VIDEO: Footage of Michael Peterson surfing Winki Pop in 1977

MP is gone

Michael Peterson has died.

He was 59 and, according to early reports, suffered a heart attack.

As many of you will know, Michael suffered from undiagnosed schizophrenia which lead eventually to a complete breakdown and a withdrawal from surfing in the late 70′s.

I had the privilege of meeting MP in 1977 and over a couple months, I shot 16mm footage of him at Kirra, the ’77 Stubbies and all too briefly, at Winki Pop (Bells).

(I’ll try to put up a video clip from the footage in the next day or three…)

Vale MP.

wozthatyou.com – New Pics

Dee Why 23.3.12: A fairly awe-inspiring sun rise greeted us Friday morning for the early. There were a few of us there no doubt encouraged by reports of Thursday’s swell continuing into Friday. And that it did with some heart-stopping sets moving in every 5-10 minutes.

The highlight for me was a great tube ride by a body boarder which resulted in a sequence of 20 images making him the best booger I’ve ever pic’d! I wasn’t the only shooter to capture his journey as there were two water photogs sitting on the Point who would have captured a few as well. It would be good to catch up with them and  line up our shots side by side.

The pics have been uploaded and can be viewed here – http://www.wozthatyou.com/dee-why-23312-7-8am

Hope you had a good one on Friday and over the weekend.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Doug

Fresh pics: Manly, Friday morning 1030-1130

After getting a few waves, I grabbed the camera and wandered along the Manly beachfront getting shots of folks on waves. Sunny skies and offshore winds made the chest to head high conditions look pretty fine.

I pulled together a dozen or so of the highlights for the slideshow below, but of course there are heaps more images in the gallery itself.

And, as always, if you see one you want, just click on it to check out the options.

SEE THE ENTIRE GALLERY HERE

Jack McCoy’s Deeper Shade of Blue

Filmmaker Jack McCoy’s latest effort, Deeper Shade of Blue is very much up to his usual high technical standards. Perhaps because it’s in theatrical release across this weekend, it’s also something of a departure from the usual surf movie formula of wave, wave, wave, wave, funny stuff, wave, wave, wave that we all know and love.

It’s a tricky balancing act between an affectionate look at surf culture’s deep Hawaiian roots on the one hand, and on the other, for instance, spectacular big wave sequences from usual suspects Shippies and Chopes.

Jack’s gone for the surf movie convention of a series of sequences (there are 11 “chapters”) but has, I think, managed to link them up a bit more cohesively than we see in the average surf movie. As a surfer, I felt the waves to other content ratio was weighted in my favour – but I wanted more. My hunch is that non-surfing friends, family and significant others would probably find it an agreeable, if surf-heavy, way to pass a couple of hours.

As with any Jack McCoy movie, there were any number of memorable moments. For me, the sublime stylings of Derek Hynd’s finless board riding was a real stand-out. So too were the underwater sequences from Chopes and the insanity of Shipstern’s. No surf movie would be complete without at least a little dopey stuff, and for my money the best example of this was the cheerful (and highly skilled) goofing around of the Marshall brothers at Malibu.

Worth seeing?

Yep, definitely.

SHOW DATES

If You Knew, In Byron Bay Today.

So yeah it did rain on and off all day and that howling southerly still held sway, but if you knew where to look, it was on, in Byron Bay today. It wasn’t happening everywhere, and a little footwork was needed at times. But those who looked a little harder through the grey wind driven rain were well rewarded for the efforts, In Byron Bay Today.

wozthatyou.com and The Big Swell 8-10/3/12

A heavy workload both on and off the beach has prevented me until now from finally getting around to posting my pics from the swell swell event of last week.

How good was it? I don’t have to tell any of you as you most likely saw it and experienced it for yourselves first hand. Being the working stiff I am I wasn’t able to make it down to Dee Why until about 6pm on Thursday but I was glad I did. And it continued on early Friday where I lobbed up early to both Dee Why and Freshie which was pumping pretty nicely to the delight of the lucky half dozen sitting out the back.

Saturday morning was split between Dee Why shooting the pointillists and North Narra where it was populated by most of the members of the ladies tour plus a few from the men’s. Current women’s world champion Carissa Moore was tearing it up along side Laura Enever then later I found myself snapping a few on the iPhone of The King himself unveiling the new surf reserve plaque at Manly. Gotta love being on the Northern Beaches this time of year. And how good was the weather!

In summary, you can see all the pics here:

http://www.wozthatyou.com/dee-why-8312-6-730pm

http://www.wozthatyou.com/dypt-freshie-9312-7-8am

http://www.wozthatyou.com/dee-why-pt-10312-8

http://www.wozthatyou.com/n-narra-10312-9-11am

Cheers for now,

Doug

Bells Beach Petition: Sign it!

Declared the worlds first “Surfing Recreation Reserve” in 1973, Bells Beach is recognised worldwide as a sacred surfing sanctuary. The pilgrimage to Bells is as legendary as the corduroy lines and big sweeping walls that grace the famous Bells Bowl during big autumn and winter swells.

Unfortunately Bells Beach is under serious threat from negative commercial impacts and development.

Though Bells Reserve is public land, commercial coach/bus/mini bus tours are being allowed to freely use Bells Reserve and the Surf Coast Shire has now begun works to create parking spaces for 5 coach/long vehicles and around 10 parking spaces for 22 seater buses in Bells car park alone. Vegetation has been removed to allow commercial tour vehicle movement within the car park and there is great concern that the already identified pedestrian and vehicle traffic risks will increase.

Read more and sign the petition here>>

ALERT: Warriewood and Cronulla Waste Water Treatment plants now bypassing

Not a surprise given the rain I guess. But this just in:

Warriewood STP – Due to wet weather, Sydney Water has advised of a bypass of secondary biological treatment at the Warriewood Waste Water Treatment Plant. Flows have received the following treatment: Degritting, Disinfection, Primary Sedimentation, Screenings, and Partial disinfection. Please contact Sydney Water for details.
Cronulla STP – Due to wet weather, Sydney Water has advised of a bypass of secondary biological treatment and tertiary filtration at the Cronulla Waste Water Treatment Plant. Flows have received the following treatment: Degritting, Primary Sedimentation, Screenings, Deep Ocean Outfall and Partial disinfection. Please contact Sydney Water for details.

And Beachwatch basically says that all Sydney beaches are likely to be polluted today.

Lagoon disgorging vile looking swill at North Curly too…

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT – Warriewood – CHEAP!