For the Last While I have been on another epic surf trip up the east coast of South Africa.
The mission began with me co covering the BloodScan surf Challenge in J-Bay and ended with some epic free surfing in perfect J-Bay waves

To get things going, a fun swell pulled in on the Friday and we managed to nail a few shots with the crew.
Dylan Lightfoot, Emma Smith, Matt McGillivray and Adin Jeens were amongst the action. They all nailed a couple of shots, a good start.

That Night was filled with mild anxiety. Would the promised swell deliver in the morning?

It did!
Soon as it was light enough one could see the lines.
It was pumping!
4 to 6 foot and perfect.

I started shooting pre sunrise with Dylan and ended post sun down with Emma.
During the day, Dylan, Emma, Gilly, Shane Thorne, Adin and a few others went to town on the perfect Walls at Super Tubes.
Best day of shooting in a long while.

Sunday Dawned. It was bigger!
Waves were in the 6 foot range but needed an offshore and there was a horrible haze over the bay. Not photographically perfect!

Little Matt McGillivray was first in at Dawn and blew the place apart.
He ripped 6 foot supers with confidence and ease. It was awesome surfing from the grom.

By mid day the swell was at its peak.
There were solid 6 to 8 foot bombs blasting the super’s lineup.
Watching Emma Smith do the rock jump down the point with massive sets bearing down on her was quite a sight.
Totally unfazed about the size of the waves, she eventually made it to the line up and ripped.

This was another awesome surf trip with epic waves and amazing people.
I shot some pretty rad surfing action and during the down time, I shot a bit of fashion/lifestyle, which was fun.

These 20 images are some of the “left over’s” as I need to keep the good images under wraps for print consideration.

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Always stoked to get work run and this is no exception.
This has to be one of my Favorite images of the year so far.

The hardest part of shooting this image was convincing Chris to get in the water and surf.  Lighting was amazing and the waves were super fun! No chance of missing the shot!

I also covered the bloodScan surf Challenge in J-Bay at the end of April.

Brendon Gibbens , Hoek , Cape Town, South Africa

For more detailed coverage, please check out the ZigZag Magazine website

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Tanika is very much part of the “Kom Kids” crew.
This is a group of talented young surfers that have emerged from the sleepy village of Kommetjie in Cape Town and have mad a significant impact on the local surf scene.

She has a number of national surfing titles and is well travelled having represented South African Surfing on a number of occasions.
She was also on set of the Blue Crush 2 movie that was shot in South Africa shooting the surfing action sequences.

I recently caught up with her for a quick chat….

1 )  <Me> Why surfing?
<Tink>I love being in the ocean! Surfing is always different; no wave is ever the same and its fun.

2 ) What does it mean to be a surfer?
It means freedom to express myself, not being constrained by predetermined rules and loving and respecting the ocean and enjoying myself in it.

3 ) Earliest surfing memories?
The first time I stood up on a board and having a really good session out at Muzinberg.

4 ) Favorite wave?
The Lefts around Reunion Island!

5 ) Greatest surfing achievement?
My equal 9th Place at World Games 2011 in Panama and winning the Girls U/20 at South African surfing Championships at my home break in Kommetjie

6 ) Number of National Titles?
3! Girls U/12, U/14 and U/20

7 ) Future Plans?
This year I want to travel a bit and do a couple of Pro Junior’s and maybe a couple of WQ’s. Hopefully I will get a few results that will set me up for next year.

8 ) Secret Passion?
Chocolate!

Check out Tanika’s awesome blog here

A few more pictures of Tanika.

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“The Reef” also happens to be the easiest wave in the world to shoot a half decent surf shot. One would need to be pretty brain dead to miss out here!
The light in the afternoon is generally very good and the wave is a near perfect, round barrel, that looks good from almost any angle.
This is why I enjoy shooting down here.

These reasons are probably why this spot is one of (if not the) the most over shot waves in the country.
There are tons of good images floating about from various shooters.
The downside of this is that there is an over supply and this devalues the image.
But its still a fun place to shoot surfing photos.

Last winter was one of the best in recent times!
There were consistently good swells, coupled with nice sunny days that gave one many shooting opportunities.
Apart from shooting the standard, boring long lens shot, I did try think a bit more about what I wanted to create. This led me to a shorter lens and and some new compositions which I hope are a little more interesting than the standard shot.

These 30 images are a selection of photographs from various sessions from the winter of 2011

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Kalk Bay Reef, Cape Town, South Africa

I don’t like boats!
I suffer server seasickness, which is rather unpleasant when I need to shoot off a boat, but what I experienced on this excursion was of the scale.

The boat ride out was intense as there was a big swell running. The little boat was rocking from side to side with force and in no time my seasick pills were rendered useless.

As we approached the island, we caught first sight of waves.
From a distance the left looked rideable and fun. However as we approached it was pretty mental. Big drops into the unknown and it were clear the surfers were under gunned.
Lucky for us we had Peter Lambert with us, who kindly “volunteered” to be the test dummy on his body board.
After a wave or 2 Rob Hope decided to catch a few, and as far as we know, he is the first person to stand-up surf out there.

Rob had this to say, when asked about the surf recently:

“ Don’t remember much, a bit too much adrenaline haha.

I remember not knowing what was coming up ahead like it could be dry at any second and I’d have to commit.”

It soon became clear that we were very under prepared for wave like this.
By now the worst seasickness in history had set in for me and the last thing I wanted to do was try capture the moments. I felt like death! I had and have never been so sick in my life and being out there on a rocking boat was not rad.

We then decided to drive around the island looking for another wave that was more suitable.

It was then, that we found “the Slab”
A hideous wave that comes out of deep water and then explodes on a shallow shelf. In short its pretty unrideable, well at the size we experienced but Peter Lambert and his body board decided otherwise.
Rob Also jumped off the boat with the intention of catching a few but there was no way he would get a wave with out being towed in.

After a few beatings we moved into a nice sheltered bay for a break and then headed back to the main land

This was an awesome adventure and I am amped to do this or something like this again.
However I am pretty disappointed with the photos I took!
It was so hard to do what I do feeling that bad! For most of the trip I was man down and missed more than enough photo opportunities but that’s the way it goes sometime.

Great place to park a boat!

Rob Hope on possibly the first wave surfed by a stand – up surfer

Rob Hope looks on as Peter Lambert is about to be swallowed alive.

The left: so much potential…

Rob Hope drops into a beast of a wave

Insane , Brutal , Hideous ! this is the Slab

Head towards the mountain! the road home.

This is also my first attempt at editing the clips with pretty basic software.

Clips where shot in and around Western Province trials this past weekend. I was not too worried about the quality of the clips but rather getting enough footage to learn how to do a basic edit.

Looking forward to shooting some insane footage over the next while and hopefully my next attempt will be pretty good.

I headed down to snap a few pictures and here is a quick gallery of 20 images

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