Big ups to Shane
Who is one of the best all around surfers in the world today? Kelly? Well, ofcourse. Mick after his second world title? Yes. Joel’s surgical cuts even after his world title collapse? Sure, the argument could be made…and there are many others. But I’m all about looking a little deeper and beyond the ASP tour. Just on the other side of the hype you will find Shane Dorian. Same as he ever was.
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.
Kelly at Backdoor Pipeline, Oahu
While the Triple crown’s second event is being won by Joel Parkinson over at Sunset Beach, I decided to take a smaller lens and shoot some wider shots at Pipeline. It’s nice to be able to walk around more freely (not that I don’t move around with my big lens- shame so many surf photographers plant themselves like they do). I got this image of Kelly about to paddle out at backdoor. You think he likes what he sees? With a huge crowd and shifty conditions, Kelly went out and got two good waves in less than 10 minutes. The guy is still amazing, and while the hype will be all about Mick and Joel’s title race don’t be surprised to see Kelly take another Pipe Masters crown.
…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!
You should have been here (Pipeline) yesterday!
I saw that the North Shore was pumping this weekend, so much so that Surfline put the Pipe cam on the front page! It gets me thinking, ‘Hey there’s gotta be a wave from that swell on our beaches somewhere!’. So, I go and check the forecast- 2 to 3 feet. I know what that means; waist high at best. ”What the hell,” I thought. Get wet.
I arrive with my new ‘Anderson fun board’ stuffed between the baby seat and the front headrest of my Toyota hybrid. I didn’t stop at Starbucks on the way, but I am still a stereotype. I put on my wetsuit, feed the parking meter, and tuck the board under my arm. It feels good. It’s been sitting in the shed with the black widows for awhile waiting for this moment. I am excited to ride the ankle snappers breaking on the high tide sandbar. It is miserably small, but I am stoked.
The water is crisp, but not cold and I paddle just a few short yards into the lineup and catch a wave right away. It’s a ’straight bowl’ closeout and I ride it just a little way into the beach and kind of kook it on the sand and hear a distinct CRACK! Damn- My fin! I know it without looking. My first wave and I destroy my board. The right fin is missing and the board looks like some toothless hillybilly missing a front chicklet! What the hell. I kept surfing my ‘twin fin’ for the rest of the session. Aquatech can deal with it later.
Jim was on the beach shooting the session and caught this photo of me (below) with his Nikon setup (D700- 500mm lens). He did a great job because I am convinced it was much smaller than this photo shows and didn’t look this fun. You can see more of his shots from this morning’s El Porto Session and others from his site here. I would like to thank Jim for the photo and for keeping my key for me while I surfed!
The only thing that’s bothering me is that Dave Wassell above at Pipe has a much better wave than Dave Collyer below at El Porto! It’s not fair! Look what Hawaii gets! Oh well, I’ll be buying that ticket soon enough…
Merry Christmas
Wishing you season’s greetings and Happy Holidays to all. Here is an image I really like from my recent Hawaii trip. It is Pipeline on a really good day. That is actually Jamie O’brien in the tube. I remember he was just owning it. Everyone else was getting scraps and he would score the perfect set waves every time. It was pretty unbelievable. He really knows that break.
The main reason I like this shot is because it is a surf check. The guy on the bike just rode down the path and saw this wave. That feeling of excitement when he left his house is confirmed – It’s on! I hope the same holds true for your Holiday.
Thanks for checking the site and your support over the years. Peace on earth.
Aloha means…
Aloha means I am going home. Saying Aloha is more fun when you arrive. Today I am on a plane back to LA. While the rain made it less painful to go, it is never easy to get on the plane and say goodbye. I love shooting surf and perfect waves and Hawaii was kind enough to provide some great surf while we were here.
Check out this shot my wife took of me shooting on her iphone. That is a day at Pipe back in early December I believe. There are a lot of shots I haven’t posted yet and I will work on that when I return home. For now ‘Aloha’ to you all and thanks for helping to support SickShots.
Pipe Masters?
Well, I wonder what they are going to have to call it? The Ehukai Beach Masters? I am not saying that the surf is tiny. At several feet overhead, it isn’t. It’s just not what you want the last contest of the year to be. We all want huge waves. Life and death sets. I think most competitors agree. This is THE contest everyone dreams about and to have small conditions is a let down. Don’t get me wrong there were barrels and it was fun to watch, but take one look at the promo poster and you see what we all want!
Today I played with a Tilt_Shift lens from Canon (the 45mm). This photo was taken with it and I really like it. I used the lens with the 40D so the multiplier of 1.6x didn’t let the full effect come through, but it still looks pretty cool. Notice how the focus is only in a certain part of the image. You can control the focus area and make some neat pictures. I will post more of these later. So stay tuned!
Eddie Opening ceremony
I went to the Eddie Opening ceremony this afternoon- begrudgingly! Why? Because Pipe was off it’s head, mental, insane, whatever you want to call it. I experimented all day with different angles and lenses and have some cool shots to show for it, but you’ll have to wait to see them.
For now I give you a shot of Bruce Irons from the Eddie Opening ceremony. Remember, he won the last Eddie a few years back with an epic drop out the back leading to a inside shorebreak. He pulled into the shorebreak knowing he would get clobbered (and he did), but he also sealed his victory with that ride and shorepound antics. It was pretty cool to watch.
I like the ceremony and the vibe, but I feel like they miss a few of the Bay regulars in the invitations. It is a long list and I won’t go naming names, but there are men (and women) that show up every swell and dedicate their lives to the place. I wish somehow they were more recognized.
Anyhow, today was also cool because there were waves at the Bay while the ceremony was going on- that is a first that I can recall. It wasn’t big, but there were some sets. It should come up even more tonight and I plan on dawning it to see what is happening.
If you are looking for the Rocky Point Gallery from December 3, 2008 (yesterday), it is up and loaded, so check it out. Alrighty, it is late and I am tired…zzzzzz
Waimea Bay shots
Here are the shots from Waimea Bay on Tuesday, December 2, 2008. Sorry for the delay, but my internet connection has been crawling lately. Must be that all the swell has everyone refreshing the buoy report constantly! I know I am. I shot from noon to dark and the gallery gets better and better as the sets started rolling in later in the afternoon.
A few of my shots from that day were on Surfline including a sequence of Shane Dorian that was pretty insane. A guy walked up to me right after and asked if it was Kelly because the surfer was a). Bald, and b). Skilled. I said “Nah, the dude is sponsored by Billabong’. I also heard someone in the Volcom house (yes, that was my secret location for the ‘angle’- pretty easy) behind me say, “who the hell was that?” I figured it out when Shane caught his next wave. He had a pretty good day.
The shot above is one that didn’t make the cut, but I really like it because it shows the power of a medium/ large swell around here. The caption I put on it was, “Honey, the gazebo is all wet again…” That’s Sharks Cove getting battered. Sure hope those tourists pay attention to the signs especially on a day like we just had when it will be flat for like 20 minutes and then have a macker come in like that.
Finally, I just read this on my friend Jamie’s site from Clark Abbey. Clark is a long time Waimea charger and all around good guy. He is out there every swell and has all the respect in the world from me. Here is his message..Please return the guy’s board. I am sure it has heaps of memories and some pretty serious sentimental value.
New Galleries posted!
We got your Galleries – Pipe, Sunset, and even Waimea right here! Let’s start with the epic day at Pipe which was on ‘Black Friday’ shopping day. I couldn’t think of a better place to be than at Pipe going off while the rest of the US is in WalMart! ha ha…This gallery includes the Aamion Goodwin wipeout, but if you don’t want to wade through all the photos and just see the sequence of Aamion Goodwin and his wipeout click here.
You will notice that these photos have been slightly processed where as the main Pipe gallery has not. If you buy prints, we always process them before sending them out for final print. We can also process your downloads upon request, but some of you like to do this yourself so we give you the choice. We can also do different types of process and examples are coming soon, but for now here is the ‘Nostalgic’ look to give you an idea.
The following day (Saturday- November 29) was pretty blown out and not as big as expected, but I did manage to click a few pros and regular guys ripping up Sunset Beach before the contest. It started raining and I usually would have packed it in, but as I drove by Waimea there were a few small sets. I am obsessed with Waimea and will shoot it whenever it breaks so I decided to go uphill to try to make it look bigger. It didn’t really work..as the rain settled in and I got wet and muddy shooting Waimea from the Heiau.
When I woke up today I thought it had finally cleaned up, but it is still all mixed up and stormy looking although the conditions are glassy and the wind light. What we really need is some trade to clean it up and I am waiting for that to happen as I type…I may just make one more run up to the North Shore to see if it turns on…I hope so!
SUP at PIPE?
I was going through some of my Pipe shots (which I promise to share soon) and I remembered that there was this guy on an Stand Up Paddleboard charging (it really is an SUP, just click on the photo to see the close up- his paddle is in his bottom turn spray). I just thought I would post it while I am working on some new galleries. Like him or hate him, you have to admit it is pretty ballsy to take that thing out at Pipe knowing that you could get caught by a set. Don’t forget he probably did not have many fans in the lineup either.
My buddy told me he has started doing the SUP thing in town this past summer and said this now classic line, “Dave, For the first time in my life I was getting stink eye from Longboarders!” I have yet to try it, but I am curious what all the hype is about. I could always use a new workout other than running, which I kind of hate.
WATER HOUSING…
Also, just wanted to let you know a friend of mine is looking to sell several housings over here on the North Shore. He’s got the Aquatech brand for 2 canon models- the 20,30,40D, etc. and the Mark 2,3. He’s an experimental dude so there are tons of accessories to be had, including ports and flash units. Contact me and I’ll give you some details.
Today was pretty stormy over here and I snapped a few looking around at Sunset and Waimea. I will post some of that soon as well…thanks for checking out SickShots.
Secret Spot? Nope.
What? Where is this wave? Is this some secret island peeler? Yep. Sure is…about 40 years ago! That my readers is Pipe taken with a 50mm lens from the beach. It looks like some perfect fun point/beach surf, but it is the real deal. Pipe on a big west. Growing by the hour…The swell came up fast in the afternoon as predicted and as I drive home from Pipe I noticed a few sets at Waimea. Hmmm. I hope to shoot the Bay tomorrow, but the wind is predicted to be bad, so we will have to wait and see. I will post some of the epic waves from this session soon, which includes a sequence of Aamion Goodwin getting taken out by a ‘drop in’ and later being helped out by the lifeguards with an injured knee. It doesn’t look good for the Hurley charger and he seemed to be in some pain. Let’s hope for his speedy recovery as he provides some incredible entertainment for those spectators on the beach whether from Texas or the Volcom house. Everyone loves a charger…Get well soon.
Reef does it again…
No, I’m not talking about ‘Reef’ the company, but Reef Macintosh the charger. Dude always seems to get the biggest waves. Look at this monster from yesterday at Pipe! Very impressive my brother. A few years ago I shot this insane drop he had at Waimea and didn’t know who he was. Now I see him all the time in the mags taking the biggest drops and charging the hugest of swells. Stoked when I see him out because I know he will go!
Meanwhile, I went to the Reef contest today and watched a few heats. Although the surf dropped a lot from yesterday the waves were still really good. That has to be one of my favorite waves to surf here especially in the overhead zone that it was in today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll post some of those shots…all for now…aloha
