2010 Billabong Easkey Open - Finals Day

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

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...

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

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

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

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

 

Stills vs Motion

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

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