It's been a busy 10 days. This is going to 2 parter like it was done in January [here]First up is a day that I reckon people think I have all the time. It's not, they are the days I'd like to have more often. Here's how it played out.

2 days after Cyclone Vaianu, there was a predicted reboot in swell, but it was kind of undersold. Up for the early, it was pumping, way bigger than expected and a great east direction. Groomed. Do I shoot? Do I surf? Both. There was an angle I wanted to explore with the drone and this was the perfect morning for it. The idea was to illustrate the nature of the Bar, show the flow between river, Bar and beach. How they are all interconnected. OK, OK, getting verbose there, but that was the idea.

Surf check, then somewhat counterintuitively drive away from the beach and up the harbour. Go flying. I got these...

Pretty gooooood, showing the relationship between river and bar for sure

yep, yep, like the compression, but kind of think the salty dogs with point out the tide is ripping through the peak

Then surf, it was a good surf. It was going to be the last surf for a week because of work at the Backdoor King and Queen Of The Point and Manu Bay. Not saying that put pressure on to have a good surf, but it did create a sense of urgency. By 10 am I was done. And feeling pretty damn good about it.

The first flight was good, but I had a thought I could refine it, evolve the composition further. So back up the harbour to run the drone batteries right out. This was the session that got this image...

Better light on the boats, less current through the peak… and long long lefts running. It was fricken pumping. This image is now available as a print in the Waves Gallery **HERE**

There was still a bit more juice in the batteries, so flight 3!

Pretty sure that’s Scotty Casey on the outside one

ugly green water… now you know why a lot of these shots are graded B&W

It seemed crazy to turn my back on a great day of waves and head over to Raglan. Intel eluded there could be a bank over hill. So why not aye... Raglan can wait.

Full framers in the shorey! Jesse Frazerhurst doing a early 00’s cover shot

Hazza Biddle…. you’re going to see a lot of shots like this in the next post… trust me, you’ll get the crypticness soon enough

Yep, Bella won the sibling heat this session for sure… that water colour though - yuck

Ben Harnett, cutting tracks instead of trunks [Dad joke - he’s the Whanga arborist…and if you have to explain, it is not a good joke aye]

Glenn Smith, busted, telling your boss… oh wait that’s Ben.

Get home, download the camera cards, clear the cards, recharge batteries. Pack four seasons of clothes... turns out that was very prudent. Leave the east for the west by 3pm, hit Hamilton traffic on que at 5pm with a huge rain front. Get to Rags perfectly on time for a home cooked meal from my host- Thanks Nat!

And that there is probably a perfect CP day. Next post is about the best contest in NZ since the '90's.

Just A Perfect Day

Storm Dodging