Crazy Month, Part 2; The Swell

Kanaiya Webb on one of his many waves of the day

Last week’s storm made for havoc on the east coast of New Zealand. Lives were tragically lost and that needs to be acknowledged. Yet more slash decimated the East Cape in the flooding. Coromandel communities were cut off again with flooding and severe slips. It is truly dire.

The storm also brought incredible surf. Even a seasoned surf photog losses their shit sometimes. Last week was a one of those for me. I put in an 8 hour shift on the sand behind the tripod. It was dumb, but the surfing was so good I couldn’t leave. I shot sequences, again dumb; I ended up with over 2000 images to sift through. There have been numerous walk aways from the monitor, trying to reset and get the noggin around editing. So here’s a sample of one of the best days in a long time, I can honestly say I have no idea if they are the best shots I took.

Manu Roberts got some of the best

Manu and THE wave that had the whole beach applauding… to be fair, there was a lot of applause happening throughout the day

This was originally my favourite frame of the day, Rungi Ormand swooping into perfection while Taj Millar Dal Bosco stokes out

but this is pretty too aye!

Rungi defo running for MVP

It wasn’t all barrels though, Kanaiya Webb

and his uncle Rungi

Sam Frazerhurst nowhere near Devonport

And his bro Jesse finding the nuggs

The aforementioned Taj got his fair share too

Whangamata’s best chocolatier Thomas Capdevielle with a clinic bottom turn

Harrison Biddle in a nugget

Jesse rounding out the day with a good ol coping slide

There’s so many images sitting in this damn folder that are as good as or different in some way that makes them special. At least now some of them are out there.