You’ve been deprived of your Aquabumps daily dosage for a few days now and I’ve been getting some knarky emails wondering what is with my disappearance.

I am back and I am in Bali. Haven’t been back here for a little while…16 months to be exact…and my, my, things have changed. Looks like town is pushing up towards Canggu. I pulled up at Echos and barely recognised the place with the mini-westfield popping up out the back of those once decrepit Warungs. With all the fast pace development on the land, the surf was remarkably uncrowded (and good!). So many wave options with a decent swell in town. Good time of year to visit as the winds are very light. June/July/August is party season (peak) when half of Europe move in and go mad. May is good for the big storm swells grinding along Western Australia, refining themselves along the way, peeling down the Bukit and filling up all those black sand beachies. If you see a big swell hit Margaret River WA – fly here up here.

Aquabumps will be broadcasting from the island paradise for a couple of weeks. I know, so much travel lately…there is only 1 more trip for the year (next month) and then it will be all Bondi Bondi Bondi for the rest of the year. (even though most of Bondi is up here!)

Ends :: uge (Nyoman – 3rd born)

PS – yesterday one of my CF cards corrupted with a few days of shooting on it. Duh.

As forecasted the solid dead south swell has hit flanked with freezing SW offshores.

Coldest morning of the year so far, 3 degrees out west, 7 degrees around the coast.

The water remains warm – can you believe it.

Bronte had a few bombs, looked quite fat and hard work.

Bondi was maxed. Hope some banks are formed after all this pounding.

I am off to Bali, swell hittin’ tomorrow. Enjoy.

The Aquabumps Gallery is open 7 days. Yep, we are open right now. 10-6 daily. Come see the pics blown up big. 151 Curlewis Street Bondi Beach NSW 2026 Telephone 02 9130 7788

Ciao :: ugio

Back to Bondi. Strange morning down the beach today. Forecast said sunny and 26 degrees with 1-2 footers. It was sunny at first, then it clouded over and rained and the waves progressively got better with the tide pushing in. Nice rip bowl right that may throw out a chest high set wave. Fickle though. The forecast is very small tomorrow but something cooking for Sunday. Winds will be roaring offshore and the winter temperatures will return.

Our little mates at Springcourt are having a big sale today and tomorrow (only at their Surry Hills Crib)

Seeyouse :: uge

A new swell should arrive on Sunday, so you won’t go dry for long. In the meantime, you should check out Tim Bonython’s Immersion Surf Films at the North Bondi RSL tonight. Kicks off at 8pm Thurs 10 May, 1 night only (in Bondi) and buy tickets online to save mulla. Ok, can get em on the door as well.

Enjoy :: uge

Today it looks like that solid East swell, that has been here all week, is finally subsiding. I found 2 footers down at Maroubra, with the odd 3 foot set reminiscent of yesterday. Swimming around this morning with my camera was a pleasure.

It’s warm, now. Gonna be maximum of 26 degrees and perfectly sunny in Sydney. I don’t care where you are today, but you should at least spend 1 hour outside soaking up the day…in the park, on the beach or out the back. It’s just too good.

North Bondi SLSC revamp

If you’ve been paying attention down the beach, you’d have seen the demountable buildings going up beside North Bondi Surf Club, a sure sign the old club is about to be demolished. I know the clubbies put the flags up on the best banks but they still do a great job keeping the kiddies and tourists safe.

If you’d like to make a tax deductable donation to their building fund for the new club house go here or check out what The Block’s Scott Cam and Packed to the Rafters’ star Michael Caton have to say about putting your money where your mouth is for the Bondi community. Watch

ciao :: uge

PS – the auctions on ebay for my old cameras end today

To start with the weather is immaculate, sunny, clear and the next three days will soar to 25 degrees. Not bad for this time of year. Ok, she’s a little chilly at the start/ends of the day…but at least the water is a balmy 19/20.

The East swell currently in town is so fine. It’s consistent, waves are 4-5 foot and the East direction supplies most of Sydney’s bays. Definitely go for a drive and you will score. South and North coasts will be on fire. If I wasn’t about to embark on a Indonesian junket, I’d be chasing uncrowded peaks out of town – for sure.

Immersion Tour

Tim Bonython is hitting the road touring his latest collection of surfing films around this country with 12 shows. The Australian Surf Movie Festival arrives in Bondi this Thursday night, showing at North Bondi RSL at 8pm. Buy tickets online now and save. Click here

I am selling a whole raft of camera gear that take these daily photos. Bodies, big lens, little lenses, extenders, water housings…it’s all here on ebay.

Bye :: oggie

Or you can download the PDF version here of the cover or the spread.

Don’t forget it is Mother’s Day this Sunday and she may like something from our gallery. Oh and the Aquabumps Gallery is now open 7 days…yes, we’re open Mondays from here on.

:: uge

The Aquabumps Gallery is now OPEN 7 days, 10-6 daily. That means we’re open all weekend. I reckon Bondi is going to be busy with all the garage sales on. If you’re in the area – check us out. 151 Curlewis Street Bondi.

I must not use the Aquabumps list for personal reasons. I must not use the Aquabumps list for personal reasons. I must use the Aquabumps list for personal reasons. What the heck. I am selling my South Bondi Apartment. It has insane views of the bay. 1st open is tomorrow 10am (Sat), come see

Until Monday, later :: uge

G’day. Nice day (again). We’re definitely having a good run of weather. The swell has subsided though, so you will only find waist to shoulder(ish) high waves. Tomorrow is going to be a sunny cracker – take afternoon off and have a long lunch down the beach. The weekend will have fun waves (in particular Sunday with a NE swell).

My Junk, Your Treasure

I bought my first camera (age 9) at a Garage Sale. Across Australia this Saturday (May 5th) you will find 5,000 garage sales. It’s all part of The Garage Sale Trail. Join in! Register your garage sale on this website so people can find you and hock off your hidden treasures. You’ll be rich.

Selling my gear

Inspired by all the incoming garage sales, I am selling a whole pile of camera gear. The same gear that shoots all these pretty pictures on Aquabumps. How about a Canon EOS 400m F2.8 USM to shoot surfing from the beach? Or maybe a water housing for a Canon 5d Mkii? Hang on, how about a Canon 5d Mkii body? You gotta have a 200mm to 70mm F2.8 USM L IS V1 zoom if you’re serious about taking a sharp image. Extenders, got a few of them too so you can zoom right out there in the surf. If you’re just starting out, got a Lomo in a water housing as well (used twice). Enough ramble, just click here to see all that I am selling.

Good bye :: uge (pronounced Yooj, seems to throw a lot of people)

It’s gonna hit 24 degrees and remain like this until a storm blows late arvo/early evening bringing a spot of rain. The wind is gentle, 10 knots from the NW making conditions nice and clean for surfers.

Bondi had a little 2-3 foot wave. Looks to be getting smaller as I write. Nice little right rip bowl towards the lifeguard tower, otherwise heaps of close outs.

Busy down there today…everyone was up, running around doing their thing.

Yo Ma!

Mother’s day is coming up on the 13th May, Sunday. I had a chat to her and she really wants something from our gallery in Bondi, or at least our coffee table book. Come in or buy online

Bye :: uge

OR

That the 300-400 people that were down at Bondi this morning glanced at it, paused for 1 second, and thought nothing of it, continuing with their morning rituals.

Bondi is a very funny place. A few weeks ago I caught up with the Bondi Hipsters, of course one them was wearing a full body onesie…and yep, no one down the beach thought that was odd either.

I guess all this stuff makes it interesting being a local photographer.

There are waves today, really fun ones. It’s much smaller than yesterday, say 3 foot at exposed beaches. Swell direction SE with perfect NW offshores. Sunny and 23 degrees today – too good cuz.

Take it easy :: uge

If you are not into cameras I suggest scrolling down, look at the rest of the pictures and read no further. Bit of camera geek discussion coming. Today’s images were all shot with the brand spankin’ new Canon EOS 5d Mark iii. Yep, I have one. I’ve carried around the old 5d Mark ii for years, every day, so this upgrade was welcomed. Kinda like a carpenter getting a new hammer. Pulling the new 5d Mark iii out of the box felt good, solid and better build quality than it’s predecessor. The LCD display on the back is HUGE and crisp, I love that – worth getting it just for that I reckon. Also looking down the view finder it is somehow showing a  larger image area making it much easier to frame up shots (big tick). With the first set rolling through on dark at Bronte I let rip on a burst at high ISO and was pleasantly surprised. It’s fast shooting at 6 frames per second…similar to my Canon 1dMark4 (which is about double the cost). The old 5d was slow (3fps)…and I always missed stuff. There is also heaps more focus points (61 to be exact – the old model had only a 9 I think) All can say is YES to more autofocus control! Using a 5d for sport photography is now possible. I haven’t shot any video on it yet – will do soon. The resolution has increased to 22.3 mega pixels, which I am a little disappointed as some of the other cameras are launching this year at 36 megapixels. Now…for the everyday blow Joe that won’t hinder you at all, but I blow up images 12 metres wide sometimes and need all the pixel grunt I can get. There are a heap of new features, like in camera HDR – will test em out this week.

Looking at the footer of my emails you’ll see we are lucky enough to have Canon as one of our corporate partners. I just want to clarify that no one has briefed/paid/bribed me to write the above camera review…it’s a smoking hot new camera body and I get all frothed up on new stuff.

I am selling my beloved South Bondi apartment and moving to Hawaii…na just kidding, ok moving just down the hill…but I’d love my crib to go to one of our readers who love the area (and views) as much as I do. Ava a look or call the agent Gav 0424 532 451

:: uge

PS – I saw the pack of Dolphins going mad at Tamarama this morning but had the wrong lens set up to capture it – sorry!

We’ve returned to the photogenic town of Piha, a swell magnet close to Auckland that is well known for its huge rock in the middle of the beach. Lion rock works as a good wind shield and has breaks on either side of it. Choice aye? Today the surf is pretty junkie, the 1st onshore day all week, yes, we could have driven to the other side of the island…but I reckon we’ve clocked up enough k’s on this trip.

In a nutshell, there are great waves here…very laid back pace and so many options to surf. One word of advice, take a few weeks so you can go slower than we did! There is plenty to see and you’ll make many stops on your way…the countryside is amazing.

Special thanks to a few crew for making this trip possible, Tourism New Zealand, The H+K girls, Air New Zealand, Land Rover, Black Sand Lodge, Maz Quinn, Lenny and everyone else that welcomed us into their town along the way.

Sweet as…

:: uge

Also, before flying over, I thought the water temperature in N-Zed was freezing. Quiky kindly kitted me out with a 5mm/4mm which just ain’t required. It’s around 18 degrees in the water here – so a 3mm/2mm is fine. Ok, maybe go down south to Dunedin and it’s a different story…but the North Island is pretty close to Sydney’s temps, in and out of the water.

Other random observations : It’s so green here it looks fluoro. In a 2 hour drive we stop the car 12 times to shoot pictures. Everyone is your cousin, yeah Cuzi. The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. New Zealanders make good beer. Stokke Gold is a winner followed by Mac’s Gold. “Too Meke” means “Too Much bro…too much”…A Maori/Aussie mix is a “Mozzie”. They reckon I’m one. You can surf here every day at this time of year, you just may need to drive across the island depending on swell direction, period and winds (as the Kiwis say the “Wunds”). They also speak real funny here, but then again, they think I speak funny.

Sweet as…:: uge

Heading back West now, chasing a swell.

Lest We Forget.

Later cuzis :: uge

Does this sound like something you’d ride (or put on your wall)?
A Deus Surfboard Shaped by Ellis Ericson with batik by Robert Moore. A tracker shape, drawing influence from the transitional period of surfing, particularly 1969, 1970 and 1971. Well…here is your chance to win one, yep, for free cuz!, just go here and fill in the details.

Kia ora :: Uge

Hey Cuzi’s, we are in New Zealand! True. This week Aquabumps will be coming to you from the North Island of N-Zed…only a short three and a half hour flight out of Sydney. Today’s images are shot at Piha Beach, a super chilled, coastal town only 40 minutes out of Auckland.

The weather is immaculate today (20), clean offshores and 3-4 footers on the high tide. It’s super tidal here – especially at this time of year where there is a 3 metre gap from high to low tide. The back drops are amazing and the beaches on the west coast are unique with black volcanic sand. Too meke!

Hope you’re enjoying the 2-3 footers at East exposed beaches back in Sydney.

Heading to Raglan – should be pumping on Wednesday/Thursday… later :: uge

Good setup down here, so many surfing options. Today we’ve got a decent East swell in town, 4-5 foot…not the best direction for The Shire but fun at the Alley, The Point and a few of The Reefs. It’s going to be offshore all day long so make sure you take some time off, get a wave and soak some rays…it’s an amazing day!

Julian from Surfection Mosman is having a wetsuit sale this weekend. Go for a drive and score a deal off him. The creep is selling wetties cheap!

Bye for now :: uge

Today’s pictures were shot from bus shelters, peoples balconies, the back seat of the van…anything to keep dry. The great news is that there are waves. Good, clean ones. 3 foot this morning and bigger around the corner as there is some east in it.

Sydney weather sure is psycho at the moment, sunny one minute, torrential the next. It should improve from here on.

The Layne Beachley Classic is on today at Dee Why…watch it live

Adios :: uge

The stormwater outlet at South Bondi is working overtime. Yummy! Nice thick brown sludge spewing into the line-up. Don’t drink the water today if you’re out surfing, your hair may also change colour tomorrow. So if you don’t mind a bit of brown water there actually some fun little 3 footers available. You’ll score it mostly to yourself. Hit it.

Over :: u g e

Really your options today are very limited. Surfing should not be high up there on the priorities. Keeping dry should be your main goal.

Fortunately the swell is being whipped up as you read this, but it won’t be clean until at least tomorrow afternoon. I like Thursday and Friday for a wave. Block that out in the diaries.

It’s been so nice lately. Golden light with salubrious temperatures in and out of the water. Here are some B-Roll pics from last week that have yet to make it onto the Aquabumps.

In our gallery we’re running a special on 25 x small white framed panoramic artworks called ”Dawn Colours, Bondi” – 63cm wide x 31cm high. Buy online if you want one, normally $150 now $100. (In stock now, ignore the production timeframe upon check out)

Ciao :: ugio

It’s the calm before the storm. Today waves barely broke. If they did dribble in they were merely kneecappers or waistline huggers + very, very weak.

After 4 days of sunshine and warmer temps a south storm will arrive tomorrow washing out the majority of this week.

Fortunately this storm will bring a little swell, from the south.

So sit tight, and we might have something for you to surf on Wednesday (flanked with onshore winds though)

Adios:: ugios

This weekend our little buddy, Julian, across the bridge at Surfection Mosman is having a rather large wetsuit sale. The warm water won’t last forever so you’d best roll in to get a deal on a winter steamer! If you hurl profanities at him upon checkout I am sure you’ll get an even better deal. He likes that.

Small waves all weekend, 1, maybe to 2 feet on a very small human…nothing to get excited about

Oh…and my little mincer (Jet Wolfie Tan) is turning 1 tomorrow, he’ll be swimming out to shoot these morning pics in no time. No pressure of course. He caught his 1st wave on a surfboard over Easter.

Later  :: uge

Tomorrow is going to be a really nice day. Perfectly sunny and 24. I look forward to that. Swell is going to evaporate tonight and the weekend will be tiny.

Have a nice day, uge

Been to the Potato Head Beach Club in Bali? As winter approaches in Oz the Indonesia season kicks off, we’ll be there soon.

Have a nice day indoors, :: uge

The high tide was 6:40am which if why the east facing beaches like Tamarama and Bronte were full and fat. Better on the low.

Happy Easter all. We’ve got waves all the way through this 4 day vacation (dang!) – so pack the car and drive far far away to a deserted beach.

The Aquabumps Gallery is OPEN Sat/Sun 10-6, CLOSED Fri/Mon.

Seeya, uge

Go surf, it’s an east swell, decent and around head high. The mercury will get up to 26 today, I’d even say higher. Too good to be sitting in a cubicle.

Our Aquabumps Gallery is open this weekend 10am to 6pm. We are CLOSED Good Friday and Monday though…so pop in Sat/Sun.

Bells is on today. Watch

:: uge

P.S. if this measly update isn’t enough, follow us on Instagram (@Aquabumps)

1. With the recent time change my body still thinks it’s 6:30am when it’s 5:30am. You can fit a whole world of stuff in before heading to ‘work’. Also it’s not a strain to get up and see/shoot the sunrise.
2. The sunrises are best in Autumn. I have no scientific reasoning, but they rock. The skies were sprayed with colour this morning before the sun cracked it open.
3. The water is warm…like really warm, boardie warm.
4. Everyone is in a very good mood when the weather is like this. We deserve it after a disappointing summer
5. I can shoot my morning shots in 15-30 minutes. Sometimes, especially days with no waves or light, it can take 2-3 hours to shoot 7 measly shots. Today I pointed the camera in any direction and there was a good shot.
6. The waves were fun. Not talking Marky Mathews at Solander…just small east swell bumps, 2 foot and playful. The mal riders in the middle where having a blast amongst the huge crowd chaos. Yep, no agro out there today.
7. World Champion Longboarder Jennifer Smith was out at Bondi this morning doing her thing.
8. Today is Tuesday and it’s a short week with Easter 4 day break coming. And this Easter will host good surf. That’s exciting.
9. My son, Jet has completed his teething process on his 4th fang. He’s sleeping like a log. I am human again.

:: uge

Maroubra had some fun ones this morning. Sets were mostly 3 foot with the rare one bigger. Bondi was 2 foot and has a nice bank setup – love that rip bowl. Tama looked a bit all over the place (no surprises there), Bronte had plenty out…lots of options – spread out. Southerly will blow later.

Seeya :: uge