Whilst it’s not the first time it’s been done, to our knowledge Chris Burkard was the first to nail it back in the spring in Iceland, and a few of us Northern European photogs have been trying to get it happening for a while shooting surfing under the Northern Lights is still a photographic feat to be proud of. Can’t wait to see the full version of the film.
While his world tour peers are jockying for waves and points on the North Shore, Mick Fanning is standing on a desolate beach in Norway, the sky ready to open up and dump snow. “I don’t think I’m well,” he says. “I can go anywhere in the world. Boardshorts, whatever. But no, I come here.” He’s not complaining. He’s actually in awe. A couple weeks before, Fanning decided he wanted to surf under the famed Northern Lights. It would be a dramatic way to cap off a year spent mostly away from contests, chasing new waves in farflung places. The proposal came to him through Norwegian photographers Emil Sollie and Mats Grimsæth, who’d been talking for two years about, and trying to figure out how to pull off, shooting surfing under the planet’s greatest light show.
“To shoot a picture of surfing under the Northern Lights, there are so many elements that have to come together at the same time,” explains Sollie. “Technically, this is one of the hardest pictures to capture.”
Sollie and Grimsæth first met in Portugal in 2014, and began scheming about the shoot right away. They just needed a talented – and, more importantly, willing – surfer to get onboard. “I could never imagine that we were going to do this project with Mick,” Grimsæth says. “Suddenly, I’m going to Lofoten with a world champion.”
After a couple of days and nights waiting for the lights to appear, around midnight on the third day the shoot was finally, suddenly on. “You can imagine,” says Fanning. “Half asleep, jumping in a wetsuit, and then just being wowed by all this stuff. It’s something I’ll remember forever.”
Joining Sollie and Grimsæth on this revolutionary project was Red Bull’s veteran surf photographer, Trevor Moran, and filmer, Matt Kleiner, who will be bringing you the whole trip in two episodes of Chasing the Shot early next year.
A film about surf travel, and the places it will take you.Starring Matt Bromley. A film by Guy Mac
“…the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved…” “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” – Jack Kerouac
Step out of your comfort zone; explore new places, meet new people and throw all caution to the wind – you never know where you’ll land up! Risky Business is all about putting yourself out there, and the rewards found at the end of the road less travelled.
Risky Business captures the journey of South African surfer Matt Bromley and filmer Guy Mac while they travel to some of the riskier places on earth in their pursuit of a different kind of wave, from surfing between icebergs in Iceland, to charging massive mountains of water at Jaws in Hawaii, to dropping into near-dry tubes over unforgiving ledges in Africa. The idea was to produce a contemporary surf film, one that showed the risks behind the reward of chasing global swells on a shoe string budget, all the while living every surfers dream for a year between South Africa, Europe, Hawaii, Indonesia and Iceland. The hope is that Risky Business will inspire its audiences to stretch the boundaries of their own capacity, flee their comfort zones, and chase all things bigger and better.
Matt and Guy both stretched themselves to make this film a reality; traveling in debt and in fear of not knowing what was around the next swell. All their equipment was stolen in Portugal and they suffered many other hardships along the way, but as Matt reports, “It was worth every moment of risk, and made the journey and exeprience that much more unforgettable.”
Listen to the call of the road, and follow. Risky Business. This is their story in 25-mins.
To deliver a British and Irish film means a lot of road and ferry time…
Oli Adams has been evolving as a surfer and a filmmaker. His latest visual feast, which has the honour of being a Vimeo Staff Pick, Trip the Light documents a British and Irish winter. We asked him what it takes to deliver a class film.
THE PREMISE
I wanted to make a high performance clip that showed the UK and Ireland’s waves and lifestyle in different way. There have been a lot crazy slabby/big wave clips and some moody destination pieces but this was all about surfing fun waves although I did want some bigger conditions in there but last winter there were really no high quality big swells, instead there were a few small windows that only local surfers would have scored while having their eyes on the lineups.
STEPPING UP PRODUCTION
I’m always thinking of ways to move forward with my career. Being from the UK means that you are very low down on people’s radars internationally unless you can make or put out content that is up there internationally in terms of surfing but also largely the level of production. I realised this and looked for a way to get my productions up to that level.
One was to essentially sell project ideas to production companies who then get the project funded through sponsorship. This was long winded option that can work but takes time to get off the ground. The other was to invest in high level equipment myself and make my own films which will in turn help me run my social media better too. Around the time an opportunity came about to buy a second hand RED Epic camera(5K 300 frames a second).
They are super expensive so after a lot of thinking I decided to set it up as hire business and the hire income would eventually pay off the camera while in the mean time I could use it to film my surf projects when it wasn’t on a job. It’s the only camera like this available to hire in Cornwall so it has done loads of mainstream productions for film and TV and has been round the world without me. I’ve also had to invest in computers and hard drives capable of dealing with extremely big files as each quick surf clip is around 3GB. In terms of editing it’s been a massive learning curve and I couldn’t have got through it without the help of pro guys like Timmy Boydell, Mikey Corker and Ollie Fawcett and also Google tutorials. I feel like I’ve been to film school. Also my wife is always a big help as a sounding board plus she always nails the title names.
Timmy Boydell one of the high end film crew.
COMING BACK FROM SURGERY
Since being ill I feel like I’ve been on a constant upward spiral in my surfing from learning to walk and get around again, to getting up on a surfboard for the first time and then as you start loosening up and adding strength you start being able to finally put your mental approach to surfing together with a physical platform of support that wasn’t there pre-op when I was extremely malnourished for most of my career.
I started production on Trip the Light less than a year after my surgery and I can see my surfing improving though the course of filming. It’s great to film often because you can really analyse what you are currently doing but you also have a great reference as to where you were at in that moment. I can really see this in each video I’ve released since I’ve been surfing again. I went to Canada three months post-op, Mentawais five months post-op and then now this one which started filming 11 months afterwards.
Cornish waft. Photo: Luke Gartside.
HOW THE PROJECT WORKED
Basically I started thinking I could work with one filmer on this but after a few months realised that charts in the UK and Ireland are so unpredictable and last minute that even asking every filmer in the UK the night before the trip might end in the waves not being documented. I ended up using six filmers who all nailed their parts apart from one who forgot his tripod after we got a wild ferry in January out to a remote Irish island haha!
Luckily a bird twitcher randomly lent him one. The stress of calling the trips on was intense as filmers day rate is £150 minimum, if you’re lucky, so with travel I was dropping heavy coin on one swell or even a session. I would be checking charts, wind, tides right until an hour before lift off and by that point I usually hadn’t managed to get a filmer.
On one trip this one filmer who lived up country was 50/50 and to make it in time for a ferry I had to set off with the equipment in the car for an hour just in case he could make it and then as I got near his turning he pulled out so I went anyway and scored better waves than were in the film and had no footage to show. So tricky!
There’s more to surf films than just surfing…
ROAD MILES
Probably 5000 miles at a guess were covered during filming. During the winter probably more because I didn’t film all my trips. When you’re on the way to epic surf I don’t care how long it takes. The trick is to travel with mates and then you can catch up on the way. That’s my version of going to the pub.
Shooting with a RED makes for epic footage.
OTHER SURFERS
The idea to put other surfers in just came in a really natural way and wasn’t pre-organised. The guys in there are all shortboard surfers that I really admire in different ways and they just happened to be out there for the session. My mate Felix came with me on the trip to Beefies though as I had been promising to take him for years. He wasn’t expecting to be in a film but ended up probably getting the best clip of the trip.
Oli deep in Kernow. Photo: Luke Gartside
NEXT
Is a jumble of ideas, drive and froth but most of all a continued life long love of surfing. I have a million ideas ranging from more high performance stuff to adventure stuff, business stuff. A few new exciting projects are up and running already (luckily I’m not producing them just surfing) and there are many more burning away in my head but the thing I learned most from this project is family is more important than anything!
You have to find a balance and they have to come first. Being a pro surfer it’s easy to think ‘I’ve got to do this right now because my career is short’ and if you are driven it’s easy to over commit so moving forward I’m going to take it one step at time and work within realistic deadlines.
It’s been horrible saying to my kids all summer, ‘Sorry, Daddy is busy with his film.’ Balance is the key to life and surfing good waves will follow.
Billy Kemper (HAW) and Paige Alms (HAW) have claimed victory at the World Surf League (WSL) Big Wave Tour (BWT) Pe’ahi Challenge after a thrilling day of competition in 30-foot-plus surf that saw Kemper take back-to-back event wins and Alms become the first ever WSL Women’s BWT Champion.
Kemper and ratings leader Grant Baker (ZAF) shared a wave to open up the Final, with Baker getting the best of the exchange. Reigning BWT Champion Greg Long (USA) followed quickly on the second wave of the set and took the advantage with an excellent 8.83. Long backed up his first score on one of the bigger waves of the day with another excellent ride for 8.93. Kemper pulled into a barrel at the halfway mark to earn a perfect 10 and take the lead from Long and push Baker into third place, despite an excellent 8-point ride from the South African for a late drop. A final attempt from Nic Lamb (USA) moved him up into fourth place over Pedro Calado (BRA) and Will Skudin (USA) who finished in fifth and sixth place respectively. Kemper held the lead through the remainder of the heat and closed the Final with a 9.07 for pulling into a deep pit and sealing his second consecutive win at Pe’ahi. The result sees Kemper move up nine places to No. 4 on the BWT rankings while Baker retains the ratings lead with only two possible events remaining on the 2016/17 season.
“I’ve trained so hard for the last eight weeks,” Kemper said. “I feel 100% this year and I didn’t last year. I’m over the moon and I just surfed with a few of my heroes and pioneers of this sport – Greg (Long) and Twiggy (Grant Baker). I didn’t know I was winning so I just went for it on that last wave. This is what I live for right right here. I’ve put a lot of work and effort into this and thank you to everyone that’s ever supported me. Thanks again for putting on such a wonderful event.”
“This year has been totally different for me,” continued Kemper. “I’ve never felt this good in my life and I came here to win again and I did. I feels good to win here. I grew up here – this is my back yard and my blood, sweat and tears. It’s a blessing to have a Big Wave event here at home. My hard work and dedication has paid off!”
Paige Alms historic winner of the Womens Challenge
Paige Alms (HAW) has become the first ever Women’s Big Wave Tour Champion after taking a commanding victory in the Final of the Pe’ahi Challenge.
The world’s best female big wave surfers made history today as 12 individuals took to the water to compete in a WSL Big Wave Tour event for the first time ever and contest for the maiden women’s title in heavy conditions at Pe’ahi.
The Final saw Alms, Justine Dupont (FRA) and Felicity Palmateer (AUS) take to the water for a 60 minute match-up. Finalists Keala Kennelly (HAW), Emily Erickson (HAW) and Laura Enever (AUS) were unable to compete after sustaining injuries in Round 1. Dupont led the charge, opening her account with a 3.17. Alms was close behind in second place for the opening half of the heat until she found an incredible wave and took off with perfect positioning and was rewarded with 6.00 and the lead. The Hawaiian continued to dominate the heat, putting it all on the line with another impressive ride for a 7.83, one of the day’s top scores. Dupont tried to fight back but it wasn’t enough, and she finished the event as runner-up with Palmateer taking third place.
“I still feel like that was a dream, I can’t quite believe it,” said Alms. “What a blessing to be out there with just a couple of girls, that was very special. The support feels so good and it’s so cool to have all my friends here and do this at home. This has been a dream to have an event for the women here. To have an empty lineup is a real blessing, win or lose. A few of the girls got hurt and I’m bummed that they weren’t out there with us but they’ll be back for more. I hope we get more opportunities so thank you WSL, this was really big.”
Paige celebrates her victory
Before the Women’s Final got underway Baker opened Men’s Semifinal 1 with a 4.67. He backed this up with a 4.17 in the closing minutes to move up into third place and earn his place in the Final. Reigning WSL Champion Long took an early lead in the bout with a 5.83 and found his second wave and his first left of the day to advance to the Final. Kemper pulled into huge barrel that shut down on him but he was rewarded for his commitment and finished the heat in second place. CT charger Josh Kerr (AUS) finished in sixth place after opening with a smooth ride for 4.07. On the hunt for a place in the Final Kerr went after another score and was rewarded with an intense wipeout and a broken board. Kai Lenny (HAW) and Cristian Merello (CHL) were also eliminated after finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively.
“I’m notorious for only catching one wave so I figured I’d break the curse and ride two,” said Long. “It’s fun and when the sets come they’re plenty big. It’s big and it’s dangerous out here and can give you the worst wipeouts of your life. There’s no safe, easy way of surfing out here!”
Lamb opened Semifinal 2 with a bang and a 7.17 for a critical drop and took a healthy lead over his competitors. Lamb maintained control of the heat from start to finish to earn his place in the Final. Callado, held second place with a 12.67 heat total for two solid waves while Skudin took third place to edge through to the Final ahead of Hawaiians Yuri Soledade (HAW), Aaron Gold (HAW) and Shaun Walsh (HAW).
“I was actually considering not surfing but when Jaws runs it will take more than an injury to keep me away,” said Lamb. “This place is incredible and I’m stoked to be here. It’s all reaction at this point. The preparation and training have been done so I’m just here to have fun. I didn’t surf yesterday because I thought I’d save it all for today and go all out.”
Following the conclusion of Men’s Round 1 Kennellywas first to put a score on the board in the opening heat of Women’s Round 1, with a 6.83 and the lead. Kennelly left the lineup for medical attention following after suffering a knee injury. Despite this, Kennelly held on to her first place position.Dupont took second place thanks to a 2.83. With ten minutes remaining Dupont found a backup score on a smaller wave to secure her place in the Final. Erickson also suffered a heavy wipeout early on in the heat and was also forced to withdraw. Silvia Nabuco (BRA) remained scoreless and was eliminated alongside Polly Ralda (GTM) and Andrea Moller (BRA).
Round 1 Heat 2 saw current No. 10 on the WSL Women’s Championship Tour, Enever, dominate the lineup from the start of the heat and was first to attempt a ride. Despite an unsuccessful takeoff she was rewarded with a 0.74 that gave her an early advantage. Enever and Felicity Palmateer (AUS) both committed to the next wave but it was Palmateer who made the drop and earned a 5.50 for second place. Maui local Alms looked in control and at ease and posted a solid 6.17 with her first ride to claim the lead. Bianca Valenti (USA) continued to charge, despite two heavy wipeouts, but wasn’t able to find a score of significance and she finished in fourth place. A late drop from Jamilah Star (USA) moved her up into fifth place but it wasn’t enough to advance to the Final and she was eliminated from the competition alongside Tammy-Lee Smith (ZAF). Alms, Palmateer and Enever moved forward into the Final.
“That was definitely extremely challenging with so much wind,” said Alms. “I surf here all the time and the wind today is very difficult. It throws huge chops at you and puts so much air under your nose so you really have to push. I’m stoked to moved on and make it through. When the WSL announced that they were going run this event we were all ecstatic. To be able to surf my home break with just five other girls is amazing and a monumental moment.”
The opening round of the men’s competition saw it’s share of upsets with 2014/15 BWT Champion Makuakai Rothman (HAW) being eliminated after a heated battle in Round 1 Heat 3 which saw him finish in fifth place with an 11.53 heat total. Damien Hobgood (USA) and Shane Dorian (HAW) also failed to advance on in the competition after finishing in 4th and 5th place respectively in Round 1 Heat 4.
We were down in France for the week before the Quik Pro on a freesurf trip. This clip is the result. Feature to accompany is in the new mag out this week (subscribers got theirs last Friday…)
So sit back and enjoy some visuals starring Jobe Harriss, Gearoid McDaid, Beyrick de Vries, JJF, Sancho, Marc Lacomare and William Aliotti… Then once done peruse the gallery below.
The UK Pro Surf tour hit Thurso back end of last week… First two days were pretty wild condition wise then Saturday was cooking. Congrats to Reubyn Ash, Lucy Campbell, Harry de Roth and Kit Innes who who the respective divisions and honourable mentions for Boydie and Andrew Robertson who are proof Scottish surfing is on the up as they both made their finals.
Hit any image below to launch the gallery carousel…
Reubs
The UKPSA would like to thank The Highland Council for supporting another fantastic year of The Thurso Surf Festival & The Scottish Surfing Federation for their support in enabling us to utilise this world-class break for our event.
We would also like to thank our event sponsors; SSE, Adams Surfboards, Fistral Beach Newquay & UK Pro Surf Tour sponsor Korev Lager whose ongoing support enables us to continue producing the UK’s surfing champions & The Christian Surfers UK for providing all of our team and competitors nourished throughout those brisk Scottish mornings & Ground Swell CIC for providing transportation and opportunities for our young, upcoming competitors.
