Teahupoo's little brother

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

Wipeouts

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...

Tom

Ferg

Opps, sorry mate

Ferg

To shoot stills or video Aileens style

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

My apologies Ferg...

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...

Paddle vs Tow

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It’s a big question & 1 that will never have everyone agreeing on. I’m a longboarder at heart, not a new age one but a traditionalist, I luv the feeling of surfing a big old 30 pound log shaped 50 years ago easing into a bottom turn then drawing a line straight down the point with toes on the nose, my last board thou was a lite weight nose rider but in recent years I have taken to photography as my passion for big waves basically exploded here in Ireland with the birth of Aileens (cheers Mickey). Paddle surfing is where the heart of surfing is, although I remember a particular Bruce brown movie from the early 60’s with Phil Edwards and Del Cannon towing behind a boat on their 30 pound logs, I wonder where tow surfing would be today if they had thought to take it a step further than just on a river, my point is it’s all about fun and the rush. Tow surfing started off on waves that were moving too fast to paddle into so that makes sense but things have changed in the last few years, waves these days are being towed at barely head high and others are being paddled at 4-5 times overhead which leaves alot of confusion over when to tow. There are slabs out there that break so hard and fast that if you paddle you will get injured and generally the body boarders can make the drop and pull in but they too can still get a fair hammering, one spot in particular in Ireland has had alot of injuries in it’s short life but 90% of them are due to paddling in and this is where the tow surfing comes into it’s own, already standing and getting whipped in at 30km/hr gives you a huge advantage to survive the deadliest of waves and most importantly get the ride of your life.

Then there’s other spots like Aileens where body boarders are paddling into pretty big barrells on a certain swell, air dropping out of the lip on takeoff, these guys are nuts but are having the time of their lives. There’s no way thou that a surfer could consistently paddle in these waves at this size and make each one so that’s when the jet skis come into it, problem is there’s guys paddling it. General rule of thumb if you get to a break and there’s paddlers on it you leave them to it. But there’s something very unique happening here, the body boarders are glad to see the skis turn up as when they do get caught inside someone will head in and pick them up, Aileens is not a nice place to get caught in “boulder alley”. So far there hasn’t been a problem with the skis towing at the same time as they always wait for the biggest wave of the set where usually the paddlers are scrambling for the safety of the shoulder and the surfers getting towed are whipped in well away from the paddlers. Anyone who tows out here will always ask the guys paddling first if they mind if they tow a few of the set waves. With the way things have worked out there’s a really good relationship between the two and is actually bringing body boarding and surfing closer together which I think is a awesome thing cause we all there for the same reason, why fight over it! The most recent session at Aileens saw some incredible tube riding by both body boarders and tow surfers, everyone was hooting everyone, naturally the tow surfers got more waves but the body boarders got some pretty frign deep barrells too, the boys on the skis always ask if the body boarders want a tow for the craic and they luv it, although it can be a bit bumpy for them!

So what’s the answer to the above question, well in my eyes it’s easy. Tow surfing should be for breaks that are abnormal to paddling and makes it a hell of alot safer, it doesn’t have to be 40ft to justify it but if you do tow and there’s paddlers out there don’t be a f#@$%# idiot on a ski, respect the paddlers like the tow crews in Ireland are doing, ask them if they mind if you grab a few and if they say no respect it and go somewhere else, go in and help them out if they need it and most important of all everyone is out there to grab a few waves so don’t be a greedy b#@&#%>

Respect

Here's a couple of shots from the recent paddle & tow session at Aileens,

Tom Lowe's barrell #100 for the day!

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Jack Johns paddle in

Tom Gellespie

Shambles getting sucked over

Surfer mag

Even with the flat spell up here this is turning out to be an amazing first month of blogging, Surfer mag has just done an article on Ireland by Rusty Long in the Big issue which only comes out once a year, they have used a couple of my shots along with fellow snapper Mickey Smith, a big thanks to Mickey for giving me the opportunity to add a couple of shots and introducing me to Rusty's bro Greg and tow partner Twiggy Baker when they were over here, totally stoked. Over the moon that alot of the shots in there are of Fergal Smith as he really was the stand out surfer on the day pulling into some bullshit barrels, especially at Mullaghmore, i think it's a great feat to get photos in one of the top surf mags in the world, well done Ferg, congrats. Note to one of the photos of mine in there of Tom Lowe's brutal wipe out, Tom recovered well after his arm wrenching accident but now i believe he's gone and done it again but this time a SUP might've hit him on the shoulder to pop it out, i don't know the full story, only the guys there do so i'm not gonna make any assumptions, but more importantly get well Tom and looking froward to seeing ya amongst again soon

The Surfer's Path Dream

"Holy shit, you gotta be joking, is this a crank email?", was my first thought when i got an email from Alex Dick-Read at the prestigious mag The Surfer's Path asking if i'd be interested in submitting some photos for a possible portfolio, well hells bells yeah. As yas can probably tell i was over the moon about it all. I was like an excited kid waiting for Santa for the mag to come out. When i got the mag i was even more blown away, to see the preview in digi format is one thing but to see it on paper in the mag is just outta this world, all 12 pages of it all, such an honor especially when I was in the company of such greats as Gary Young and his bamboo boards, and the Long brothers along with their epic photos of the northern Teahupoo, so it seems fitting that the opening photo of mine is of Greg sitting in the channel at Aileens. Am really amped that they ran this photo cause it really shows the power and aggressiveness of Aileens.
So a huge thanks to all the surfers in my photos who have made my dream come true, and last and not least thanks to Alex, you're a legend, cheers mate.