Archive for the 'Video' Category
Stern vid and Framies
VIDEO BY DAVE OTTO www.shipsterns.com
FRAME GRABS BY TIM BONYTHON
ALSO CHECK TIM’S VIDEOU OUT AT:
http://www.coastalwatch.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=9699&display=0&cateId=3&#ooid=o2d3Z4Mjp0qnKKHRD9yDajuFMU38z0iH
Jy tearing Byron Apart
Here’s a clip that two really good mates put together. Jy Johannesen is the surfer and Alasdair Shurman is the filmer/editor. Sick track too
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……
Sydney Pits
Cape Circus from Josh househam on Vimeo.
All photos Ben Newman. Vids by Josh Househam and Darran Franks
The east coast of oz has been going crazy this winter and last weekend i ventured up to Sydney to try duck under a few slabbing lips…
My friend Benny Newman picked me up from the airport with his mate Daz. They were super hung over from a big Saturday night, but were keen as to head over to Cape Solander to take some shots and shoot a few clips. We arrived into the car park at “OURS” and it was by far the most crowded i’d ever seen the arena there. Storm Surfers were shooting there stuff with RCJ and Tommy Carroll and the usual locals were out there getting amongst it. But for how many people that were watching the action, the lineup was pretty uncrowded. Throughout the day there were only a handful of people paddling (sometimes no one) and 2-3 crew towing..
I paddled a few waves to warm up, then “Bones” came over to whip me in. On my first wave it was a bomb, i hadnt really towed “ours” before, so i was a bit sketchy and how to approach it. Ended up hitting the step on take off thinking i had it in the bag, however when i landed my board stopped dead and i proceeded to face plant and get sucked over slamming into the bottom.
It was really slow all day, but when the good ones came it was great. The arvo glassed off and the swell got cleaner and we had an amazing session trading waves with Chalk, Dingo, Bones, Roo and Dom.
I was staying at Dingo’s pad that he shares with Parramatta Eels legend Reni Maitua Fuimaono and Ren’s girlfriend Nat. They were the best hosts ever and during the time i was staying there i met some really great people. Ren’s pad is just behind the beach with a full view of the coastline and the kid surfs pretty damn good too.
Dingo was being his usual self, waking up an hour before dark frothing for surf, we head round to Chalks and wake him, then load the bus for a mish down south. The waves weren’t as good as we had hoped, but we still had heaps of fun pulling into 4-5ft spitting rights and no one else around.
Overall was a great trip with good crew, fun waves and great food. Was great hangin in Maroubra and meeting the people and surfers that make up there community. Cheers everyone that i met and thanks for the hospitality…And big thanks to Reni and Nat and Dingo for lettin my crash at there joint, Bones for whippin me into some nuggs and Chalk for taking me surfing….
Chasing it North
Marty Para from Jacob Wooden on Vimeo.
This is some stuff shot from my trip to NSW…..
Thanks “Woody” for the clips bro…And young Alex and Juggy for the shots. And thanks Mooney and Jug for the hospitality…
It wasnt 15ft pits, but it was heaps of fun and a lot warmer than back home.
Fun Swell Mid July 2011
Untitled from stugibson on Vimeo.
The last 5 days have been pretty hectic. Saturday we hit the eye of the storm and paddled huge surf down south (as you can see in my last post), then on sunday we had the funnest mellow session at one of Hobarts better point breaks (the clip of Dustin Hollick), where we had waves with multiple barrell sections. The weather ranged from 2-8 degrees with snow and hail storms and fierce 40-60 knot winds.
The swell then made its way up the east coast of Oz and Fiji was the place to be. The old bank funds weren’t treating me too good, so with reports of pumping surf in NSW, i decided to head to the Central Coast Monday morning. “Bones” picked me up from the airport, then we hightailed it to “Jugs” house and straight to the surf. The next coupla days was fun 4-6ft pits on both beachies and reefs.
Il be putting up a short edit and some shots from the NSW trip in a coupla days so stay tuned…….
Dirty F@!Kin South 8/7/2011
Click on link below to watch a video edit from the day…..
http://www.coastalwatch.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=9164&display=0&cateId=3&
The Pom (James Hick) gives us his rundown on the session:
“It was the biggest swell, reading 14 metres. We all just had some big boards and have wanted to paddle it for a while, so this was a perfect opportunity. We’d been keeping our eye on it for a few years now. I think it was one of the biggest swells they’ve ever seen, it was reading 14.5m on the virtual buoy, and it had every single colour on the chart.”
It was a special day because there was only four or five of us surfing. Everyone was pumped, and there was good community camaraderie. You are in the middle of the Tasmanian wilderness on one of the biggest days ever recorded. In a way it was quite historic. They had to be some of the biggest waves paddled in Tasmania.
It’s a big bowly point break that has some tube sections if you’re in the right spot. You get these bowly ones that throw out and you can get some big barrels for sure. Some of them would let you in really easily but some wouldn’t let you in at all. AS you go further out you are the more exposed to the wind, so we had to pick our sections otherwise it was too windy to ride the wave. As soon as you tilted your board onto your rail the offshore wind would get up under your other rail and hold you up so you had to go straight down them and bottom turn, you couldn’t set your line on the take off because it was so windy.
From where we were surfing the wave is about 15-20 seconds ride. The first section is obviously the biggest, it just depends how far you wanted to ride it and how far you wanted to paddle back. It is definitely an incredible place, the trees tower over you and completely shelters you from the wind for one section; it’s a really special natural arena. Stu and Chiz were screaming from the bushes, you couldn’t really see where it was coming from.
When we finally got to the wave, some of the guys were definitely well under gunned. Those of us who had our 9’8” big boards we were fine, but a couple tried to paddle out their 7’2”s. Jimmy Dell, local lad, had a good crack on a 7’2” and on his first wave it snapped his board straight in half on a pretty big wave. There was lots of carnage, we all got cleaned up on this 18 foot set, it just came out of nowhere and none of us could do anything about it. Three guys snapped their leashes, and their boards got washed up on the rocks, fins knocked out. Mikey Brennan lost two fins and ended up riding his board as a single fin for the rest of the day. Mark Visser snapped two boards.
By the time we got back we were so exhausted because the walk itself was such a mission. But you are really tired, happy you made the most of it. Waves like that don’t come around that often and you hope you did everything in your power to do it right and hope that we didn’t kook it, because I might not ever surf that place again.
The best thing about the day was the whole adventure; nothing about it really came all that easy. Even on the drive down, there were fallen trees on the road and we had to take to it with axes. There were four or five trucks with their straps ripping this tree off the road; nothing was going to stop us from getting there!”
2 commentsDesert Dwellers Part 2
There’s certain places you travel in this amazing world that give you sense of living that you will only experience a few times in your life.
Growing up as part of a generation where technology controls our lives, we find it hard to escape it. The “desert” in north west oz is a place where you heal. Your problems in your life are put to the side. The technology you rely on is abscent and forgotten. Instead of nights sitting in front of the tv, there replaced with nights sitting around a campfire, under the stars. Sharing yarns with good friends and dreaming about how good the surf might be the next morning.
This journey west came about after a storm brewed up in the Indian Ocean. It was sending swell to West Oz and Indo. The last time i was up the desert, was 4 years ago. I knew what the place had to offer and straight away my heart was drawing me to it. But ive never been to Nias and for a natural footer, it was destined to be a spot i wanted to score pumping before i die. My friends Lucas “BOO” Street and Mike Brennan were on the same program. They both had never been to either spots and were frothing at the bit to go for a mission. The call was made to stay on oz territory and the plan was put into action.
Four hrs flying and 10 hrs driving later, we pulled up at Scotty Bauers headquarters. We were to grab a few hours sleep before continuing our journey to where the desert meets ocean. Scotty has lived here his whole life and knows the ins and outs of every part of this coast and the tricks of the trade needed to survive up here in this harsh but beautiful place.
Once we had abandoned the sealed road for the dirt track, things start to get interesting. The track slowly trurns into a mud run and we start to doubt whether the little Hyundai we hired is up for the job. Scotty manoeuvres his 4wd in and out of waist deep pools of water, while we struggle to keep up behind him. Then we come face to face with “the big one”. We had heard about this part of the road. Apparently it had swallowed half dozen cars in the last 48hrs. Most of them being 4wd’s. And just to freak us out even more, there was a 4wd stuck smack in the middle, with the water up to its windows, fully abandoned. The trick was to stick to the left though, the right side was a big hole, thats what got people. We successfully edged our way through and finally made it to the carpark and our first view of the jewel.
The swell was predicted to hit this morning, but by the looks of the ocean, it hadn’t even started. As the day rolled on and the sun started beaming, still no sign of the new swell. Crew were rolling in and the carpark was slowly getting congested. The calls were being made, “hoax swell”, “swells late”, “peaked overnight” etc. We still had faith so decided to kill a bit of time and set up camp. On our return, finally signs of a pulse. That was enough to get suited up and out there. Although the water is quite warm, people tend to wear full length steamers, as the bottom is sharp and littered with sea urchins.
We were lucky enough to run into the local lads, who offered to let us crash on there camp site while we were up here. There set up was amazing, the site was on the edge of the lagoon, away from the other campers. They had a couple of jet skis pulled up on the beach and a caravan that could sleep six.If the surf was shit, everyone would go fishing or diving and in the arvo’s we would have big cook ups and sink some cans of the local brew. Once the sun would go down the starlight show would begin. As there is no houses or light posts around for hundreds of kilometres, the stars would shine brighter than ever. The lads pointed out a few constellations, like the emu and the scorpion….
Craikey took the cake for unluckiest surfer. He finally paddled out in the arvo and sat patiently out the back waiting for his wave. As the biggest wave of the day loomed onto the reef, Ry swung around and proceeded to paddle under the ledge. Once to his feet, the wave began to bottom out pushing him head first into the reef. He came up, copped the next 3 waves on the head and ended up 300m down the line. Ended up tweaking his knee pretty bad and sat the next few days on the bench. The next day Mikey did the same on another bomb.
Dino was the backside master out there, pushing through chandeliers into heaving slabs and coming out with the spit. Boo got an amazing no hands backside pit, but Kerbs and local lad Nath stole the show on the preferred side, weaving through the bombs that came through.
On the way to the airport we jsut so happened to run out of fuel 200kms from the nearest servo at 2 in the morning. Hazards went on and as cars approached we would take turns hitching. An hour later, finally a fella pulled over and offered us a lift to the servo to fill up a jerry. Lucky that, as we only just had enough time to make our flight.
Overall the trip had everything. Pumping waves, great crew, sketchy moments and amazingly good times. Cheers for Boo and Mike for being epic travel crew. Also Scotty Bauer and Dino Adrain for there hospitalty.
Big Thanks to all these lads for good times
kerby brown
ry craike
jarrah
jamen
camel
robbie
nath
randell
Treeksy Clips
Simon Treweek has been working on an interesting concept by doing a project which includes filming and putting together mini episodes of surfing all the coasts of Tasmania. Here’s the first couple… I’l update as future episodes are released. Enjoy……..
