So this is it!” 2012 “

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Another year behind us, and for me a personal best because there just aint no creation I could make better than My little Jasmyn Riona born on the 22nd July 2011.. tops the lot, and as if that wasn’t enough we were lucky enough to stumble across and purchase the boat of our dreams for an amount we could (with help) just about afford.. shame there wasn’t enough left for the Go  Pro HeroHD2 to mount on the Pulpit cos when them Dolphins ride the Bow it would be fantastic to show you and let you feel the experience..

So all in all I’m not eager to look back on 2011 with any bad feelings, all I really feel when I think of 2011 is awe and gratitude for things that have come my way and I managed to stay within comfort zones healthwise right up until Christmas…slowly now things are deteriorating with my health again so the sooner they get me in for this chemo treatment the better :) but I’m not gonna complain :)

The winds are still prevailing westerlies and hardly abate for any time at all before they’re back with a vengeance, but this has also afforded me the opportunity to spend time with our kite riders and windsurfers which apart from getting freezing cold and wet through on the odd occasion has been pretty fantastic.
In 2011 we took on Craig Smith as a team rider for us and its been great to spend time with him over the past few weeks getting to know his skills his style and his friends..

We’ve also had some great shoots with the team riders this past year and with our new streamlined team we’ll have much more time to focus on getting their profiles updated and spending time with each one to get the best shots we can for them all.. but here’s the years round up in a few pics.. so Enjoy and have a very happy and prosperous New Year all

M



Autumn Approaching and the BLU Finals

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Well its been difficult, and hectic to say the least trying to balance everything and raise a beautiful new baby… Fatherhood is a role I thought I was long passed through but here I am again starting over.. The funny thing is my life seems to have always been a bit like that – with a lot of stops and starting overs…

The main thing is always to keep going, keep pushing forward no matter what life may throw at you, smile and carry on.. otherwise, what is there?
I would never have thought that I could enjoy starting over raising a family so much but having Jasmyn is probably the most beautiful thing to have happened to me since the day Leanne walked into my life and the Old Success all those years ago.. I’m loving it.. to coin a phrase..

But the Difficult trimester of Maternity and the episodic birth really took all my strength and try as I may I just didn’t have the time to do all the things I wanted to do and as such I wasn’t physically able to keep on top of my websites.. not that it mattered as the moment I returned and updated them, especially Splashography, the members and visitors flooded back in  and boosted the ratings right back to the top again.. in fact checking the stats over the summer there was still a more than moderate influx of visitors to the website and the only real differece was in the URL’s visited in that so many were now going back over our Massive Archives of images because there weren’t always new ones there to capture them.
Well now we’ve moved into the Autumn, Jasmyn is flourishing and Leanne is doing well too, not quite back to her old self yet but we knew the recovery would be a long one so no surprises there.
The boat is out of the water for winter and safely nestled into her winter Birth at Loe Beach, and all was more or less back in some kind of chaotic order in time for the British Longboard Championships with the BLU at Gwithian over the weekend.
These days nothing ever runs smoothly to plan, so needless to say instead of the intended 8am start at Gwithian for us we actually arrived just after 11am with the waves peaking to an almost perfection and some pretty damned good styling going off out in the water.
To all those we missed in their early heats my sincere apologies but I’m sure my good freind and colleague Sarah Bunt will have captured those heats, or Wales’s own Claire Beach who I finally had the pleasure to meet, and it was indeed a pleasure to meet both her and her husband Sandy.. ( Sorry Steve, no no that’s a joke lol Sandy Beach ;)   Steve lol his names Steve :)

So with everything together we walked down the the lifeguard hut at Gwithian where Sarah was perched cosily at the top of the goat track shooting the heat and immediately jumped up to fuss Jasmyn on our arrival.. I quickly set up and started grabbing the shots while my beautiful daughter distracted the other photographers.. Cunning eh!! :)
The light was beautiful and I was so glad to be using the 50-500 as I’m sure I would have struggled for distance with the 600mm in that they would have been far too close for the great shots I managed to get in the high tide heats from the cliffs.. like this beauty of the maestro himself in action…
Ben Skinner striking a lovely 5 over the nose pose to the delight of a watchful Dan Harris..
But all the way through I just knew I’d picked up the best lens for the job and I have to say the light was just the peach of the day because the standards of surfing had to be some of the best I’ve seen in a long long time…
My own Team Rider Becky Stanhope fought her way through to the final to finish in 3rd place to Claire Smail in First place and Emily Currie in second Place…
Becky Riding her way into 3rd Place.. well done sweetheart we’re very proud of you and priveleged to have you on the team :)

Another Lady who did absolutely Fantastic this weekend was Jersey’s lovely Chantelle Coote with whom I had a nice chat as we walked back to the car park when she so very kindly offered to carry my things for me.. which I rather too proudly struggled with myself :)
She was telling me how much she’d loved doing Photography in her A-Levels and I’m fairly sure it won’t be a long way away from her as she travels around winning more contests like the Under 18′s section she’d won this weekend… Well done Chantelle :)

Chantelle Showing her winning moves in an earlier round of the Under 18′s ladies

Jersey did really well actually in this contest and also with the overall tour results with Ben Bates winning the Under 16′s championship  and Josh Le Marquand taking the  Under18′s Championship and of Course Chantelle taking the overall under 18′s Girls title making a perfect hat trick for the future challengers.. and it didn’t end there, with a fourth Place in the Open being awarded to Wales’s Dan Harris who of course now resides in Jersey they took home some great awards to the Channel Islands..

Dan Harris, Josh Le Marquand, Ben Bates and Chantelle Coote Jersey’s longboarding contenders.
But back to the surfing, and there was certainly plenty of that going on despite the strong wind

From the Very Young future of British Longboarding
From those who have shown the World the pure Class of British Surfing

From the Masters of British Longboarding

From the Beauty  and extreme Skills of the Sport

And from the Series winners and Overall Champions, the Quality of Surfing is as good as you’ll see anywhere in the world..

and from all of us who watch this spectacle unfold each year and have the Privelege to improve our craft by capturing the style and skill for posterity..
We thank you all, and especially those behind the scenes who bring us this fantastic Series Year after Year…
A Man Glowing with Pride and rightly so – a  job well done to Minnow Greene and his team
Mr Hotdogger Norman Wright and his team of Judges
and not forgetting of course (though he had every intention to avoid the camera..
Mr Vic Danks the Unsung heroe.. website maestro and Minnows’ Right hand..

Thank you all for a another Great Series… see you all Next year if not before…

Mel :)

CHECK OUT THE GALLERIES HERE!!

 

Sunny Gwithian and a little Surf

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Well it’s been a while since I felt confident to leave Leanne for any great length of time and go off and shoot some surf, but today she was feeling okay and the baby (like it’s father apparently) has decided to be stubborn and stay where she is for now so with a little surf rising I drove us up to Gwithian where Leanne could watch the sea and I set off down the beach..

Of course having lost all my best equipment over the cliffs last month doesn’t help having to go back to slower older gear, but hopefully the insurance will be sorting that out this month and then we can get back to some serious shooting.

Good to see so many familiar faces and also it was probably one of the busiest days I’ve seen up there in a long time the beach was swarming with holidaymakers and sun seekers.. which of course is good for the surf schools which all seem to be thriving at the moment Here’s a few of the Sunset Surf Crew to start us off..

Down the beach everyone seems to be having fun in the sun and out the back there’s a few of the local ‘rippers’ leaving the water behind in favour of an airborne flight with all fins out …

Here’s Pete from Shoresurf school whacking the lip off the wave to experience a small flight on to an unsuspecting tourist :)
and superstar Paddy Daniels one of the first of our sponsored riders and someone we’re still very proud of showing why he’s ranking so highly on the pro surf tours.. here making it all look so easy and always encouraging the youngsters..

Of course nothing beats the thrill of your first ever ride and its always a bonus to capture that for someone, especially when the delight shows in their faces and the shot works so well.. not always as easy to do as you might think, but over the years we’ve got ourselves a few.. Still its always good just to catch a smiling face on a wave so here’s a couple of those…

For me this sums it all up, for over 40 years now I’ve enjoyed photographing candid images and the last 10 years on beaches around Cornwall while shooting Surfers, and there’s noting makes the world a brighter place than a happy laughing or smiling face… it’s why I enjoy shooting Candidly rather than posed shots.. we find the natural of expressions on our subjects…

Of course there’s always the glamorous side of Beach photography too :) and sometimes hard as we try its too hard to resist shooting another Bikini Clad Beauty and our beaches are full of them :)

Fortunately its difficult to run faster than the shutter of a camera :) so try as they may to escape we usually get the shot :)
Of course its all good clean honest fun and its never our intention to embarrass anyone (unless its one of the surfers wiping out or just falling off) Jk so if you do find yourself on our pages and don’t like what you see just let us know and we’ll gladly remove the shot immediately for you… Though most enjoy the fun and are happy to join in, I suppose it can be awkward if you’re having a secret day out with someone or just having a little skive from work :)

That said what we’re really about is capturing some great images of the surfers and beach goers who all participate in the fun and hopefully we capture a few memories for you along the way…
What we do say is always enjoy what you’re doing and keep a big smile on your face… you just never know who might be watching….

and be safe.. if you want to get the best out of your holiday surfing experience.. jump in with one of the excellent surf schools scattered around the beaches.. you will learn much faster from the professionals and above all you’ll have so much more fun learning safely…
So as we start the peak of this 2011 holiday season, we hope you have a fantastic time down here and enjoy catching up on the Surf and ocean related photography we bring you each week throughout the year…

Have a great Holiday everyone… Be safe and swim between the red and yellow flags…

View lots more images in our Galleries Here

Mel

WIND = Kites Rain Mist Poor Light and Mizzle = MUTINY

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Well the session was on with Craig and the Mutiny Kites try out down at Marazion and as expected in came the rain the mist and the strong onshores in poor light.. Well we are the most dedicated and as such we were there out in the conditions shooting or trying to shoot the action.. with more to live up to now since our Blog was selected for Blog of the week by the Cornishman crew..

Craig certainly didn’t shy out on the action and put his all into trying to give us some great shots with massive airs and acrobatics hanging on the end of his Mutiny Kite..

The rain showers were quite heacy at times forcing us to seek shelter in the Splashbus for a short while until they subsided enough for us to get out and start shooting again..

CRaig kept on and on bringing off some great sequence shots for us… such a shame the poor light lessened the quality of the images and forced us to use slower speeds.

I wont try to be technical and describe the manouvers but I’m sure the Kiters amongst us will be happy to comment on them..

Of course the weather had brought out plenty of kiters and as most of you know my support for the ladies in any sport is strengthened when I see them in Male dominated sports and it was nice to see (as always ) the ladies out at Marazion pulling off some great moves…Here’s on for our Girls in Surf website (which for those who weren’t aware is our surf and ocean sports website dedicated to the ladies..

One thing I have learned recently is there are many different styles in Kiting just as there are in surfing and wave riding Kiters just love conditions like were presenting themselves here and they kite on standard surfboards rather than the double ended freestyle boards..
Alex was out there displaying his styling in that field while escaping from his recently started fatherly duties for a couple of hours …

and many others in freestyle wave riding and general kiting were out there having fun

But without doubt for us the star of the day was Craig Smith .. his displays were amazing and even in the crap conditions for photography he afforded us some great Shots..

Cheers Craig.. hopefully next time the sun will shine :)

With Grace and Style, the day was won.. check out the full action in our  Kitesurfing Galleries Thanks for checking out the Blog… call back or Bookmark us for updates :)

Mel

Sunshine and Swell

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That’s how the day turned out which would have been fantastic but for one other simple Factor.. Mist!!! at times it was so thick this afternoon that I lost surfers in it altogether..
It’s never easy shooting off the beach in a receeding tide, but add the factor of Bright sunshine glaring from the left diffusing the glare and light in the Mist and you have the recipe for soft silhouetted images.. alternatively to walk almost to Gwithian and shoot back towards the lighthouse in an attempt to put the sun to my Left side rather than in front causing too much glare..
But it was nice to be there as the swell increased… so even though there weren’t very many good shots from the session it was still good to see the guys out there having some fun… its always nice to still be a part of that even though I can’t surf anymore…

So here’s my pick of the crop from this afternoon….

Splashography Team Rider Simon Squibb whacking a few off the lips and
generally having a ball….

The regular sight of Justin Lapskas again out enjoying any kind of wave

Always nice to see Rory out there making some wonderful high speed wave spray patterns, a great surfer with a great style…

Josh Daniels making himself a name these days in Longboarding was out there styling away with a lot of stretch 5′s looking orward to seeing him on the BLU Tour this year

Everybody and his dog were having fun as the swell developed throughout the afternoon and this dog was certainly having its day….

There were some real nice set waves rolling through, plenty for everyone, but the mist and bright glare of the sun was by now making it very difficult to shoot

And it was obvious that Simon was pleased he’d made the right choice to get wet, he was certainly bagging himself some nice waves..

And the Next Generation getting ready to take over…. Always a treat to see young girls getting into the sport, a great sport that needs more girls out there ripping and styling.
This young lady certainly seemed to have the right attitude and a great enthusiasm.. unfortunately the light and the mist had finished it for us so we made our way back to the car park and hoped for a better day tomorrow…
TTFN!

The Year Marches on…

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Hard to believe it but here we are the ides of March, and what a crappy start to the month for us photographers.. after a weekend of glorious sunshine and surf.. we get the good old Grey miserable cold light back that just screws with the photographs..

Ah well on the positive side I suppose it gives us a chance to give you guys something back as there’s no way I charge for photographs of this quality so you’re welcome to free downloads of the first of March’s images..
Also on a plus side, the surf was pumping at Godrevy, but it was cold.. bitter in fact..

It was late afternoon when I got up there as we’d various appointments with the baby staff as I’ve renamed them.. makes a change from going to the hospital to see my many consultants (who do a great job of keepiong me going) to be going on Leanne’s behalf, and the Baby of course.. our future Daughter :)
Anyhow after clearing up everything with the consultant midwife and obstetrician we finally got there and I made it down to the beach in a freezing offshore wind.

Some pretty good surfing going on but I suspect a lot were put off by the cold,(or probably got in earlier) and who can blame them for that.. it took about 15 minutes before I couldn’t feel my fingertips..
I found a new friend also today in the shape and form of this tiny rock pipit.. he seemed to have developed a liking for the spot where I was shooting from and actually hung around throughout the afternoon, catching a few flies from the washed up seaweed.

He kept me nicely entertained in between the big well overhead set waves that came rolling through…

Good to see Justin Lapskas out there as usual ripping up the waves.. as dedicated in the surf as we are on the land I can’t think of a day that he hasn’t turned up wherever the surf is… well done Justin!

Meanwhile the pipit and I were playing catch me while I catch a fly… the game where I try to grab a high speed shot of the fly being snatched from mid air by a very quick and determined predator.. needless to say the light wasn’t helping but I was fairly pleased to have got this one..

that tongue is out and back in so fast that it couldn’t be stopped but it sure stopped the tiny fly in its track :)

Back to surf.. forgive my digression… but this chap enjoyed it :)

Thought it was next week the mother in law came :) hehe
Still the action carried on, most of it too fast to capture clearly in the awful low light…

Rory screaming his way down the face of a set wave..

It was a welcome sight to see Leanne heading down the beach with a nice cuppa to warm me back up.. the tide by now was dropping and it was getting more difficult to see over the white water so we headed up onto the dyke to give me a bit more height, though obviously we were moving further away from the surfers..

Also we were more in the wind up there but it didn’t really matter as the light was already dropping to a point where it wasn’t viable to shoot any longer without getting blurry shots, and after all we’d already got plenty of those :) so we decided to call it a day and head back to the car. I’ll leave you with a couple more shots and hope for better light for the next shoot :)

Many more shots in the gallery if you’d like to take a look…
http://splashography.com/Gallery11-1/main.php?g2_itemId=28665

M

Eventful Day on the North Coast

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Epic!! the only way to describe some of the waves we saw today around the North Coast.. I started off headed to Carbis bay.. no good so off up to the Bluff (Hayle Rivermouth).. nice waves clean and windy.. tide was a bit low and only a couple of surfers and half a dozen Kayakers out.. so we headed up to Gwithian…WOW!

Epic Waves thundering into Gwithian and Godrevy.. unfortunately the wind was quite strong making surfing these waves almost impossible but nontheless they were pretty damned impressive to watch.. Sheer power.

We had lunch at Gwithian and then headed on to Godrevy as I had to take over a disc of images for the National Trust.. have to pay for the ruddy license somehow lol.. Bout time we had our own parking space though.. this will be our 4th year licensed for the national Trust so  who knows.. maybe next year EH???

I’d spotted the Jetski coming over when I was at gwithian and I’d seen the boards tucked down the side so I went straight up to the Lifeguard hut to see if I could grab a few shots.. They took the first wave while I was setting up.. (The first wave while I was there) and then disaster struck in the form of them running over the tow rope and it jamming the impellor, didn’t know that at the time but I was suspecting something was wrong when  they hadn’t moved for around 10 minutes and it seemed they were both in the water looking as though they were trying to tow the ski. Well obviously in that wind and with the tide as it was there was no way they were gonna tow or even paddle their way out of trouble and were being fast sucked towards the lighthouse…

I spoke to Pete from Shoresurf and we agreed it didn’t look good so he called the warden Nick and we made the decision to call the coastguard.. Not an easy decision to make but they definitely looked in trouble and were drifting further and further in seconds..
Thankfully when I spoke to the coastguard and gave him the co-ordinates he asked me to hold and informed me that the Inshore Lifeboat was actually on its way towards them.. it seemed Richie had a phone with them out on the ski and had called for help himself.. Good call.
In less than a minute the inshore boat was flyi8ng across the bay and I would imagine  it was a good sight for the guys to see..

They took Richie and his mate on board and hitched up the ski to the back of the rib and towed them back over to St Ives.. A good end.. I have it on good authority that the ski is sorted and ready for another go but maybe not tomorrow :)

Well excitement over we took off back down to the Bluff (Hayle Rivermouth) and caught up with a few of the surfers out there having fun and Better luck than Richie’s tow in experience.

Even from as far down as the bluff the waves that They were going to ride with the ski still looked very impressive…
Well a few more at the Bluff and then we were off to Porthmeor to meet up with team rider Martin Yelland and shoot some classic Porthmeor shore break…

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On arrival at Porthmeor we set up on the wall above the beach where I like to shoot the high tide stuff from as its a great vantage point for the whole beach.. I spotted another team rider out there, Connor Outram tucking in here for a roll under a closing wave…

I think the grin says it all on that shot.. he was having a ball and went on to score some impressive waves.. well cone Connor.. (Good to see the hoody fits too )

Connor Busting out for Splashography…

Well there were some pretty outstanding surfing going on in excellent clean waves so the action was quite fast and furious so apologies to those I missed, but here’s a few of the surfers and boogieboarders having fun..

Tassy making a few impressive manouvers in her usual stylish way..

Team Rider Martin Yelland tucking into a lovely wave

They were all certainly drawing the crowds and lots of camera’s going off everywhere.. it was begin ning to look a little like North Shore magic

And even the holidaymakers were having a little half time fun in the waves.. though I suspect these yellow wellies got a bit waterlogged in the end…

Tassy Doing the Bump and trying a little two board tandem surfing :)

And so it went on and on and on.. wave after wave and some great surfing from everyone so well done and thanks for giving me these shots…
Eventually it was the light which stopped play for me so we had to leave them still enjoying epic waves.. it had been a good day and hopefully still some swell around tomorrow.. lets hope the weather plays ball..

Mel

Misty Murky Meor

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To be truthful, at first I wasn’t going to bother as the rain persistently poured down, the mizzle simply drenched everything and that mist just hung there like grain particles waiting to screw with any image you tried to shoot.. BUT I decided to drive over to Porthmeor and check it out at least, and I do take a pride in that if a few are surfing and its at all possible I’ll get down there and shoot them.. so I set up as there were a few in the water… Wellies and waterproof cover later I was down on the Beach and doing the best I could with the day…

The action was straight on and I have to say there was little time to think much with so much action going on.. nice off the lip manouvers and big airy drops.. but I did find myself doing what I rarely do which was checking the images on the camera screen.. I know my camera’s and I know my settings so well that I rarely bother but with this mist I wanted to see whether it was worth it.. so many of the shots were just getting a bit lost but it was definitely worth it :)

Seconds Away round 2

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Still a lot of surf around today even though it had dropped tremendously from yesterday..
We hit Godrevy again today and I managed to scramble onto the rocks under the bluff to get a higher vantage poit with yet again poor light I was expecting grainy shots again..

The light was actually a bit better than I’d first thought so the first batch of shots were not actually that bad..

As Pre-arranged Team Riders Becky Stansfield and Ashley Lumoxs Lawton arrived around 11-30am so I was pleased the light was holding.. however unfortunately the surf wasn’t and it was dropping off quite fast really so I was glad they kinda got right on it.. joined by the locals, Tony on Ash’s ex board there was a bit of good longboarding to follow

Becky Cranking one of the Left handers.. Really pleased to have Becky with us on the team this year.. Looking forward to the BLU tour..


and Tony showing a real Flair on the Old Lumoxs Board :)

and so it went on wave after wave and a really good session until the swell almost completely faded away…
Tons more images in the gallery so why not check it out here!

What a New Years Day!!

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Cracking Surf on the North Coast for New Years day took me up to Godrevy where overhead waves were abundant… unfortunately what wasn’t in abundance was Light!! so tha meant the ISO’s went up and the speeds came down result was record shots only I’m afraid.. pretty dire but at least we enjoyed the surf :)

I spent most of the day there and it was great to be able to see lots of old friends thanks to yet another steroid injection to get me through Christmas and the new year… booked in for a review on treatment in february so hoping I can keep on my feet till then.. It’s scary how quick I can revert without the drugs.. Still I enjoy while I can and I was certainly enjoying the swell today :)

Sweet Victory for Jonathon after taking a magnificent Left hander

Some wicked surfing of all Calibers going on from the just standing Novice to the full on Pro’s like this Classic off the lip from Team Rider Adam Bayfield who had some superb Waves and a great start to the New year.. here’s to 2011 being a really good surf year :)
Check out the New Year Galleries HERE!