Alex Frings and I hadn’t had a surf together for a while. Life gets busy. The surf hadn’t been that good anyway.

After checking the surf early, with a brief westerly blowing, and what looked to be a couple little womb weavers, I gave Alex the call. It was time to re-connect through his love for water photography, and my love of going surfing.

As we made our way out, with dark shadows of seaweed shape-shifting with our imagination, we thought a little dream session was on the cards. We bobbed around on the peak of a high tide with very little to capture. There began the connect.

So often in life you think a moment is going to mean one thing and it means another. For us this morning it was more about two friends catching up on the gossip. The ocean gave us the opportunity to chat.

Then a couple days later, Alex sent me these two shots. A beautiful bonus to a great morning.

More amazing pics from Alex can be found here – www.facebook.com/alexander.frings.photography

‘When you know you just know’.

I remember questioning that in the courtship of love, especially having failed at the love game previously. Mum used to say it to me. I’d see it in those couples that sort of made you sick (only when you are single of course). So many faces to love. So complicated. No wonder there are so many songs, poems and writings about this unexplainable force that is at the crux of our being.

But now I understand. It was always meant to be simple. A knowing.

Recently (a few months ago) I took that next step. It’s taken a while for the experience to digest for us both before sharing such a personal moment of our lives (I do like to share stuff).

Anyway, I did the romantic thing and said to Elizabeth; “let’s go out to the Border Ranges”. On one of our first dates almost two years ago, we unsuccessfully tried to reach ‘The Pinnacle” a beautiful lookout in the Border Ranges but I ran out of petrol. Ha.

So it was a perfect medium to ‘propose’ without her knowing a thing (and she was shocked beyond belief).

We have a special tree. It was a tree we had got to before I’d ran out of petrol on that first date. So that’s where I popped the big question this time. I wasn’t nervous at all before it, but I sure started shaking when we drove up to the tree. No drop knee or fancy shmancy, just good old intimate eye contact, and a “will you marry me”.

One of the most beautiful moments of my life.

I’ve always been a sucker for seeing two people committing their lives to one another. It took me 30 years of trial an error, learning and evolving to reach this place, and I can happily say that I’ve found that special person that I want to share a life with.

‘When you know you just know’.

Another vision of that Christmas Day barrel thanks to Bruce Campbell. I still don’t know why I didn’t grab.

I threw a few (30 odd) pumpkin seeds into an old fire pit at the back of my rental property…

A couple months later and here are the first of many. Now it’s time to put them on the shelf to ripen. Pumpkin soup time!!!

Have you been a good boy for Christmas?

Seems like I had been. After being sick for a week leading up to the festive days, I could see on the charts a BIG cyclone swell was on it’s way, which peaked on the 25th.

So speeding off early Christmas Day from Lismore (where my folks live), I headed straight for Main Beach Byron. It was massive.

Feeling a little weak post-flu, I was taking my time picking off the ones in between the big death closeout tunnels, and trying to get the milder death tunnels. On my second lap I stroked into this one, barely making the drop before lining up…

It was weird. I felt really calm. Even when I decided to go ‘no hands’ for the tube on my backhand (usually I get smashed trying it), there was this stillness. Then before I’d thought to contradict myself, there I was flowing freely within a beautiful aqua cave, with the odd moment of “your doing this without grabbing the rail”. Woohooo!

Instead of restricting, the barrel opened up and suddenly I was spat out. Apparently there were cheers from the carpark, but I didn’t hear a thing. I was dumbfounded. It’s not often I get that “buzz” surfing these days, that euphoric feeling you get from doing something extreme. But looking back from where I’d been, I was blown away that I actually made it without grabbing. So happy.

One of the most memorable waves of my life.

Thanks to ‘Joggly‘ and Kirra Pendergast for the sequence shots!

Post barrel STOKE!

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been lucky enough to do a bit of shooting with Angie and Kuni Takanami and Mick Waters for Patagonia Australia. I was in front of the lens this time, hunting down lefts with James MacMillan and Belinda Baggs, but were most of the time allured by the majestic beauty of The Pass and it’s long little rights

Below is the story thanks to “Mumma” Takanami, to read the full piece visit their website Surfers Eyes.

I remember merging towards the profession of surf scribe daydreaming up images of riding epic waves around the globe, clocking up hours on Indonesian boat charters, backpacking through wild landscapes, eating real local fare, getting drunk on cheap wine and filling up page after page in my journals.

Ha Ha.

The reality is, I’ve found myself somewhere between domestic house wife/mother of two typhoon Takanami brothers and feeling the pain of surf magazine editors who spend endless days behind computer screens drooling over those perfect tube shots that come flooding in via digital cyber space.

The truth is, sometimes I pray for the swell to drop. Only then can I surf. Maybe that’s why I have fallen in love with 2ft clean, glassy lefthanders that sneak their way through the beachies at Tallows and the Wreck, when the rest of the tube chargers are home sucking back coldies, finding time for their kids and partners, and wishing for the swell to pick up again.

The past two weeks I haven’t surfed. Well, I lie. I had one bodysurf. In two weeks. Or has it been longer?

What day is it today?

It’s been long enough.

For the past fortnight, Kuni and I transformed into office workers of the sea, lugging our kids to the beach every day to shoot swell after swell with a bunch of go-go-gadget goofy-footers. Belinda Baggs. Johnny B Good. Jimmy Mac.

With Kuni on stills, Mick Waters rolling video and the lefties running the show, we were all on 5am starts taking over the bay and surrounds like grannies at the Suffo on pension day.

It was epic…. CLICK HERE to read on – http://www.surferseyes.com/2011/12/1042/

A few months ago, I got to film/edit an amazing film for Karissa Fanning at The Lane called L’Amant, which was directed by Sybil Steele (Taylor Steele‘s wife).

I also remember we had some amazing footage, and had gone through a few edits when Sybil found the song “July” by Trevor Powers, AKA Youth Lagoon. The song was haunting, dark and beautiful. That’s when L’Amant was really born. It’s now had over 46,000 hits on vimeo!

So when I heard Youth Lagoon was about to tour, I thought I’d better share the love.

For tickets click here (Sydney show is selling fast), and for the FB event page check here.  Spin Magazine has named The Year of Hibernation one of the best albums of the year.

If you haven’t heard of Cyrus Sutton and friends online surf video network Korduroy TV, now you have!

For the past 18 months they have put together an entirely new and revolutionary interactive website, which has drained their pockets. So, Korduroy recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise money to continue to produce original content in 2012, and take it to new levels that align with our upcoming website. They need your help!

However, making these videos is no easy task and they have been working tirelessly on side jobs to cover the costs of producing quality content. For a consistent flow of rad new shows over this next year they need to raise $18,000 USD to cover the video production, resources and labor costs in order for them to continue spreading digital aloha.

Please donate whatever you can to the KorduroyTV cause here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/korduroytv/korduroytv-2012-shows

When you love someone. You just do. You are also drawn to their story more than another. Simple human nature really.

I pestered my fiance’ Elizabeth, and her sister Isabella into doing a little passion piece on their business Spell, and their personal journey’s to now be sharing their individual dreams as one. I am biased, but also honest when I say they really do share something special with Spell.

It’s jewelery, it’s clothing, it’s something for the girls, with a little bit of heart thrown in. I hope you enjoy their story.

www.spelldesigns.com

I’m really chuffed about this. Even though I know pretty much zilch about the cooking world. I can make a mean ‘jurry’ though.  J instead of C. Get it?

Anyway, a few months back I made a film with acclaimed Chef Ben Shewry – of Melbourne’s amazing Attica Restaurant – called ‘Kobe and the Sea’. We explored three different story-lines, molding the film into one beautifully personal insight into Ben, his relationship with his son Kobe, the essence of living ‘simply’, and passing subtle commentary on the overfishing problem of Abalone in Southern Australian waters.

So when Ben notified me that we had won “Internet Food Film of the Year” according to The Chef’s Directory (the worldwide culinary hub), I was in surfing lingo “stoked”.

In the words of The Chef Directory‘s founder Chandos Elletson; “We’d love to mention our own films, some of which we are very pleased with this year, but we were put in our place by a little known Australian filmmaker, whose film with chef Ben Shewry about educating his son about the dangers of over-harvesting Abalone was simply outstanding. A masterclass in simple internet film production”.