Triple Barrel

As everyone else I know is packing their bags to move to Mammoth, Breck or some other mountain for the season, I am packing mine to head to Micronesia on a surf trip tomorrow. One last dose of warm water and tropical reef passes before heading into the snowy interior of British Columbia.

Just looking at this shot gets me fired up, this is from my trip last September to the Maldives.

This is a sequence of my friend Nathan from Raglan, NZ getting three barrels on one wave at Lohifushi.

This was probably the best surf day of my life, it was pumping all day, with sets at the end of the day being some of the heaviest I have ever surfed.

My Last Two Days in Bali

Ran into Jacob Wester, he was in Bali for 7 weeks with Sophia.
The World Famous sunset spot: KuDeTa, Seminyak
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DHump's wife Mira, set us up with a Monkey Dance in the backyard of the house we rented, it was our own personal show, really cool. It pays to be down with the locals.

Here's a video of the monkey dance I shot on the Mark II 5D
Finally scored some surf at Uluwatu, the big swell arrived and I got one session. It was pumping.
View of Ulu's from the pool at BluePoint.
That's me doing my best impersonation of a good surfer.
I had a couple waves that linked from the point all the way throw Racetracks, which actually got a little scary. These were some of the fastest longest waves I ever surfed.
Another OC backside slash in the land of lefts.
Lisa, George, Leti, Pat, Sal and OC at our final dinner.
This was my last meal in Bali, Nasi Goreng with dried fish, a smoothie, and dimsum, all for 2 bucks!
The ride to the airport.

Destination Sumba Part 3

This guy was really trippy. His lips were stained red from years of Betel Nut chewing, he just had that amazing look about him. 7 years ago, before digital cameras were prevalent, it would have been a heavy scene for me to take pics like this in the village. The people of Sumba are extremely nice and welcoming, but there is that full on warrior side to them. My friend explained to me that years ago, they really didn't like things pointed in their face by foreigners and cameras almost caused some serious problems (real serious, not just getting your camera confiscated). I think they have become more accustomed to the cameras, but just in the past few years because we can immediately show results to them.
The reason for my trip to Sumba was to shoot some surfing, document the Sumbanese Lifestyle and raise awareness for the Sumba Foundation which has been making good progress in alleviating poverty, bringing clean drinking water and reducing malaria in Sumba. There is a long way to go, but things are looking up.
Some statistics show that only 1 in 3 children make it to adulthood in Sumba due to malaria, malnutrition and other circumstances. Sumba has one of the highest occurences of Malaria in Asia. It's a scene that is improving with help of the foundation. It's really heavy to go into the villages and see sick and hungry children, it makes one feel very fortunate.


Water Buffalo horns.
Check out this guy's shirt, I should sell it to Grenade for an ad.
Maybe if more kids I know had to hike to carry the family water instead of drive to the ski hill in their parents SUV, they would be more appreciative of everything they have.
Sumbanese Village, tucked strategically away in the trees.
Our original flight was cancelled on the way out, so we waited 6 hours till we could find a plane to take us back to Bali. Pelita Air Boarding pass was epic, just a xeroxed piece of paper.
This is one of the funniest photos of the trip. We really were all quite nervous as Indonesian Airlines are notoriously unsafe, especially the small ones. We were flying on a Fokker jet from the 70s and Sal crossing his fingers just about sums up the mood.
Okay, so here we go, to add insult to injury, I get these photos in my inbox 2 days after we left after surfing head high and sectiony surf for two weeks....

Look at Christian tucked deep into the right. What I wouldn't have given to be able to stay just two more days.
Yes, that looks good.

Maldives Surf Pics

This is my favorite subject, my girlfriend Lisa, snorkeling. I shot this with my Canon G9 and underwater housing. The camera broke due to too many shutter actuations right after this, so reliability isn't so great, but what a cool shot for a point and shoot! I bought the G10, and it's marginally better, but Canon should have enlarged the sensor instead of the MP.

This was the consistently speaking, the biggest day I ever surfed. The Maldives aren't a swell magnet like Indo, so double overhead is rare, but the sets never stopped, they were 8-10 wave sets and exhilarating to say the least and the paddle out was a chore, I bounced off the reef on the inside and decided to shoot some photos for the last hour of daylight. Nathan cranking a bottom turn at sunset.

I'll take it, my favorite break: Jails.

This is something you would NEVER see at home in Cali: an empty head high barrel.

Richard, getting his second barrel on the same wave on the inside at Jailbreaks.

Can you tell Rich spends 6 months a year surfing Maldivian Point Breaks?

RichO again.

Click on the photo to enlarge. This is not fun, missing a take off only to turn around and see a huge lump on the horizon that is going to break on your head.

You would think that traveling 8000 miles to surf would mean less crowds, well, think again. Boatload of surfers from Spain, Brazil, Aus, and Israel crowd the lineups and it can get a little frustrating.

Our Aussie friend slashing in front of the typical mode of transport in the Maldives.

Nathan grew up surfing Raglan in NZ, commonly considered one of the best left hand points in the world. With 4mm less rubber, he was right at home on the tropical left handers.

Nathan on his second of three barrels on a single wave.