This Is Not Today
Last week we had one of the most stacked ground swells I've seen push into the west coast.
It was too big to paddle around these parts, but there would have been places and surfers revelling in the power. It was one of those swells where it could have been crazy good around here but it was just a foot or two too strong. Nevertheless it was amazing to watch and document at the peak of its power.
Will Bailey and I teamed up, geeked out and had a Piha Camera Club morning. Will was armed with a Hasselblad and an IQ280 Phase back, I stuck with DSLRs...but regretting not busting out the 617 Pano.
Goosing and geeking out, watching the Tasman alive with energy is not a shabby way to spend a morning... content, I'm creating content... it is work related right? Truth be told there were images gained that are going to used in the book projects being worked on currently. There was a certain amount of professionalism, amongst the 'Holey shit did you see THAT one spit its guts out!' and 'farrrrk that was definitely rideable' calls.
There were absolutely very very ridable waves. You just had to be able to get to them and then get on them.
Swell lines stacked and dwarfing houses
There were places for sure... ^^^
Dave Wood and Jamie Piggins reckon they had their best step off session on the ski yet.
Proximity
The premier of Taylor Steele's new movie Proximity was on Monday night, didn't hear about it? I'm not surprised, it wasn't pushed much through the local surf network at all. Taylor Steele was in attendance and after the showing held a Q&A session. I have to say it was really good, and great to see the man that created The Momentum generation, that changed the way surf movies were made is still a very grounded, humble person. I fan boyed out, I got to meet him after. Here's the trailer
Is it good? Is it the next Momentum, Slipping Jetsreams or Good Times...no way. It is quite a departure from the formula we all grew up on. Taylor, yeah we're on first name terms [not!] stated during the Q&A that it was an evolution from his last projects. And that makes total sense, if you sat down and omnibused his movies from start to finish you'd see a clear maturing and development of style. I accept that creative forces like Taylor Steele can't keep rolling out the same formula decade after decade.
Proximity isn't really a surf movie, although Steph Gilmore's surfing shines out. But it isn't a documentary either, the narratives that are there are small sound bites alluding to bigger insights, I was left wanting more surfing and more insight. There's quite a few soft focus and water dropped shots; this surprised me. I'm roasting it, I don't mean to roast it. It's a great movie, and you're going to be watching it at some stage.
The Aotearoa Surf Film Festival
The ASFF is winding up for this year, the fellas have been on the road showing the selection for the last 3 months. Friday Night is the final showing- the Grand Finale. And what better place than the classic Crystal Palace in Mount Eden. The movie theatre that was THE place to go see new surf movies in the '70's, 80's and 90's. Come join us all. Come see Russell Ord's new Feature One Shot and meet the man himself. It's going to be a fun night.
Summer sucked, but Autumn... what an Autumn! Man we got waves. This image is fast becoming the new star on the website. You can check it out larger, LIKE it [pleeeease] and of course buy it by clicking through on the image to it's web page.