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…
Rory Russell in the Mentawais
I am a big fan of the 70’s surfing scene and the history surrounding that era, so I was pretty stoked to run into Rory Russell in the Mentawais a few weeks back. We chatted about waves, his life and his most recent near death experience- heart failure. A history of partying led him to heart disease and literally dying on the operating room table before being blasted back to life by the doctors (and probably some God or creator of the universe or whatever you believe in). Rory is stoked to be alive and surfing again.
He was aboard the ever classic Indies Trader 1 with Martin Daly and other legends of surfing including Jeff Hakman. One of the cool things about the Trader 1 is that the boards all sit on pads in the middle of the boat above the cargo hold. It was in this stack of boards I noticed one of Rory’s shapes – a vintage 70’s style winged pintail only with thruster set up. I thought I would really like to try that board. I asked him about it and he said he had been working on some boards for collectors and limited distribution in the US and Europe. The boards looked great and even had the famous Lightning Bolt logos on them! Wow. Love that. I used to draw those on my notebooks at school.
At the end of our conversation he handed me a card that had his title on it: Hawaii Surf Legend and Two time Pipeline Surfing Champion. Damn, how cool is that? Some may say that it’s a little over the top to have that on your card, but, hey, those are the facts. Legend? Yes, absolutely. He was charging Pipe with Gerry Lopez back in the day and won what is now the Pipe Masters not once, but twice!
Rory runs a surf school where he resides on the Big Island, so if you want a lesson or want to contact him about one of those cool boards check out his website www.roryrussellsurfschool.com
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.
Kelly floods competition
I didn’t know if I was on the North Shore or the Jersey shore when I arrived at Pipe today. Chocolate barrels were churning frothy brown soup that looked like day of the decade on the east coast – Double overhead with bigger sets. I would say it was ‘clean’, but that is not the best description. Probably dirty, but ‘glassy’ works better. Brown water just looked out of place on a beach that is known for blue barrels. This is a shot of the Quarter final where Jamie O’brien already out of his heat went behind Slater when Kelly had priority. Kind of a cool moment and, not unlike, the famous shot of Shawn Tompson and Mark Richards at Off the Wall some 25 years ago.
If you haven’t heard we had rain. Lots of rain. Build an ark type of rain. The flooding was so bad over in Wailua that I couldn’t leave my house. The road in and out became a river for the kids to play in. Some guy was paddling his SUP down the middle of the street where I usually drive 35 in a 25 zone. Cars were stranded and the rain just kept coming. Local rivers broke and spewed tons of debris and there were tires and oil drums crowding the lineups from Haleiwa to Mokoleia. None of this could stop Kelly from, well, going Kelly.
Like it or not, It is Kelly’s world and the rest of us are living in it. Kelly stormed through heat after heat until he met Timmy Reyes in the semifinals. Reyes had him comboed. Kelly needed something like a 16 to go ahead and with less than 9 minutes left. It looked like it was over for the 9 time champion. Slater haters were cheering loudly from some of the houses overlooking the break. But everyone knows how this story ends. Kelly finds a Pipe left and disappears and exits cleanly. Gets a 9+ score. Paddling back out he finds a perfect, and I mean perfect, backdoor peeler. Kelly pulls in. Kelly is gone. Nothing. No way he is coming out. Wave shuts down and Kelly pops out the end. The score is a 10 and it seems appropriate. I have seen it all before. Everyone has seen it all before. Some hate it. Some say he is lucky. I become a bigger fan. In less than 2 minutes Slater flips the situation on its head. Reyes is scrambling and runs out of time. That was a great semi final I mutter to myself.
Unfortunately, the final was a dud. Chris Ward surfed well throughout the event. A win meant two championships – Pipe and the Triple Crown. Slater’s momentum was too much and a lackluster final went to Kelly and Wardo had to settle for second prize and the Triple Crown went to Parko.
It has started to rain again as I write. It is time to go to bed anyway. Good night Hawaii. I’ll miss you when I leave. Thanks for the waves, the friends, the performances, and your beauty. Aloha
Surfline review
Surfline just reviewed the last week of swell here in Hawaii with a cool portfolio. Some of my pics make an appearance. I was surprised when they didn’t use a few that I originally submitted because I thought they were pretty good, but they magically appeared in this article. One of my favorites is ‘Outside’ which is a view of Pipeline with sets approaching from third reef. I know from being in the water what the feeling is when you see that coming- part stoke; part poop yer pants! This surfline surf report for last week (shown here) is now famous. I have seen it around and it is the first time I have ever seen ‘Good to Epic’ called for a whole entire week. I gotta say it was pretty damn good. More to come…get ready to go surfing…
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
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
Pipeline – The Danger is real…
At Pipeline this morning I witnessed an accident that may be serious. We just don’t know yet. A surfer and bodyboarder, each having position but going at each other, collided on a steep Pipe drop and the bodyboarder hit bottom. Myself and Sean Davey were right there and Pipe charger and local lifeguard Dave Wassel was there soon after. The bodyboarded was assisted to the beach by the surfer he collided with and was held in position while a board was brought in to stabilize the victims neck. It was a scary moment and something I hate to see, but it seems every year the most dangerous surf break in the world claims another injury. Before paddling out, please check your resume to see that you qualify. Pipe is no joke and it is made worse by the tight crowd. The sign doesn’t say it for nothing- “if in doubt, don’t go out!’. If this is your game and you do qualify – by all means charge it hard and have fun!! Let’s all pray for the speedy recovery of this unknown wave rider
