Flowers for Mom

Flowers to smile about

My mom loved flowers and most likely still does, since her passing we have amassed a vast amount of beautiful flowers.

Love you mom.

Love you mom

For Mom


My mom passed away last week Saturday, 14 August 2010. No words can describe the emotions, it is not a feeling I wish upon my worst enemy. We all die some day, but we are meant to grow old and die. We are not meant to be taken before our time, but when is our time? Who decides that? I have my beliefs and part of those is that mom is now everywhere keeping a beady eye on us, her friends her family.

Yesterday I paid my personal tributes to mom. With a single rose I paddled out into the ocean, my sanctuary, said a few words thought a few thoughts and threw the rose to waters free to roam as mom now is. Later in the day I went for another tattoo, never in my life did I think I would be getting a tattoo in honor of my mom. I am proud to wear the memory of my mom in my skin.

The Photo from that letter

First ever published surf photo

Two posts ago I related the story behind the letter. Today I show you the photo. Above is the first surf photo I ever had published. It is actually the first photo of any kind I ever had published. My friend Darryn Mountford in the barrel, a tiny barrel, at East London's Bonza Bay Beach. The wind was a stiff NW Burg which kept us warm in the icy water.

The magazine was ZigZag Vol 22/3 May/June 1998 on page 14. When a certain day of the year becomes fateful for some catastrophic reason be it human action induced or Mother Nature response the statisticians play around with numbers and coerce them into meaning something. This particular issue the cover featured a photo sequence shot from the water at Pipeline Hawaii, my favorite place in the world since I live there for three months of the year. The photographer credited with the photo is my part-time boss and friend Pierre Tostee. I am of the belief the photo credits were mixed up as I have never been recounted stories from the boss about water shooting in Hawaii, and I too have been miscredited on numerous occasions. Sometimes to my credit sometimes not.

Flipping through the pages you see faces of current and gone, surfers I love photographing, places I love visiting and some now good friends.

Time is a strange thing, without it you wouldn't need a watch.

The frame I thought was better

Mandatory friend photo

(L-R) Me, Darryn and the Beach Buggy

R500 and finely ground pepper

Brad + R500 + Pepper

It started with "Brad I dare you to sniff this pepper". I think that stemmed from the round of Tequila they all just threw back and some story about sniffing Tequila. Then Bruce threw in R100 (One Hundred South African Rands). I would have said no to a paultry R100 too but the ante was upped with a "Who else is putting in?". Before he knew it R500 was sitting in front of him. To put the money in his pocket he had to put the pepper in his nose. To say we pick on Brad is a bit harsh, we choose him because he is a sucker for peer pressure and very rarely backs down which is a result of said peer pressure.

Brad, it's love.

Where it all started

The letter that started it all

You'd be amazed what treasures the bottom draw holds. Today while sifting through a pile of paperwork for some all important tax return documents I found this, the letter that started it all.

In 1997 a good friend, Darryn Mountford, and I purchased a waterproof disposable camera. During the school holidays we set about surfing and shooting and now that I think about it I never used swim fins. Crazy but true. It was a "disposable" camera but being the MacGuyver kid/person I was/am I proceeded to ignore instructions dictating the camera should be returned to the store in its whole. I pried it open, wound the film back into the canister and off we went for developing. I remember the day, we finished the roll and went off to Vincent Park mall in East London. While waiting for the one hour developing and printing we had a lunch at Wimpy. I also clearly remember the disappointment when looking through the photos. What at the time seemed like a perfect barrel shot was in fact off centre and soft. With the developing and printing came a free roll of film which found its way back into the "disposable" camera thanks to my early understanding and makeshift darkroom inside my bedroom cupboard at night with all the lights turned off and strict instructions to all in the house that access to my room was forbidden.

There were one or two acceptable photos, when you are 17 finishing school and never seen a photo of yourself surfing, the most average of photos makes you smile and cringe. Smile because you finally have a photo, cringe because you realise how kooky you look.

The few acceptable ones, which I now understand go straight to the editors bin, were shipped off to ZigZag Surfing Magazine. There was no scanning of negatives, there was no scanning of photographs and there was definitely no email with the subject "check these shots". For months as soon as the newest edition hit the shelves I was flipping through the pages. At times I was phoning the surf stores to see if they had sneak peek editions. When told no the next phone call was to CNA because CNA had everything. I'd given up hope. I'd finished school and moved back to Durban. I thought I was never going to see those photos again. I hadn't even touched the "disposable" as I didn't have a friend to surf and shoot with anymore then one day an envelope arrives in the mail. It was from then editor, Jeremy Saville. The next issue I had my first ever surf photograph published.

I can't find the photo at the moment but I know I have the negative somewhere in my box of negatives. That was 1997 and now 2010 I am an ASP World Tour photographer. I've swum my home waters of Durban shooting New Pier, North Beach, Cave Rock the South Coast. I've balanced in a rubber duck shooting a semi-secret reef 5kms out to sea, I've bobbed in a boat shooting South Africas best big wave surfers at South Africas premier big wave break - Dungeons. I've swum Hawaii's Sunset, Off The Wall, Backdoor. I've swum out at Pipeline to "enjoy the scenery" on days I've just not wanted to shoot. Here I am 13 years after that first roll of film all high-tech using 10 frame per second digital cameras and recording high definition video with a camera the size of a matchbox. Here I am 13 years down the line having heard Confucius.

Find a job you enjoy, and you'll never work a day in your life

Hipstamatic Jeffreys Bay

Hipstamatic JBay

Whilst my visit to Jeffreys Bay for the Billabong Pro was cut short I did put my unhealthy Hipstamatic iPhone application addiction to good use.

A slideshow is currently featured on theBOMBsurf Magazine website.

Surfers Against Nuclear

Surfers Against Nuclear T

The absurd idea of a Nuclear Plant at Thuyspunt, too close to Supertubes for anyones liking - that's not saying anyone even endorses the idea of nuclear plant apart from E(ish)KOM, has brought about great opposition.

A t-shirt has been created in support of this opposition and one of my photos of Casey Grant has been silhouetted for the graphic.

Support the Supertubes Foundation in their quest to expel this mindless thought.