Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

As ever it's been a while since I posted here, so 'Hello!' and thanks for checking back. There has been busyness in the photo world with a variety of local shoots. Artist of the Month shoots for Cornwall Today magazine always provide interesting people, frequently with amazing art works, and I feel privileged to be able to photograph this aspect of the creative Cornish life.  Mary Mabbutt, Cornwall Today, May 2014 Rachael Kantaris, Cornwall Today, June 2014 I usually shoot quite a few pictures when we (writer Alex Wade and I) visit the artists, of which sometimes only three will make it on to the printed page, so it's great for the other images get an outing too. You can now find the rest of the shoot in the magazine's new Artists Gallery . So much for culture, for God's sake tell us about the extreme sports! I hear you cry. Well the surfing end of the extreme sports spectrum is alive and well in Cornwall, with Spring time blue swells aplenty thu...

Yesterday was a fantastic day down here in Cornwall, the second sunny one after a massive storm that smashed sections of Penzance promenade, the Jubilee Pool and Newlyn Green. On Sunday the promenade was almost as crowded as on Pirate Day with locals and visitors alike inspecting the damage to the prom and pool.  A sort of Dunkirk spirit pervaded the atmosphere. Waves in the 'ride-able' size now  At Sennen it was the same story, the cove filled with half-term holiday makers strolling in the sun, having a look at what all the fuss was about in the national press when '200ft Waves' were reported crashing into the cliffs at Sennen.  Today there were decent surf-able waves, the sunshine making Sennen look more like its normal inspiring self. Apart from the sand, that is. The bed rock of a beach There is a distinct lack of sand on the beach at the moment, the giant scouring swells of the last weeks having shifted it out into the bay, an oceanic action repeat...

It was morning, and work timings had unusually left me free for a couple of hours. That would normally mean the surf was onshore, or blown out, or flat or something, adhering as it usually does to the First Law of Surfing . But not today. Blue Rinse Today looked like a bleak, grey, midwinter day with (from a brief glimpse of the sea on the school run) a weak looking swell and the wind threatening to go onshore. But I had time. Time to take pictures. So I trawled along the coast looking for surf or seascape images, but found very little. Until I came to the reef. Which, oddly, seemed to be firing. Fryer  Several locals and some of the Aggy crew were making the most of a small day before the expected 'Hercules II' storm at the weekend. An acceptable peak Empty Dan Joel Mole getting critical Captain Fryer on a set wave A chill wind cut through the grey pall that hung over the break, warmed slightly by the relaxed atmosphere. Styling ...

There's such a lot of imagery and video coming out of Teahupoo, the massively challenging reef break in Tahiti, that I thought I'd keep adding things below as I find them. This is the biggest swell to show up since the Code Red swell of 2011, and the world's elite/ craziest big wave surfers have shown up to the Code Red II party. SurfLine's Fantastic crop of photos Wave of the Day Yesterday:   Mark Healy, pic by Ted Grambeau Raimana, pic by Shane Dorian Koa Rothman, pic by More photos from yesterday here: Teahupoo Photos In the video below you can see the green bottom of a boat getting caught out and flipped over the falls on the inside. Hopefully no injuries, but that would have been a nasty wipeout. Tomorrow is supposed to be even bigger, keep an eye on the Teahupoo Live Cam More photos of the scene here:  Teahupoo Code Red

Seb curling under Sam styling, James whiling Return to Ocean-Image.com

Hot on the heels of the 2011 Waves calendar comes my first book, unsurprisingly entitled 'Ocean-Image', and published via the Blurb phenomenon. With 120 pages of, as the title suggests, seascapes, surfing and wave pictures, the book also includes three surf travel stories from previous Irish, Scottish and Sri Lankan adventures. You can buy one or just have a look at the first 15 pages here :   Ocean-Image Book   New Book - Cover A calendar, a book, whatever next ? Well, hopefully some time for a surf before the X-word arrives. Return to Ocean-Image.com