Oxbow Totally Bananas – Interview with Laird Hamilton. Published in Pitpilot Surf Magazine this month.
NUTS! Missed call! How did that happen?. “Voicemail from PitPilot” states my “trusty” phone. “I have an idea” he starts off and goes on to ask if I would be interested in attending the Oxbow Totally Bananas event “Somewhere in France”, then casually adds that Laird Hamilton and four other top guys will be there. HEY!, I have to play the message back again.Laird Hamilton? quick as a wink, “are you insane of course I can be there”. I go off at a million miles an hour and suddenly check myself “what do I say when I meet him”?, “just hit him with a stick and see if he bleeds” came the answer from the other end. As tempting as that sounded, visions of the Oxbow team chasing me along the Basque coastline armed with SUP paddles didn’t appeal.
“Aloha, welcome to France” I scream. Laird is one big bloke! So Laird, any plans to come over to UK and surf any of our big wave spots? I know of Aileens, I have been over to Ireland, been shown some incredible photographs of the spot (that’s got to be the lovely Mr. Mickey Smiths work then), that place reminds me of Jaws, with the Cliffs and shape of the wave. I couldn’t speak for the rest of the team, but certainly for me, coming over to the UK right in the middle of my season is unlikely. I don’t even get to Mavericks or Todos because of this. Come December, January, February I like to be out in the middle of the Pacific” but optimistically for us he adds… “However, I learnt a long time ago, to never say never”. Laird is certainly Mr. Cool.
Tom Lowes dislocated shoulder incident in Teahupoo. Back in the UK there was speculation about what had happened. He comes across as genuinely surprised when I mention the word collision and counters with saying that he “wasn’t sure of the circumstances, how it happened but had realized that Tom was in trouble and had instinctively tried to help him pop it back in while in the water. Maybe they had somehow ended up on the same wave and perhaps run each other down. Again he counters, “Nope” more like the lip of the wave that had caused the damages”. Move on, we chat about Kai Lenny and John John Florence, how did they become so fearless? His viewpoint is clear, judged by the speed at which he replies “Fearlessness comes through experience, anyone who is fearless without experience is foolhardy. Guys like JJ have grown up on the North Shore and have gone up the ladder in wave height and conditions experiencing them one step at a time”.
I end up with asking him the inevitable question, what was going through his mind the day Teahupoo dropped that incredible bomb on him. Had it been instinct that had pushed him through I ask. He casually explains that “When one gets into these intense situations your brain speeds up, things slow down and you have time to think and act accordingly. I remember having this deep inner struggle, where an enormous battle between good and evil took place. We all know what happened, good triumphed and to quote a line from the DVD… Laird. Teahupoo, Tahiti. On the 17th of August, 2000, a line was drawn in the sand and Laird Hamilton stood alone.
Marc Lacomare – Relentless Boardmasters 2010
Relentless Boardmasters 2010 – Marc Lacomare wins epic final.
Marc Lacomare (Hossegor, France) leaves victorious after an epic final to beat Jay Quinn (New Zealand). Early signs of nerves eased as Marc came from behind in the final minute, taking a Fistral “Express left”, bottom turning time and time again smashing the lip as he racked up a score of 8.2 to win the RBM’s 2010.
“I feel so great at this moment and with my boards working so well and with my friends helping me out because I was a bit lost and then at the end I got that wave and the score and I am over the moon right now.”
Marc saw off UK’s last hope Russell Winter in the semi finals with yet another close encounter despite a solid start from Russ.
No commentsSorted Surf Festival – Boscombe Reef 2010
Ok, well here we are my first article… not SJA standard but hey!
Friday evening – We made our way down to Bournemouth late Friday evening hoping to get an early stab at photographing some exceptional surfing the following morning down at Boscombes “illustrious” or maybe some would say more “controversial” new surf reef. Story for another day, anyway…
Saturday Morning – Doh!! The much promised “ground swell” that was predicted had not materialized and a rather jolly voice belted down the phone (Sorted Surf Shop assistant) that it was 1 foot and sloppy but the heats were to go ahead… at least he was happy, I on the other hand was not, the wind was blowing a gale outside and so was the rain… So after wolfing down the last of a rather stale packet of Cheerios headed reluctantly down to Boscombe Pier.
The Shop assistant was not wrong it was small, certainly sloppy but the groms were making the best of a bad situation and making it look somewhat classic . I chose my weapon of choice a Canon 1DS Mark 11, 400mm 2.8 IS Lens, battled down to the waters edge against an ever increasing wind and started to shoot away. The weather had other thoughts so I hastily retreated to the car to protect the £8 K of equipment I was heaving around, anyway it “was” lunch time and I was starving. I wasn’t going to bother with the rest of the day but driving past the pier on the way to our static noticed the conditions had picked up (2-3ft of slop) ha ha. So again set up and managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the Mens final… needless to say the heavens opened up again so after the heat finished headed off with what little material I had of the day and dumped myself in a hot bath.
Sunday – Sunday was much better as far as the weather was concerned, got some shots of the paddle-board race and of some guy on a paddle-board who was making the 1ft sets look brilliant!
Please don’t ask me who was in the final or who won, yes! I know, not the best journalistic approach but I blame it on the weather… hey! why not millions of Brits do daily. LOL.
Until my next photographic adventure…. David.
Oh yes images from the comp can be viewed here. http://www.mangodays.com/photocart/index.php?category=100
My Very first Blog
After desperately trying now for 2 weeks to design/build my webstite “AGAIN”! New beginnings and all that, thought that maybe a blog would be good idea to keep me sane during those long cold days of sitting in front of the computer… anyway this is the first “Web Log” as the define it… hmmm, well me I am not that convinced. Anyway I hope that someone out there on the WWW with a bit of blogging experience might see this and help me on my blogging way. LOL.
David
