This mornings effort at redemption was nearly dealt a complete dose of failure. Out of bed bright and early ten minutes after my alarm, two doses of "5 more minutes" as opposed to my usual hours worth and I was up getting my oats and surf reports when my eyes on the ocean Goose phones in "it's a bit broken up from the east and still looks good but I broke my hand last night so I wont be surfing". Oh well jump in the car set the compass and burn some petrol.
Checking in with Casey Grant as I pull out my drive-way reveals a surfer out getting milk for his breakfast and a confidence boosting surf report. Emitting these CO2 gasses might be worthwhile. It wasn't quite working but Casey would be hitting the water in an hour, the amount of time it takes me to reach the spot.
Mid drive Chris Leppan rings in, he has Matt Bromley with him up from Cape Town and they are looking for waves and photos. Telling them where I'm going the phone call ends as all photo mission phone calls end "see you there". Arriving at my chosen photo studio punches through the second failure. It's not barreling, the wind is up and there is a rip right where I would want to be with fisheye. The cool thing about this spot is you can get right up in spitting distance of the take off zone so observing the goings on is not too painful. Another phone call, Rudy Palmboom Jnr is checking in, his spot is a bit wonky but so is mine. The phone call ends as some photo mission phone calls do "it's nothing great, check you later". Chris and Matt check-in again, they looking at a spot 3 minutes drive away, they take 15 minutes to arrive.
And then it happens, the first dredger swings on to the sandbar. Then a freight train arrives and in my head the clouds part the skies clear and angels sing. A cup of coffee and suit up. That was the plan before failure number three sends its greetings. Flat batteries. I don't use the auto power off feature on my MKIII because before I've had a camera develop errors when waking from slumber and when locked in a housing in the ocean that is not fun. Because I had last used the camera a few days ago and never turned it off the little blinking battery icon sent the obligatory curse word or two from my mouth. It's not exactly what I wanted to do but my 7D was okay to attempt fisheye. I use the auto power off feature on my 7D because I use it when doing photos while free diving with sharks and the time from sealing the housing to getting in the water can be quite long. Another blinking battery. What? Followed by more expletives. It's a strange trick but it works, remove the battery place it back and the camera thinks the battery is full. By this time the rip makes swimming not an option unless doing long lens pull back but that by default of a flat battery was not an option. And this is were redemption comes in. With only one option you are forced to create more. Lately I've been admiring the pull back action shots by my friend Greg Ewing. He has been doing them for a while but lately I've been enjoying them more and more so into his shoes I step and walk
And walk away with a few good frames in the bag and a smile on my face I did.
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