AUGUST 2019.. A SPECIAL DAY.

This day was a big relief. We had spent around 2 months heading up and down the east coast in search of waves, with tight deadlines looming. I was feeling the pressure of knowing our window of opportunity was coming to a close as spring inched closer, which meant we had to roll the dice on even a slight opportunity. We had a 4 day block of filming locked in at this wave on the south coast, and every day we would arrive in the pre-dawn glow to see the swell barely rideable This day dawned in a similar fashion, but we saw enough potential to go out and have a look from the water. As the sun came up, a few more sets started filling in and before too long it was all happening. My friend and talented waterman Guy Dixon was shooting water with me this day. Guy had never really driven a jetski in the surf before, but knowing him as a cool cat under pressure, i decided he could drive a front on tracking angle while I operated the camera. For those that haven’t experienced it, shooting front on involves following the surfer in from out the back as they tow into the wave, driving down the face of the unbroken wave, before accelerating out of the path of the breaking lip and whitewash explosion. The best images come from being really close to the point of impact. First few attempts, Guy nailed it straight up and we got the shot. Third time round, I was asking him to slow down a little as we got out front in the wave thinking we might be too far out in front. He did as I asked, but there is this point where as the wave breaks it accelerates quite rapidly towards shore, and I realised that we were in a really bad spot. While trying to keep filming I yelled at him to speed up, just as the lip exploded outwards. I got hit by the wave, but we got away with it by a split second.

We’d been out for 5 hours straight, and the job was well and truly done. We’d got a bunch of shots, everyone had got really good waves. Our water camera ran out of power at last, and we were all ready to call it a day. Laura and Whip (Scott Dennis) were still out the back waiting for a wave and didn’t know we’d run out of battery.Matty Dunbar our photographer jumped on the ski to try get a high angle still. There’s a sweet spot you can get in when shooting off the ski that gives you a elevated perspective looking right down the barrel of the wave. It’s rare that you can get close enough, but when you do it’s one of the magic angles that usually delivers gold. About two minutes later, the above wave came through, I thought we were too close and going to need to bail out of the way and ruin the wave for Laura, but in the end we were in the perfect spot and nabbed the shot. This went on to the cover of Surfing World Magazine, and the poster of the film. It was Laura’s first major magazine cover, and the first time an image like this w/ a female surfer has ever been featured on one of the major Australian surf publications. Setting out, this project was all about breaking new ground for womens surfing - something which I think we succeeded in doing!