec 1st Mullaghmore day really got my heart pounding. It's like reading a book of gnarly short stories, each one with it's own uniqueness if there's such a word. "All along the reef where the waves breaks, all in a line, these boils of water were surfacing and pouring out from below the surface. One of them was about 6 feet in diameter and surged out to about 2 feet in height. It looked like a big jelly fish!" Al describing how the wave was breaking on the Mullaghmore Massacre day. I think Al's book is a fantastic read and i'm not just saying that cause he's a mate. I honestly could not stop reading it.
I'm stoked to have the covershot and a few photos inside, thank you Al for asking if i wanted to be part of it, a real honor and a highlight in my photographic career.

cheers mate and good luck

http://www.almennie.com/book.html

2010 St. Patrick's day parade

2010-03-17T17:57:00.004Z

It was sunny, warm and felt like the first real day of spring, Dublin was buzzing with people from all walks of life and it was good to see there wasn't too many drunks about during the parade. Man it was wedged which made it tricky trying to get any sorta ok shot, i was glad i had my little compact gem the Limus TZ7, the colors this thing puts out is pretty astonishing for such a small camera. Kids were climbing up anything and everything including one that tried to jump from a statue to my shoulders but missed! Ladders were everywhere and overloaded with half a dozen kids all trying to get the ultimate view. It was great to see so many people out smiling and laughing at all the great floats going past. Just heard that over 650,000 attended the Dublin parade with no incidents, that's something to be proud of. Maybe a country in recession but a country with a heart of gold or errr is that green

Tonnta comes home

2010-03-15T18:51:00.005Z

Well it's that time again and yes it should be another cracker issue on all the going on's in Ireland. This issue covers a little town i call home, well my Irish home anyway, Strandhill. Cain Kilcullen grabs the cover at ....Pete Fleming's first cover, big congrats to you both, damn it i must be the only photog in Europe to not get a cover yet hahahaha. The best of winter, a bit on the Mentawai's and loads more, grab a copy before they all dissappear, should be out in the next week or so.

Tonnta Issue 6

Cranes, cranes and more cranes

2010-03-13T16:43:00.014Z

It was way back at my Grandfathers birthday i asked if there were any jobs going in the drilling business and that's where my passion for cranes truely started. Almost 20 years on now my passion is stronger than ever. It's a unique job allowing you to play with a big toy all day long and gives you the chance to travel and see alot most would not. I don't drive the tall tower cranes but i drive the heavy lifting crawler cranes, why called a crawler because they're on tracks and crawl around the place...simple. The smallest being the 15Ton Smith in the above photo, my very first crane. Since then thou i have driven cranes up to 180Ton. Picking something up and swinging it around like a feather with the ease of a couple of leavers is great fun, there has been a couple of hairy moments but you need them to know your limits and the cranes!! There was one day the ground i was working on which the digger driver assured me was compacted properly gave way on me while i had a 6Ton load on at full stretch heading for a bridge deck 40m above me, the crane started tipping over fast, i applied a method i had been taught by my mad mate Doobie to get the load to the ground and i just got it down in time, the boys reckon at one stage the back track was that far off the ground you could've walked under it! Instances like this are very similar to tow surfing and getting a serious hold down, my legs were shaking so bad afterwards i could hardly stand but you have to get back on the wagon and straight back into it otherwise you'll lose your wits and confidence. It definatley made me a better crane driver. Here's a few pics of some of the cranes i've driven. The big splash is where i took a boulder the size of a mini and dropped it from 150ft just to see what would happen, there's a big kid in all of us. Also there have been some real magic places to work like the New Brighton beach pier in Christchurch, NZ pictured just below a long period swell cruizing in, what a view. What's next for me, well my dream is to drive the crane pictured at the botton. It's a 3,000Ton crane which will lift it's on weight and more...dreamtime...

120Ton twins

All Black flag in Ireland

The big splash

hmmmm...where?

My dream...

SIRF

2010-03-07T20:31:00.005Z

It was a few years ago Allan Mulrooney and brothers Barry & David Mottershead started the Strandhill Indonesian Relief Fund to help rebuild schools in Java and help the communities out after a devastating earthquake not long after the Tsunami. Strandhill as a community poured their hearts and souls into it fundraising left, right and centre and getting 5 schools built. I had decided to give them my support as well by having people sponsor for how much weight i lost in 6 months and ended up raising enough for a school. So i would like to take this moment to personally thank everybody who supported SIRF and all the fundraising, hard work organising events and a huge thank you to the 3 lads for allowing us all to be part of it. Here is a video of the 5 schools that got rebuilt and as you can see the kids are so happy to have it. This i will never forget, seeing the video really hits home how lucky we are, i am just so stoked to have been part of it all.

Thank you

Aaron

SIRF visit Java Indonesia 2010 from Allan Mulrooney on Vimeo.