Every year the Billbong XXL has a panel of surf industry folk, including sickshots, review the final shots and pick the winners.  I am stoked for the opportunity and always invite you, the sickshots audience to help me.  I will be receiving the ballots soon, so stay tuned and I will ask for your opinions.  While I know many of the contestants, I keep it as unbiased as possible and ask you to do the same.

This is one amazing shot of Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker at Mavericks last month and it was shot by Frank Quirarte who always seems to be scoring unbelievable Mavericks images.  Congrats guys.  Epic moment!

Here’s a few shots from my first run today at Mammoth.  I’m using the new HD Go Pro helmet cam (set to shoot an image every two seconds).  I also shot some video which I will edit and post later. The conditions were good, but it will be even better as snow storms are predicted this entire week!

You can see it was snowing and some of it was sticking to the lens cover on the housing.  Overall, I’m impressed with these little cameras.  The quality is great for the size and their lightweight enough that I didn’t even notice it was on my head after I got going (even though I looked like a tool). Pretty cool. Can’t wait to try these on some surf trips I have scheduled this spring!

I’m up here for a TV commercial, but the weather is so bad we may have to cancel.  Either way, I hope to get some more sessions in and share the footage when I get it.

I received this press release from the Billabong XXL today (see below).  It describes what is being claimed as one of the biggest paddle-in waves ever at Waimea.  Unfortunately it doesn’t look like anyone got another angle than this side view.  I sure hope one turns up because  a front view of this would really put it in perspective.  Anyway, It is a monster and worth big congrats to Shane and Mark for an impressive display of bravado!

The photo here is of Kohl Christensen earlier that day (front view).  Kohl is one of the paddle guys.  He can usually be found in the gnarliest places when the surf is big.  I’ve seen him as a little spec on the horizon out at Himilayas as I drove by Lanis on many a large swell.  Sometimes he is by himself.  I was stoked to see him in the Eddie.  Now that I think about it, it was probably Kohl that was out paddling that tow-in spot my buddy was telling me about.  Cool.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — (January 8, 2010) — The promise of the El Nino winter appears to have delivered for big wave surfers, as many long-standing records are ready to fall in this year’s Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards presented by Monster Energy.  And more than ever before, the Monster Paddle category (just for surfers who catch their waves without any jet ski assistance) has taken center stage as the elite of the sport refocus on this elemental man-against-the-sea tradition.  Visual evidence of these landmark performances can be viewed at the event website at www.BillabongXXL.com.

While huge swells have blasted nearly every coastline of the planet in recent months, it has been the Hawaiian Islands which have had the most mind-bending proof of the power of the current El Nino weather phenomenon.  December 7-8, 2009 saw one of the biggest swells in modern history batter the northern shores of the entire Hawaiian Chain, followed by another extraordinary day of outer reef waves on Christmas.  From these historic moments of oceanic grandeur have come images which show several top big wave surfers paddling into what may well be the biggest waves ever caught by human power in the long history of the sport.

Among these superlative rides is a massive dark wall caught by Shane Dorian and Mark Healey which closed out the legendary Waimea Bay on Oahu on December 7.  Also up for consideration is another mammoth peak at Waimea ridden by Chile’s Ramon Navarro which earned the South American hero a perfect score in the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau event on December 8. And more recently, grainy, documentary photos have arrived depicting Garrett McNamara paddling into a distant peak at Outer Log Cabins, a rarely-seen outer reef far off the North Shore shoreline, previously only the domain of tow-in surfers with jet-powered watercraft.

All are likely to figure prominently as finalists for the Monster Paddle Award to be given out at the tenth annual Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards to be held in California in late April.  A panel of big wave surfing and photography experts will analyze the available images and by interpreting the known sizes of the surfers and their surfboards, calculate reliable height estimates for the face of each wave.  One will emerge as the Monster Paddle winner and will receive $15,000 out of the total event purse of $130,000.

The current world record for a paddle-in wave belongs to Taylor Knox of San Diego, California who rode a wave measured at 52 feet at Todos Santos Island off of Ensenada, Mexico during the last major El Nino episode in 1998.  Many experts are expecting an update to the Guinness Book of World Records once this winter’s measurements are complete.

Dorian and Healey are veterans of decades of big wave hunting and both concur that their shared ride at Waimea was easily the biggest either had ever caught.  “I’d been waiting 15 years for that wave,” said Dorian, of Kona, on the Big Island. “That wave, we could see it from when it was like two or three minutes away from breaking, we could see the wave coming in, everybody’s screaming on the beach and yelling and stuff… When the wave finally came in, it was SO big.  The thing was a MONSTER.  We both put our heads down and started paddling and somehow we both caught it.

“I was going no matter what,” Dorian added. “And I know Mark felt the same way. It was just fun. A party wave — a wave of that size, and it was for sure the biggest wave I’ve ever paddled into, and to do it with my real good friend, it was very….memorable.”

Mark Healey has lived down the road from Waimea all his life and has been one of its most dedicated practitioners.  But he’d never seen waves like this.

“That was the biggest day I’ve ever had at Waimea,” said Healey.  “And that wave in particular was definitely by far bigger than anything I’ve ever caught out there, for sure.”

The wave was so large it closed out all the way across the Bay, not allowing the surfers the opportunity to kick out over the top of the wave as usual, and forcing them to straighten out and take the endless tons of whitewater on their heads.  But for Healey, a renowned freediver with the ability to hold his breath for over five minutes, it was a fun experience.  The longtime friends surfaced unharmed right next to each other, hooting with excitement.

“We were pretty stoked,” said Healey. ”Big waves are different, there’s a lot of brotherhood involved, stuff like that.  I’d rather have had Shane catch that wave than ride it alone.  It was cool to share a wave like that with a friend, and someone I look up to.”

McNamara, another North Shore stalwart, likes his own chances in the Monster Paddle derby.  A past winner of the XXL Paddle crown in 2007 for a huge wave at Northern California’s Maverick’s, “GMac” reckons his Outer Logs Christmas present was several notches larger.  “I don’t know how big it was,” McNamara said.  “But I do know it felt at least ten feet bigger than anything I’ve ever paddled into.  The Mavs wave a few years back was small compared to it….”

Remarkably, there may be much, much more to come.  This week the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center issued an alert confirming that the current El Nino episode had intensified in the last 30 days from “moderate” to “strong,” adding that the condition would exert a “significant influence on the global weather and climate in the coming months.”  And for surfers in the North Pacific basin, that means more enormous waves.  According to Surfline.com, major new swell events are lining up in the coming days, impacting the Hawaiian Islands around Monday and the West Coast around Wednesday of next week.

Don't be a tool like this guy!

Your surf photos are hideous.  It’s true.  I’ve seen what you call your ‘work’. You think you have keepers – HA HA!  ‘Shithouse’ Magazine is about to run your best wave photo on the cover.  Your mom wouldn’t put your photos on the refrigerator.  Your Surf Photography sucks.

For the sake of those poor little pixels that you keep punishing, I’m going to write down the 5 mistakes you are making.  So listen up, know it all.  Write this gospel on a sticky note and put it on your mirror.  It’s time to change- to suck less.  I know you have aspirations, so let’s see if we can get one of your photos up on facebook without anyone noticing how much it sucks. I’m gonna make it real simple for you. If you can’t get it, sell your Canon Rebel and take up macramé or something. Snap.

1. You put crap in the frame

Do you look through the viewfinder?  Really?  What the hell do you see?  Do you see the whole frame or are you just looking at the main subject?  Pay attention Dickweed.  There’s an entire scene there.  What’s in it? Look around and notice.  What’s really there?  What do you want in there and where do you want it? (Do you know the ‘rule of thirds’?  Well you’ve got google, you bungknocker, go look that shit up and come back when you are ready).

YOU are controlling the Damn camera- MOVE IT, STEER IT, and COMPOSE THE FRAME. Take out the distractions and leave the things that tell the story (while you are at it, go pick up that plastic bag sitting on the ground in your frame it’s good for the environment and saves time in Photoshop later).

Good composition is the biggest thing that separates your hack images from the big boys you aspire to be.  Look at some real photographers work (not just surf photographers) and see how they do it. And, lastly, PLEASE stop taking 10 frame bursts for a while.  You are killing us.  You can’t take one good photo why the hell do you think we want to see 10 of them when they all suck ass.

2. You stand in the same spot

Why do so many of you A-holes stand on the beach all day in the same spot and shoot the same shitty image in the same direction with the same bad result?  You piss me off with your laziness and your stupid photos.  Move around.  God gave you legs- use them (I’m not even going to discuss water shots this time because you can’t even take a land shot yet)! Get a different angle.  Climb up something.  Lay on the ground. Hide behind some trees and shoot through them.  Stand on your head.  I don’t give a damn what you do, just don’t stay THERE all day!

The light moves and so should you.  Think about where the best vantage point is for the light at that moment and anticipate where you will go as the light changes.  Contrary to popular believe there is no ‘bad light’, just bad positioning and exposure (that comes next). And remember what we learned in our last lesson.  Put cool shit in your frame.  Quit flaming out on this already. This is the biggest reason your photos suck.  Are you shooting straight out to sea when you could move just a little and put something cool in the background like a boat or a pier or a palm lined beach?  Maybe you don’t want any of that in your picture, that’s fine, then move again.  Keep adjusting until you like what you see and then move some more.

This is good time to talk about lens choice because it affects your image as much as moving around. Try different lenses (or, even better, using two cameras with different lenses) to get a different perspective in your new position and see how it looks. Good lens choice can be the difference between a great shot and the photos you currently have in your portfolio. Some of you shoot too close and don’t let the photo breathe- Back off, you’re cramping the scene. Let some negative space liven up your image.  Others can’t get up into the action and stand back while the real photographer is capturing the moment, and the action, up close.  The trick is to know where to be and which lens to use.  This comes from experience, which comes from Practice.  It can be learned.  Photographers that keep practicing don’t suck. Photographers that suck don’t practice. Giddy up.

3. Your Exposure sucks (program mode is for pussies)

No, this is not about linking your crappy website to your facebook and twitter accounts to get ‘exposure’ for your so-called ‘work’.  Why in the world would anybody want to see your blown out pictures.  No, this is about that overlooked little dial on the top of your camera that selects how you expose your photos to light. You know, that knob on your camera that is permanently stuck on ‘P’.  You think that means ‘Professional’?  You’re the knob.

Again, Google is your friend.  If you don’t know how aperture and shutter speed work together with ISO it is time to go do some learning.  Don’t be a dickhead- educate yourself.  We’ll be here waiting for you…Meanwhile, if you are the person that thinks they understand it, and don’t, and continue to read this diatribe, shame on you.  Your photos will never change and you will continue to suck.

Now you aren’t expected to be an expert right away. Take baby steps.  Play with Aperture Priority (AV) and Shutter Priority (TV) for a little while and understand how they affect your images. Adjust your ISO for different lighting situations. Learn more about exposure metering.  Set up your camera to indicate where your images are ‘blown out’ (I wouldn’t want to encourage more chimping than you are already doing, but it is not a bad idea for your novice ass to see the flashing of your burned out highlights to tell you how much you are sucking with your current exposure- see your manual to learn how to do this, or better yet, put it in your bathroom next to the throne and study it).

The most common rookie mistake in surf photography is overexposed white water with no detail. This will improve how your photos are exposed by 50%.  You will start to become a real photographer and not just some pussy wannabe.   However, Let’s be clear here- the grown-ups use manual exposure (hell, they use manual everything, but you can’t get your head around that yet).  The more you can take control of your camera the better your intended results will be.  You can do it by practicing  (there’s that word again) and making MISTAKES…over and over…again and again. Mistakes do not suck.  Gimps that don’t test their boundaries do.

Practice using manual exposure in changing light by taking your camera out for a date (you can’t get one anyway, so you may as well become a better photographer).  Shoot at different times of the day and try to make good exposures.  You will improve.  You will suck less.

4.You lack Creativity

Dude? What? Are you going to go down to Rocky Point with your 600mm lens?  Let me guess your shutter is set at 1/800 or 1/1000 and your aperture is 5.0?  Wow, well aren’t you the big man with your original photo. Never seen that one before.  Did you shoot an Air?  Do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on? Your creativity sucks!  Please.  Even surf mags have moved on from that shit.

How about taking a 50mm lens and see what you can come up with? How about a remote camera angle? How about bringing a ladder down to the beach for a different view? How about slowing the shutter down or shooting everything purposely out of focus?  What have you got to lose? Your images are already the same as everyone else’s- Worthless Kack.

Try something different.  Get out of your routine and comfort zone.  Would you rather have 100 yawners or one ‘WOW’?  Yes, you will blow shots when you experiment, but you got to gamble once in awhile to win big.I know you are scared, but you can do it.  The real scary fact is this: If you keep doing what you are doing, you are going to keep getting what you are getting.

5. You’re technologically challenged

Yes, we are going to talk about your piece of shit camera now.  The thing you think is causing all the problems. Two words- operator error! Did you notice that this is LAST on the list?  Did you notice that this list has been building on itself with each lesson being LESS important than the one before? Can you get that it’s not about the camera?  You could go out and buy a $10,000 racing bike and Lance Armstrong is still going to kick your ass on a pink schwinn beach cruiser.  The same goes for your equipment. It’s not about the camera.

Don’t be a douche and drop 7G’s on a Lecia M9 and think you are going to be Henri Cartier Bresson. In fact, you don’t deserve a good camera yet.  The same goes for lenses. Get good stuff in your frames (see #1) and then slowly buy the goods (i.e. Canon L series lenses). Just keep this in mind- you will always be one lens away from the perfect set up.

The technology I really want to talk about is your workflow. God, do you waste time-  Sucking the very life from your computer sitting in front of it for so long.  Will you just learn a method of image processing that incorporates consistency whilst protecting your images with backups? Read that again dimwit.  Two words- consistency and backup!

I know you are whining, ‘Mr. mean SickShots man, what are you talking about?’  Well, Consistency, in this instance, means constructing a workflow that follows a set of logical steps to process your images.

Your workflow should look something like this:  1. Ingest photos  to computer while saving the images on the card 2. select keepers (feel free to delete anything that sucks- even if it is the entire shoot) 3. rename images (incorporate dates and/or location) 4. backup images  (mix in an external hard drive – the Pros ‘triple backup’) 5. format card (do this on your camera) 6. process and keyword images (Hey Lightweight- use Lightroom).

People with good workflow have more time to shoot and, hence, Practice more, and don’t suck. This leads to better images that need less processing (you can get exponentially better). Be one of them.  Create good habits and think ahead.  Have enough hard drive space for your backups.  Keep posted on new workflow software and techniques by checking out online forums (Surf Photographers United, SportsShooter, Photo.net, Fred Miranda, etc.).  Do it now!

There you have it fool.  Get busy.  You can do it.  Even the top pros sucked at some point in their careers.  Get out there! Don’t suck- SHOOT!

While on my recent trip to Hawaii, I couldn’t help but notice him.  If you were there you couldn’t either.  He was dropping in on the best waves of the day at Waimea the week it was breaking (not just during the Eddie).  Then you could find him getting one of the best waves during the Pipe Masters a few days later.  And let’s not forget the waves he has been charging in Teahupoo the past few years!  Freaking brilliant.  Is he just a big wave guy?  No way.  Check out September Sessions and remind yourself that he has been ripping perfect Indonesian waves back when Kelly had hair!

Is he the best all around surfer of his time?  You be the judge, but I will tell you it is hard to argue with his performances over the years and most recently on the North Shore.   I wanted to use this space to give Shane his props and show you this cool photo of him hiding out in the frame, away from the limelight, doing his thing. Well done Shane.

I shot this image in the afternoon of the Eddie during one of the big sets and you can see it lining up out the back with a peeler going in the middle of the Bay.  It is so rare to see Waimea look like this especially from this angle.  I love this shot and several others I took this afternoon. It was well worth the effort for me.  I hope this motivates the photographers out there to try different angles!  Look for more from the Eddie coming soon…

The doubt started in the Haleiwa harbor as I was slipping on Buzzy’s tow-in wetsuit.  It is a brazilian make, bright red with florescent yellow flotation pads strategically placed to insure protection whilst making one look like batman with huge abs. The ‘get up’ is loud – Perfect for Buzzy. I looked and felt silly, but somehow ‘protected’.

Now that I had donned my gladiator armor, I put the final touches on my camera waterhousing by tightening the wingnuts that secure the lens port. That’s when I noticed I was shaking.  My hands were trembling.  It was a mixture of fear and excitement that I can’t explain.  I couldn’t wait to get amongst it and I was petrified we would leave soon.  This is the main reason I opted to shoot this session over the Eddie.  I may try to tell you that ‘I’m not into contests’, or that ‘a lot of other photographers would be shooting the Eddie’, but that’s all bullshit.  I had to go and see the ocean and meet this monster swell face to face (with a jet ski of course).

I had this really dreamy picturesque image of what today’s tow-in session would look like.  I would sit in a large channel at Outside Log Cabins on a new jet ski and easily shoot away Billabong XXL winners while the rest of the photogs were shooting the Eddie.  Ken Bradshaw’s wave would be forgotten because I would take a shot of Buzzy dropping in on the wave of his life, win the $10,000 XXL prize money and then go to Sizzler. Simple, right?  Nope.

I have been pouring over weather maps and buoy reports for the past few days and last night noticed a strange anomaly- The buoy did a little jump upward at to 21 feet, 17 seconds.  Strange, I thought.  I calculated the approximate time of arrival of these waves to be around 10am.  I told my jet ski driver Tony this as we were preparing the ski and thought nothing of it until later.

After saying the ritual prayer with our group of 10, we left the Haleiwa harbor headed to Log Cabins on a new jet ski!  I couldn’t believe it everything was going to plan (this will be great)!  We exited the harbor cleanly and began heading east towards Waimea and Outside Log Cabins.  On the way we checked Outside Alligators (the spot that claimed one of the all time Hawaiian waterman and big wave charger Todd Chesser back in 1997). This is the same wave one can see in the distance when viewing Waimea from the East side of the bay.

The set up is a series of two peaks next to each other, or one long wave/closeout depending on swell direction and size..  The peak to the east breaks slightly further outside and is the usual take off spot setting up a long (possible closeout) right or a shorter faster left.  The wave barrels top to bottom, which is unusual for a tow in spot.  The way to shoot it is to sit in the ‘channel’ which happens to be right in between the two ‘peaks’. This results in constant adjustments of the ski to keep me positioned just far enough in to get the shot, but not too far in to get caught inside.  It is absolutely gnarly.  There were ‘channel sets’ and I didn’t want to shoot there.  I was relieved when we headed to Log Cabins.

The swell had dropped overnight and Log Cabins just wasn’t delivering the goods.  The conditions were clean and the sun was out, but the wave was not working.  Everyone was disappointed- especially me. We headed back to Outside Alligators.

Once at Alligators, I successfully shot a few photos when a large set loomed outside and we were able to dodge it easily by gunning the engine and escaping around the end of the wave. It is amazing how fast a jet ski can actually get up and go (and get one out of trouble).  I was feeling confident now and so was the driver.  The sets were coming every 15 minutes.  ’This isn’t so bad’, I thought. Just then a huge wave popped up in front of us and one of the guys was immediately towed in and flying down the face.  The wave was 20 feet Hawaiian scale (roughly a 40 foot face).

I was shocked to be looking at it and Tony starts yelling ‘take the picture, take the picture!’  I was way out of position as the jet ski was facing the wrong way and I would have had to have an exorcist head to spin around and click off the shutter.  I yell back, ‘Dude, OUTSIDE!’  There it was a massive wall rearing up to get us just behind the wave we were looking at.  Tony gunned the engine and raced just in front of the building peak trying to get to a less steeper area that we could get over the top. He started to approach the wave to climb up the face and then suddenly turned and straightened out.  I couldn’t believe it.  ’We’re f*ckd’, I thought.

I sat there knowing the beast was right behind us. It broke with a sonic boom and I could hear it rumbling after us. We streaked across uneven foam and white water from the last wave. It reminded me of crunchy snow in the sunlight with dark holes.  I didn’t want to fall in any dark holes.  I held my camera tightly as we bumped up and down towards the beach a few hundred yards away.  That’s when I noticed the rocks.  Suddenly Tony turned around to face the monster wave and with enough distance to between us he found a fat part of the wave that wasn’t breaking. Amazing! We darted and dodged and weaved around the next three waves getting dangerously close to the ‘inside’ section where the rocks were (which would be the outside section for paddle surfers).  After several harrowing minutes, the white water horizon subsided and we cautious made our way back outside.

Tony is a skilled driver and saved our ass.  I feel like most people would have tried to get over that monster wave.  That would have been disastrous.  I can now see that we would have barely made it over, possibly dumped the ski, and then taken the full brunt of the three set waves right on the head!  We would have been doing underwater cartwheels with the ski close to us. I didn’t want any of that.  I am thankful for his experience and good instincts.  When we got outside he said, ‘Well there’s your 10 o’clock set’.  I had completely forgotten.  It was 10:09.

We shot a few more waves and then returned early to the harbor.  The waves just weren’t what the boys were looking for and I was happy not to risk any more close calls.  On the way back we drove by the surf spot Himalayas, so named for the mountainous waves that come in there. I had a moment of peace in the middle of the ocean among swell.  I was glad I had joined the team for the morning session.  Stoked to be part of the energy. Then I started thinking about the Eddie and how I would get there through the crowds and where I would shoot. That story is coming.

Buzzy later asked me in his Brazilian accent, ‘Hey Davy, you makey a pee pee in my wetchysuit? maybe I gotta soak in simple greeny now.’  I quickly replied, ‘Nah, man..’  But now that I think about it I’m not so sure.  When that set caught us inside maybe I did pee my pants, but only just a little.

The evening started to really pick up and I expect the Eddie will run tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I am probably going to miss it, but the upside is that I am on for a tow in session!  Gotta prepare and get some sleep….zzzz

…This just in, here’s the latest from Pat Caldwell:

HIGH SURF WARNING FOR NORTH AND WEST FACING SHORES
HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR EAST FACING SHORES

Surf along north facing shores will be 15 to 25 feet with 30 foot sets on outer reefs today. The surf will build to 30 to 40 feet with occasional sets to 50 feet on outer reefs Monday.

Outlook through Saturday Dec 12: slowly dropping northwest swell is still keeping north facing shores in very large heavy surf this morning. Another much larger northwest swell arrives abruptly overnight pushing surf heights to extremely dangerous levels. Surf will exceed warning levels well into the second half of the coming week. Adjacent west and east facing shores will see very large surf wrapping into the area as well this week. South shores will see fading southern hemisphere swell today into Monday. Some areas may experience inconsistent waves in unusual places this week due to the large northwest swell also wrapping into south shores.
And Surfline:

Truth is I have never read a forecast like that!  Pretty exciting indeed!