Well I’m not pretending to be a surf photographer, but on Monday I could see that it was the best day of the waiting period…before the actual official waiting period. Dusted off an old zoom lens I had in the lock up, then discovered that the auto focus was non-functional anymore, so it made it a bit tricky chasing them down the line. Interesting to see that they also had their struggles with the line up. Size was good, but the period was pretty short, so the good ones were a little bit far and few between. As I was standing at the top of the point for a different perspective I couldn’t help notice a lot of these guys and girls were pretty apprehensive about the rock jump. I couldn’t help and give them a little bit advice on where to jump off. Some listened and had the easy entry, some didn’t and then ended up in the rock garden up towards Boneyards. I won’t lie, I was amused.
Surfers @italoferreira@griffin_cola@yagodora@joaochumbinho
I wouldn’t say flying from Austin to Sumatra is the easiest travel route on the planet. Running a couple of days late for a surf trip because I was shooting a job. Austin-Los Angeles-Tokyo-Jakarta-Padang. It’s a miracle that my boards turned up with me. Then a solo mission across the Mentawai strait on an old fishing boat with the crew that didn’t speak English. Waking up approaching the islands at dawn. The diesel fumes blowing ahead of us because we’re travelling so slow. Finally transferred into a dugout canoe where a guy paddled me through the keyhole in the reef and onto the beach. Made it!
I left my father with the rest of my family, armed with a tyre iron to defend against any potential serial killers, while I got into a stranger’s car to go for help.
Our fun little side journey on the way to Vegas one year turned into quite the mission. “Why don’t we take the back roads through Death Valley, just for kicks and giggles?”
Cut to: deep in the desert, well beyond cell phone range, with a flat tyre on our rented Chevy Suburban. Yeah… not ideal. Full car, kids, grandparents in middle of nowhere, no one around. No time to fuck about…let’s get the tyre changed. I look under the Suburban and, to my dismay, where there should be a tyre, I see only a chain dangling. Completely nude. No spare wheel.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck.
Eventually, I hitched a ride with a lovely old couple and their granddaughter in a tiny hatchback to the nearest town 35 miles north to call the rental car company and give them an absolute earful.
These kind people didn’t just drop me off, they drove me all the way back to the car so we could wait for the tow truck. I tried to give them some money for their troubles, but they refused. Said someone had helped them years ago, and this was their turn to return the favour.
What legends.
Part of the series: “Heading to the booze store before it closes.”
1: Tokyo
2: Sydney
3: Ely
4: Paris
5: Bangkok
6: Wanaka
7: Cambridge
8: Hawker
9: Atlanta
10: Charlotte
I found out the hard way there is no daylight saving in Japan, so the sun comes up at 4:30am! Also if you want to shoot car shots the camera has to be inside the tracking vehicle. Someone came up with the ingenious work around of using a 6 series BMW convertible.
Dust, Dirt, Mud, Salt, Flies, Hot, Cold, Windy, Snakes, Speeding tickets, 2 hour detour for a pie, 6 more hours to go, Double Rainbow, Cold Beer. Welcome to South Australia.
Have you ever tried non-alcoholic wine?
After eight hours of driving through the desert, I started thinking about a cold drink. About an hour out from the hotel, I’d progressed to openly talking about an icy beer or a crisp glass of wine to anyone who would listen.
Then we finally arrived… and discovered the hotel was in a dry area of the state.
Yay.
