That’s it now, the last batch of surfing photographs from the last big day, maybe we’ll get another good swell now that they are all gone.

You can also see the five previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-should-have-been-here-in-february/ (14 photos)

Been so long since we’ve had a decent swell to ride here (and photograph), and with summer almost here, its probably not going to pick up anytime soon, so i returned to archives for ‘that day’ back in February, and had a look at the shots that were overlooked at the time, I took over 700 pictures that day, so there’s plenty to choose from! I’ve also tried to keep the processing to a minimum, just the occasional bit of ‘punch’ and horizon straightening in Lightroom!

You can also see the four previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/blogs/news/441924/weekend-surf-gallery.html

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part two of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part three of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part two of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

The shot was taken during the good swell on the 6th Feb 2010, you can see more from that day in the ‘You should’ve been here yesterday…’ blog

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. Retro surf style

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

There were quite a few eye witness’s to Al Reed’s full on barrel ride, but sadly i dont think anyone manged to get a shot of it, there is one included here of him going into one another one, but he didnt make it out this time.

So Big Wednesday…. Woke up to all the breakfast TV channels showing footage of ‘The Eddie’ taking place at Waimea Bay, Hawaii in Epic conditions called at between 20-30 ft, which i mention because it puts our big wednesday into perspective. But although it may not have seemed quite as impressive as what was on the TV, double overhead sets at Freshwater Bay can seem pretty intimidating when you come face to face with them in reality. I dont know what size to call our swell at, MSW reported 7ft at 17seconds and all i know is that there were some big faces on the set waves. A few people said they’d guess at 20ft faces on the biggest ones.

Problem was that most of the sets were close-outs, and for a lot of the time there were around 10 waves to a set, thats a lot of water hitting you on the head if you took the wrong wave.. ie; like i did the first wave of a set, and the rip was pretty evil too so you quickly found yourself on the wrong side of the bay and uncomfortably close to the big rock on the left.

So my surf consisted of a freak misleading paddle out during a lull where i didnt even get my hair wet, followed by one wipe out, one set wave which i got an ok ride on, a lot of duck diving and ultimately the walk of shame back from the far end of the bay when i got swept over there.

I say the walk of shame, but i saw a few people take it today, far better surfers than me, so perhaps it was almost a walk of glory for being out there and getting back in one piece.

The light was flat grey and crap most of the day, really poor conditions for photography (with my limited kit definitely) but i hung around and took a few anyway. Not many rides were to be had in the challenging conditions. Wave of the day that i saw, was shared between Joe Truman and Lee webster, i say shared, Lee dropped in horrendously, but they were smiling about it afterwards and neither are the type to get stressed about stuff like that.

Big Thursday report & pics to come… the sets were still big but the sun was shining and even if i didnt do great surfing again, the pics are a lot better with some decent light.

The shot was taken at a secret spot on the south coast of Cornwall. There was a big swell running on the north coast that day, but the strong northerlies made south coast shelter the only viable option for a clean wave. It was nice but didn’t look that exciting at low tide as maybe 3ft of swell wrapped round, but as the day went on and the tide pushed up a wave would reflect sideways off the cliffs and meet the next one in the set creating a fantastic wedge that broke into very shallow water. There were about half a dozen local bodyboarders (no stand ups, it was a definite board breaker) all charging right into the mouth of this thing and having a great time and I have to say that to this day its still some of the most fun I’ve ever had behind the camera (I didn’t fancy taking my longboard into that!)

Bodyboarding at Porthcurno

front page of the photoshelter.com website

Room with a view – Corbiere, Jersey (My dream surf shack, waves included f.o.c.) features on the front page of the photoshelter.com website when i am selected as a ‘featured photographer’ for July 2009.

The shot of a rarely surfed break near the Corbiere lighthouse, was taken on holiday during August 2008 on a lovely summers day

Big surf at Corbiere