Archive for the 'Media Exposure' Category
SWellnet WOD
Just seen this shot kickin it on swellnet this morning… FRom a session a couple of months ago down south…..
Tassie Devils
This was put together by Tassie film maker Simon Treweek of a swell which hit Shipsterns a month ago. Visiting Californian surfers Alex Gray and Nic Lamb tasted some southern juice. Video courtesy www.volcom.com.au
Its been a slow season down south, couple of big swells, mostly with shitty winds. At home we were getting itchy feet, but so were a couple of mates on the other side of the globe. Alex (Gray) and Chops (Nic Lamb) had been pumping emails back and fourth to me for months now. There motivation and thirst for shippies was something else. I wouldnt even have to check for swells, because as soon as a blob would even look remotely like it could produce, guaranteed either Chops or Alex (or both) would email me asking my thoughts. But Shipsterns isnt as forecast friendly as many other waves around the world.
The weather patterns can change in a split second (which happens nearly every swell), which is why each year theres always a couple of big swells me and my mates still get to surf by ourselves. It could be howling onshore (as predicted) and just after lunch a sea breeze would kick in creating light offshores. Or it can be predicted to be 40 knots southwest, but just as the sun comes up the winds will kick in with a land breeze and strong offshores will fan the crooked lumps of ocean for the early hours of the morning. These are the times where if you dont live there, you aint scoring it.
Over the months talking with the boys from the States, i mentioned these scenarios. So when this last swell began to appear the boys got there froth on. Conditions were far from looking ideal, but something in the weather pattern just got me excited. It was looking big, huge almost. If we could battle the 45 knot onshores on the jetskis, theres a chance we could ride some mammoth mutating lumps. The next day of the swell was also looking like it might provide with some small clean paddlers. So Al and Chops, frothing at the bit, booked there tickets, knowing full well it could be a complete hoax. I guess thats what i loved about these guys, they just wanted to come down and check out the place, the wilder the conditions the more exciting it sounded to them.
The day of the swell was exactly as forecast, 45 knots onshore. Alex jumped on the back of my ski, while Chops walked in with Treeks (filmer). That ride around to shippes was rediculous, the wind chop and backwash turned a 35 minute ride into one lasting almost an hour. Once around at the stern we were briefly disheartened, as it looked utterly disgraceful. Eight ft burgers were lapping over the reef, but due to the long period swell we still had hope there could be some bombs. And twenty minutes after we arrive we seen our first taste of what the day had in store for us. A solid 12ft plus nugget began deforming along the reef then blasting its insides out into the channel. I gave Alex the nod, which translated to, “it aint gonna get any better than this, so get ya arse in the water and lets get shit done”.
The next few hours the yanks proceeded to throw themselves over the ledge and into oblivion. Driving the ski was a task in itself, due to how windy and angry the ocean was, it was hard to get on a plane and get enough speed to get him on a wave. Once the rope had been dropped he would then have to negotiate the speed bumps even before he’d hit the first step. It was by far from ideal conditions to surf shippies for your first time. Alex ended up busting his arm on his last wipeout and although Chops didnt make this wave, he still got to stand tall in a shippies beast. Both surfers felt the power and fury this day and although it wasnt as big as hoped, it still got there hesarts racing. Local lad “wipeout mckean” got the bomb, living up to his name and took on a 15ft slab that he didnt have a chance on.
That night i took Alex into the hospital. The arm wasnt broke, but it wasnt in a good way. The doc gave him a script for pain relief and told him he would be out of the water for a good stint. Alex was devo’d, and tomorrow was starting to look the goods for some nice paddlers. We all walked in the next day. I love the walk, it means something to me as my friends and i did it for years on end when we first started surfing there, i guess it just brings back memories. Poor Alex’s arm was wrecked, there was no way he was surfing, but he still gave himself the benefit of the doubt and lugged his gear on the one hour walk in hope of the pain suddenly retreating.
Conditions were clean and the sky was sunny. The swell had dropped considerably, but we still had hope to get a couple. Once in the water after 2 hours of waiting for a good one, i began to realise things werent looking as good. The long breaks between sets would give your body plenty of time to feel hypothermic and we would find ourselves paddling in circles just to try stay warm. Only a few fun waves got ridden that day, but overall it gave the boys a taste of what the wave does. Rudi Schwartz got wave of the day with a super deep paddler. They experienced it at both ends of the scale, big and stormy, and small and clean. They also really appreciated how beautiful the place was and not once did they complain about the long travels, early starts and torturous walking tracks. They were troopers and earnt good respect from that.
The afternoon was spent in the sun downing brews and spinnin stories with the local lads. im sure Alex and Nic will be down again soon enough and with fingers crossed im sure there gonna score what they come down Tassie for……
Oakley BWA
The Oakley Big Wave Awards are well and truly up and running, being midway through the year there’s starting to be some entries flooding in. At the moment i have an entry in the “Biggest Paddle” also “Biggest Wave”…
Log onto http://www.bigwaveawards.com.au and follow the links to vote… Im not asking you to directly vote for me, im just wanting everyone to support these competitions as it helps push the big wave surf scene in Australia and New Zealand… Vote as you please by clicking on the stars under the entry you wish to vote for, ENJOY
Photo Stu Gibson
Photo Dunk Joyce
Tim Bonython’s View
Check out this link, Tim Bonython made the journey down to shippies, here’s some of what he saw
1 commentThe Run Down
For more shots check out The Collective and theres plenty kicking round on facebook, ASL doing a feature next issue
I woke up Monday morning with one thing on my mind, “buoyweather”. Surfers like myself work in perculiar ways. We rely so much on predictions, it takes over our lives and consumes us whole. Surfing isnt like any other sport. Weather is our friend and our enemy. Thats why we feel like we are closer to nature than most people. We are at Mother Earths mercy and she will do as she pleases. There is nothing constant about it. It changes every second. Its not like a skate park, where the skater can mentally visualise each trick and where to hit each rail… In surfing every wave is different and you have to make split second decisions with in a blink of an eye… This happens in a normal surf session, so try to imagine what goes through your head when your faced with the biggest swell to ever it shippies, the most unpredictable wave on earth…
Tuesday May 17th 2011 will go down in history as the biggest surf ever ridden at Shipstern Bluff.. When the swell appeared on the charts i couldnt believe my eyes. 33ft 16secs with light onshore winds becoming more favourable as the evening progresses… It was , to this date, unheard of. The predicted onshore winds were a slight worry but we were determined to give it a crack anyway..The next few paragraphs is my account of how it went down…
Tuesday morning we woke to howling onshore winds. But this was predicted so the let down was short lived. One thing was for sure though, the swell was huge.. We were getting reports that the Hobart Points were 3 ft, generally on a stern swell there feathering at 1ft. After some quick preparation checking our gear and packing the car, we were on the road by 8am. Id been checking the coastal observations all night and all morning and could see the wind was slowly turning around and becoming lighter, so once we got to the boat ramp i was pretty enthusiastic to get our shit together and get around there as fast as we could. There was lots of things happening in the ocean i hadnt seen before, like 1ft lines coming into the boat ramp and bombies breaking that ive never even seen cap before…
The teams were Rudi Scwartz/James Mckean, James/Ty Hollmer-Cross , the Pom/Danny Griffiths and Sandy Ryan/Myself. Me and Sandy headed off first because we were meeting up with the boat half way round to offload some boards. Once around at shippies we were met with the biggest mutated lumps of water ive ever laid my eyes on, we didnt see one makeable wave. It felt really different to the last time i was there. The danger vibe was predominant and i didnt want the nerves to get the better of me so i decided to give it a crack straight up. Sandy hadn’t towed before so the poor kid was under pressure to try get me in the spot. My first wave i dropped into a bit wide and tried to fade to get in the spot, once at the bottom i lost all my speed and tried to pull through the back. I ended up getting sucked over, first beatdown of the session, on my first wave.
It was extremely hard to work out the conditions this day, it was like the swell was too big for the reef. Each wave you towed into went below sea level and you had no idea where you were on the wave, it was a total mind fuck to surf. Normally you can tell where the take off is and where the step is, this day the whole wave was stepping out the whole way down the line. One set that came through would of had to be pushing 30ft. It doubled up and we all watched it in awe , as it proceeded to mutate and do stuff you would never imagine a wave could do. There was no possible way you could ride it and it was cringing thinking about someone being on it. Honestly no one could of survived that wave. After about 2hrs james and ty rocked up but still no sign of the others. They proceeded to tell us that Danny’s ski broke down and him and Pom were gonna walk in.After another hour Rudi and Mckean finally showed up. It was a bit offputting that neither team wanted to tow straight away, obviously the waves they were seeing didnt look inviting.
Sandy tackled it fearlessly. It was his first consequential surf since fracturing his neck 6 months ago but he gave it a solid crack. We tried to rig up a neck brace but it wouldnt fit under his wetsuit so we just tried to strap his neck up with a bit of tape. He said on his first wipeout he went over the falls trying to brace his head just hoping for the best. It all held together and he ended up getting some mad rides.
Charles Ward is a local bodyboarder whos turning heads in the booger world. He surfs shippies really well and is consistantly out there pushing himself every swell. He paddled out in the late arvo after standing on the rocks for over an hour waiting for a break in the sets to scramble through the pounding 10ft of whitewash rolling down the point. It then took him and hour and half just to get out the back to where the waves were breaking, due to a strong current dragging him into the middle of the bay. After his efforts and commitment i ended up towing him into one of the biggest pits of the day. He was so fucking stoked.
James and ty are really consistant surfers out at stern. We call them the “terrorists” cause they rock up in there hoods and masks, terrorise the session and make there way home, always getting the job done usually with one of them snagging wave of day. Tuesday was Ty’s day, pulling into an oversized pit that was as hollow as was high. It looked big on Tyler and he’s 6’4, so u know it must of been fucking huge..
Mckean and Rudi are the kamikaze patrol. Those two are just ruthless always frothing so hard and always racking up the biggest wave count. Mckean wiped out on a wave that was the ugliest thing ive seen happen out there. If it doesnt win a wipeout award il be very shocked. I was cringing when i watched the footage that night. Right on dusk after the boat and most people had left, Rudi proceeded to drop into something incredible. As he hit the step i lost sight of him as the wave went below sea level. He didnt quite make it but it was a spectacular finish to an amazing, historical day.
Unfortunately Mikey , Danny and Pom couldnt be there with us but im sure there thirst for it has grown and they will be charging as hard as ever next session. That Tuesday 17th May 2011 is now a safe stored memory in the bank. It wasnt the best we’d surfed it but it was the biggest. To have it that size and offshore will be a dream that hopefully will happen another time. In the meantime we can sit back and be thankful no one got seriously hurt…..
Check these links out below for more media
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/18/3220659.htm
http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever_55884
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/27/3229437.htm
http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever-part-2_56109
http://www.soggybones.com/to-one-of-the-best-weeks-of-my-life-tim-bonython/
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/gallery-e6frg7mf-1226064197062?page=1
6 commentsSUNRISE “umm”
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/-/watch/25271563/surfs-up-in-tasmania/
Holy shit, how many times can i say “umm” in an interview hahahahahahahaha
You will need to copy and paste the link to watch the clip
Shippies goes next level
Yesterday was fucking mad……. Check in later tomorrow for a more detailed account on the last coupla days
Check out this link to ASL http://www.surfinglife.com.au/news/asl-news/6112-shippies-opening-day
Tassie Lads Hit the XXL Awards
Nominations for the Billabong xxl awards are out with Mikey Brennan in contention for the Ride Of The Year award and James Hollmer-Cross making the top 5 for Monster Barrell…… Fingers crossed for the lads yeeeeeewwww
www.billabongxxl.com
The nominees for 2011, in alphabetical order:
FIVE BILLABONG XXL RIDE OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $50,000 plus a year lease on a 2012 Toyota Tacoma truck – Video prize $5,000)
Michael Brennan
Danilo Couto
Mark Healey
Benjamin Sanchis
David Scard
FIVE MONSTER PADDLE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $15,000 – Photo/video prize $4,000)
Danilo Couto
Shane Dorian
Mark Healey
Sion Milosky
Mark Yazbeck
FIVE BILLABONG XXL BIGGEST WAVE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $15,000 – Photo/video prize $4,000)
Eric Akiskalian
Dan Corbett
Rodrigo “Koxa” Augusto Espirito de Santo
Francisco Porcella
Benjamin Sanchis
FIVE MONSTER TUBE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000 – Still photography prize $2,000)
Shane Dorian
Tom Dosland
James Hollmer-Cross
Mark Mathews
Eric Rebiere
FIVE SURFLINE BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000)
Kohl Christensen (Kailua, Hawaii, USA)
Danilo Couto (Bahia, Brazil)
Mark Healey (Sunset Beach, Hawaii, USA)
Sion Milosky (Sunset Beach, Hawaii, USA)
Benjamin Sanchis (Hossegor, France)
FIVE BILLABONG GIRLS BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000)
Easkey Britton (Rossnowlagh, Ireland)
Maya Gabeira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Keala Kennelly (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA)
Mercedes Maidana (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Jamilah Star (Santa Cruz, California, USA)
FIVE VERIZON WIPEOUT OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $2,000 and a Samsung Tab by Verizon – Video prize $1,000)
Tiago Candelot
Mark Mathews
Everaldo “Pato” Teixeira
Laurie Towner
Ben Wilkinson
