Ocean Artwork » Super Bank

The swell keeps coming … and coming. More photos from the Super Bank and Snapper Rocks to Kirra April 20th

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:20:35 +0000

The swell keeps hanging around… It seems like the waves havent got under 3 feet for over 2 months now.
There were great waves over the weekend . I didnt pick up the camera on the weekend but had a great surf at Duranbah and surprised myself by picking up a few nice peaks in the school holiday crowd.
Shaun Harington was out there ripping on an old brown board. I saw him on one wave, backdoor the peak taking off pigdogging goofy (switchfoot) and then switch foot back, while in the tube and come sailing out in his normal stance … natural. Nice move Hazza!!
That one wave had me wishing I had my water rig out there…
Monday,this morning a brand new swell arrived this from the south.
Along with it came 20 knot winds.
I got down there pretty early, to check it out. Its been a while since Ive shot anything from the water so I was pretty keen to go for a swim. Unfortunately the conditions were less than ideal for water shots.
Duranbah was huge and out of control…The wind was howling offshore and the sweep was horrendous.
Shooting from the water is always a hit and miss situation and the odds were I would only score a few good ones with a 2 hour swim, so I opted for land based photos.
I shot 200-300 pics (the beauty of digital) These are the pick of them. If you see a photo of yourself here, or you were out surfing I may have a photo of you. If you think this is the case then contact me by clicking here.

A few shots of the Super bank off Big groyne Kirra Monday 6th April

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:20:38 +0000

Theres been a lot of talk about Kirra being back…..

Well Im here to tell you that’s all a load of crap.

There’s still billions of tons of sand filling in the break that was once the infamous Kirra.

Sure theres been some great waves out in front of the Big groyne lately, courtesy of cyclone Jasper. But the reality is if you went any further down the line, from Big groyne, it was almost impossible to take off without Jetski assistance.

Sure you can call it the ‘best Kirra in years’ but the truth is the spot where Shane Beschen scored his two perfect 10′s many years ago is still well and truly buried.

There have been many photos floating about in the last few months.
and so many photographers covering its incredible.
So you can imagine my surprise when I ventured down there on Monday to fire a few off and I was the only photographer there.

Heres a sample.

Surf in Italy??…Naaaahhh..Maybe??

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:27:30 +0000

A few years ago if anyone had told me that there was good surf in Italy, I would have laughed.
That was before I met a guy who gave me the lowdown on whats happening in the way of surf in Italia…. Paolo D’angelo
Paolo is 3 times Italian open surf champion.
The last time he won was actually a few years ago, in 2003.
He’s been living in Australia, married to an Aussie girl for quite a few years now.
He surfs the Gold coast points regularly and is out in the water every chance he gets.
He reckons most Aussie guys would be surprized at the quality of surf available in Italy, especially on the island of Sardinia, which has very consistent surf and is right in the middle of the Mediteranean sea.
Paolo has a small factory around the back of Kirra where he works on his high performance boards and does a lot of ding repairs.
And he’s a dam fine surfer.

If you want to check out some of his shapes or you need a board repaired you can find him here.
Unit 2/46 Ourimbah rd. Kirra phone 0405424113

In search of Michael Peterson a Review by Martin Tullemans

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:26:21 +0000

The release and premiere of the movie ‘Searching for Michael Peterson’ truly struck a bottom turn in my heart.
It was not your usual pump up the hydraulic plumbing macho fluid stuff.
Sure the rip tear and lacerate of ‘MP’ the father of modern high performance surfing was……. oh yeah baby!!!…. Show me the money!!! But it also had a humanity and respect for Michael’s condition that set it a cut above.

Jolyon Hoff the producer needs to be applauded and congratulated for the sensitive rendering and the depth of historical research he went to.

I might take a walk on the wild side here myself. My mate and ‘brother in arms’ MP….. we used to hang out, play chess and rap at his factory where he rented me a small room for my darkroom work in 75/76.
Michael had a much stronger strain of a mental condition that I myself have had to learn to manage with discipline and application. I only have bipolar disorder which quite a few highly talented and respected surfers and artist’s high profile people have.
I regret to this day that I could not convince my film associate Chris Bystrom to get medicated. He had three major things go wrong in his life before his untimely head on with a semi trailer.
Michaels condition paranoid schizophrenia; we knew nothing of at the time. We just knew he was as quiet and introverted as a ‘library bookworm nerd’ on land and did a complete out of the closet Clark Kent to superman switch once he hit the surf.
From my own experience, mental conditions are handed down the family tree line of some emotional pain or hurt of the parent/ grandparent/ great grandparent that has not been trashed out through the heart centre
releasing it.

I could have given you the standard reportage of the play by play film story rehash but I have just come back from a week of tai chi and meditation in the Noosa national park..I did not want to clutter your minds with more of the usual information overload rehash bash.

The reason Michael Peterson is so revered is he followed his heart and walked the talk. This is highly unusual today as in this entertainment world we let the great actors and general James Bond cats walk our own talk for us.
In Michaels day to be a surfer was really going against the grain as society still had be straight and conform to normal rules from the post second world war fallout and baggage. Michael’s behaviour if you read Sean Doherty’s book will reveal the clues on the things that caused his body and mind to be afflicted with the fear at every turn and step. If you do have such a condition as some of us big monkeys that swing from surfing’s tribal tree do.
Join us get medicated, and manage it. No shame be game. After all, they nicknamed MP the MONK for the long gangly killer ORANG UTANG paddler arms and the primitive psych out vibe that THE MISSING LINK was capable of.

We all owe a debt to Michael for BUSTIN DOWN THE DOORS of plain average surfing performance and showing us a standard of excellence and possibility.
A man of vision and courage!!.
His buddy and mate from 75 /76; MARTIN TULLEMANS surf photographer from 72 to 2003 on active tour of duty.
Now merely a pelican or sea eagle gliding and sliding on the winds above the jackals , hyenas, lions, tigers, kelpies, pure bred Aussie mongrels and barrel chested, pot bellied, chook legged, wave hogs on long lumber thrashing it out on the hydroscape.

BEFORE YOU GO FOR A SURF THINK THESE WORDS ‘SORRY MATE’, SHARE AND SOUL THEN MAYBE LIFE WILL BE A BEAUTIFUL WORLD AND A PARTY ONCE AGAIN IN THE WATER

MARTIN TULLEMANS

Check out more of Marty’s classic photos below and in our shop.

Click here to Purchase this print

Click here to purchase this print

Michael Peterson, Classic old Collectible autographed photos of MP taken by Legendary Photographer Marty Tullemans

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:03:47 +0000

Michael Peterson or MP as he was known, was the best surfer in the world for three years in the early seventies.No arguments there!!
Every contest he entered he won.
He was, without a doubt the most dominant force in surfing at the time.
Unfortunately the demons that taunted him made him less than appealing to the power brokers in the fledgling Pro Surfing circuit.
Michael shunned the limelight and was only keen to take the money and run… in return he was shunned by the pro surfung world and elbowed out into pasture.
With the new film called “In search of Michael Peterson ” being released recently the interest in his life and times has resurfaced.
Here at Ocean Artwork we are proud to offer several linited edition prints of MP, taken by legendary surf photographer Marty Tullemans.
These are classic portraits that capture the character of the surfing legend.
For a limited time we are able to offer these prints autographed by the man himself..

You can see the photos below and read Marty’s thoughts and description below each picture.

These are excerpts from a recent interview I did with Marty.

Pro surfers from the early seventies.

“Back then it was all a bit mystical because everybody was on some sort of weird substance and we were all young virginal people just on hamburgers and beer and they (pro surfers) were all right out there west of far east.
It was way different to today..
It was like well; today they’re just like rock and roll stars but back then they were way bigger than that!!
Because they were leaders of a tribe of a cultural revolution…
It was the early seventies and we were doing something that was just like… society couldn’t handle it.
If you surfed you were a rebel..
“What you don’t work 9-5 ?”
What you break the rules? And take time off, play hooky and go surfing?
Your one of those… FERALS!!?
It was like if you were a surfer you were a bit of a rebel, outside of society’s norm.
And to be really good at it! Well….Hey man…..you were a Bad ass!!

The surfing industry It was very crude very primitive back then but there was also a lot of discovery, there was a lot of new ground being broken.
Everybody had their little place and everybody was good at something and everybody respected each other’s individuality where as today everybody’s just paranoid about how good their facebook web site looks.” Marty Tullemans

Click here to purchase this print

“The was the first photo I ever had published it was one of MP at Sunshine Beach doing a little graceful glide off a bank of white water. They ran it as a half page in TRACKS.” Marty Tullemans

Click Here to Purchase this print

“This shot was taken at the Pa Bendall memorial.
One morning Michael pulled out the rocket tail or the Christmas tree as Tommy used to call it.
He was having a trip on the job the glasser had done on the little fangs in the rocket tail
It was bit of an iconic shot of Michael because he was the one trying a lot of different things.
A lot of people thought he was way out and different ..But hey! what people don’t realise Michael had the wide point behind the middle of the board..Way before anyone else cottoned on to it.
And because of this he was able to fit in more turns and more agility.
Because the other guys were staying with the old tried and proven school.. MP was breaking new ground and doing different things..because he was experimenting and not scared….and whatever else they disliked about him he had performance streets ahead of the pack because he used his brain and was prepared to be different and be an individual.” Marty Tullemans

Click here to purchase this print

“Michael actually asked me to take this photo..
He was the original ‘bad boy’ or as Rabbit called him the “Black knight” of the contest scene.
He was the one putting the hand brake on ‘professional surfing’ moving forward because of his lifestyle image.
There was a professional event on in Hawaii and all the invites were sent out months before and Michael got his the day before the contest started in Hawaii and he received it in Australia.
I used to rent a little dark room next to his surfboard factory in Appel st Kirra.
So he called around and said
‘Marty come and get this photo I want to write a letter to TRACKS’.
So he wrote the letter and they ran the photo.
In the letter he had his grievances about why his invitation was sent by surface mail and not air mail.
In other words it was a polite way for the contest officials to …
aaaah well…. all the boys who were ‘bustin down the door” didn’t want MP at their event, because he was dragging the image of surfing down
because all the mainstream journo’s immediately would go on about all the negative issues around Michael and what he used to bring to the table.
Whereas Michael raised the bar for all of them in terms of performance and they’re claiming they busted down the door??
Hey Fella’s get it right!!
Hey get it in the house !! ha ha
Michael raised the bar and because he raised the bar you guys had something to bust the door down with!!!!” Marty Tullemans

Michael Peterson makes Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas look like Alice in Wonderland.

MP’s life story is part circus, part car crash and purely extraordinary.
It’s an intoxicating and addictive tale for anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water.

Photos from Snapper Rocks, Greenmount, Kirra February 3rd 2009

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:31:26 +0000

I finally managed to get in the water at Snapper on Tuesday…of course I missed it!..
The day before on Monday it was absolutely pumping through the beach at Coolangatta, kegging right down past big groyne at Kirra.
There wasn’t much current so I swam / drifted all the way from Snapper Rocks down past Kirra…
I got a few pics of the surfers on the way through Rainbow, but got down to Coolangatta beach pretty quickly.
It was pretty spooky and sharky down there as I was on my own …swimming….( a man was attacked by a Great White less than a kilometre from here only a few weeks ago), but I hung in there and tried to get the shot.. I didn’t want millions of surfers cluttering up the picture!
I was after the classic ‘in the tube looking out’ shot …….looking out of the barrel into the sunset. So I had to get away from the crowd
Unfortunately I didn’t get what I was after, the waves weren’t big enough, but scored a few nice ones anyway.
So as the sun was setting I decided to make the swim to the beach, over the deep, sharky gutter between me and the shore.

So here I am, lying on my back kicking my fins and making good progress across (in my mind) the shark filled channel….
I don’t mind being on a board at this time of night but when your whole body’s immersed in the water, you tend to feel a little vulnerable.
I was shitting myself! Every ripple, every ‘darker than normal’ shape in the water …was a potential prehistoric predator…..coming to swallow me whole!!!!!!..
Then all of a sudden a surf boat came smashing over a wave right near me.
Slapping me back in to reality.
They obviously hadn’t seen me and I was lucky they hadn’t run me over…
Aaaaah the perils of shooting the Super bank!!!
It was almost dark when I got to shore, relieved, legs like jelly; I started the long walk back to Snapper and the car. …..

The Coolie Kids ….All grown up!!!

admin — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:47:27 +0000

There’s something quite surreal about living in Coolangatta and surfing Snapper Rocks aka the Super Bank all the time.
Apart from being the most crowded wave in the world and believe me it can get so crowded it does seem unreal…….. Imagine if you were a golfer and went to your local Golf course to tee off and every time you turn around you bumped into one of the world’s top golfers!!
This is what it’s like surfing Snapper, As you paddle around trying your best just to snare anything resembling a wave….it’s impossible not to notice the awesome talent of the local pro surfers, carving through around, between and sometimes over the ever present and frustrating crowd..
I’ve lived in the Coolangatta / Tweed Heads area for almost 15 years now and it’s been amazing ride watching these local kids mature into the world class athletes that they are.
Number one on the achievement list for ’08 is of course Stephanie ‘Happy’ Gilmour’s second World title. A local Snapper Rocks girl through and through, (Go Steph you Legend!). It’s going to be hard to get that trophy out of that firm grip for a few years yet.

Steph talks to the trophy ‘I love you baby never leave me.”
This classic Photo of Steph kissing the trophy courtesy Darren Simondson Surfin Snapps

Samantha Cornish originally from Crescent Head but now living on the Gold Coast had a reasonable year finishing 6th.
Sam has been around on tour from a very young age. Unfortunately for her, in 2008 she always seemed to be right on the edge of cracking a win. She’s always a threat in any comp and will be for a long time yet. Good luck in ‘09 Sam
Check out the cool short video of Stephanie Gilmour Free Surfing from Rip Curl below.

Steph has obviously dominated in the women’s Tour in 2008.

But when it comes to the men’s tour, consider this; Five out of forty five of the surfers on the Men’s ASP world Tour are from the Southern Gold Coast and surf the Super Bank whenever they’re at home and its breaking.
Here they are in the order they are seeded in 2009.

2. Bede Durbidge: Bede is actually from the small community of North Stradbroke Island (where he is afforded Godly Status) but has been based on the Southern Goldie for a few years now.
Since being dropped by his former sponsor Billabong, Bede has hit his straps and had a great year in 08 finishing second to Kelly.
He sums up his year in this quote.
“If somebody had said to me on January 1 this year that I would finish the year having jumped from No. 5 to No. 2 plus pick up a CT contest win along the way, I’d have gone: ‘I’ll take that’. That’s how 2008 has ended for me and I’m stoked with how the year has gone “ You can read more of what Bede has to say here.

4. Joel Parkinson; Parko’s manner, character, personality or whatever you’d like to call it seems to be the equivalent of his competitive surfing career…. He makes it look easy and just cruises through the whole thing; but in reality, when you look closely, on a wave and in competition in general, he’s going places that very few have been before him………….. and more often than not, pulling it off with style.
Joel Had a great year especially in Hawaii where he took out the Triple Crown and scored a record breaking perfect 20 in his heat in the Pipe Masters. He’s fired up and itching to go in 2009
Here’s what he has to say in ‘Surfing’ magazine.
Check out Joel’s two perfect 10′s in the vid below.

8. Mick Fanning. What can you say about Mick? That hasn’t already been said. An amazing surfer with more speed on a wave than anyone, good bloke, love’s a beer and oh yeah … Champion of the world in 2007!!.
Some may think that dropping from one to eight ………Mick didn’t have the hunger for competition in 2008. But who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t missed Mundaca and Brazil through injury??. He’s still firmly entrenched in the top ten and will be doing his best to remain a contender in 2009.

28. Dean Morrisson. Poor old Dingo, the perennial underdog! He had a shocker in 2008. He was plagued with injury, had surgery and a boating mishap that was lucky not to end in tragedy. He will be back in 2009 on the WCT courtesy of one of the few injury wildcards.

45. Josh Kerr. The air specialist Kerrsy was touted as having made big predictions about his first year on tour in 2007, but then didn’t make the cut for the WCTin 2008. Humbled but even more determined, Josh surfed like a man possessed in the WQS to get his place back in the top level for 2009.
I got a few shots of Josh a at Snapper before he left for Hawaii, and I swear, he had that same look in his eye that I saw in Mick Fanning at the Quiky Pro in 2007. He’s definitely one to watch in 2009. He’s learnt from his mistakes and is now ready to make his mark. If I was a gambling man, my money would be on him. I’m tipping him to move way up the ranks this year.

Josh Kerr at home, Snapper Rocks in December 2008

2009 is shaping up to be an incredible year in Coolangatta, these guys on the tour are only the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of talented local grommets that are waiting in the wings hoping to fill the shoes of these guys.
Good luck to everyone from the anyone competing in anything this year.
Happy new year and all that suff as well…….
At the least….It’s going to be an interesting year

More shots from Snapper Rocks, The Super bank , Rainbow Bay

admin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:18:06 +0000

Heres a few more shots from Snapper Rocks last week, the same day as the backwash photos.

Its been stormy and windy all week. But theres been a few waves to ease the pain.

Summer is only a few weeks away and I guess we’re already into cyclone season…

So hopefully the waves are going to turn on some perfection for us soon.

Its going to be a bumper summer here at Snapper Rocks , Coolangatta

Josh Kerr

The Snapper Rocks backwash

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:12:01 +0000

I love the backwash at Snapper!!
You can get some amazing shots from the water when its not so big.
In fact the backwash can make a tiny wave look so much bigger.
I got down to the carpark at Snapper Rocks early on Thursday thinking … or knowing that there would be a few waves around after the last week of howling northerlies.
Unfortunately the rest of the Gold Coast had the same idea and the crowd was one of the worst Ive seen for a while.
Apparently Sydney and the South Coast were firing all day at about 6-8 feet.
I was actually going to swim out Froggies and get a few closeout barrel shots when I saw Shaun Gossman get a nice pit behind the rock… And then a few minutes later Parko followed suit and scored a nice one.
So when Josh Kerr turned up…….. the temptation to get a few shots of the local pros got the better of me and I jumped off the rock with my trusty water housing and fisheye lense.
The light was crap and it was soooo crowded. But I still managed to score a couple of good ones.

I love this shot above. It really shows what goes on behind the rock and you can see the wave sucking out while the guys in the barrel and the previous wave is just hitting the rocks getting ready to rebound and smash into the wave with the surfer behind it. You can purchase a copy of this shot from my shop click here

: Jarrah Tutton seq-1

: Jarrah Tutton seq-2

: Jarrah Tutton seq-3

Jarrah Tutton seq-4

Jarrah Tutton almost took my head off with the sequence above … I think I’ll have to start wearing my Gath helmet.

Check out more of the photos from the session below

May 2008, Photos from Snapper Rocks, Rainbow bay and the Superbank

admin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:28:21 +0000

Well, today is the first day of winter and the weather has changed for the occassion . Its cold, rainy and miserable a stark contrast of what its been like for the last few weeks
Most of May was absolutely sensational, with the exception of a few days Rainbow, Snapper Rocks, The Super Bank all turned on exceptional surf.

In fact a few days at the very beginning of the month were all-time .
I photographed Mick Fanning get a sixteen second tube one morning, There were plenty of video cameras on the beach, so no doubt you’ll see it in upcoming releases.

I myself scored many classic photos and here are few of them fo you to check out.