Some days it can bit hard to sit on the beach and take photos of everyone scoring good waves when I want to be out there myself. (no violins please…my turn comes when you all go to work)
Bondi was looking great this morning with 2 peaks in operation. The newly formed and very popular Lifeguard tower right was working around 7am– she’s super fickle though…seems to only work for 1 hour then fade to fatness with a rather large hole in the middle. Needless to say 100 guys were on it at sunrise and some nice little nuggets hitting it on the right angle.
The forecast is looking healthy – this Saturday looks 6 foot plus from the south (with south winds).
Next week looks good…so pick your times wisely and you’ll find some gold.
Laters :: ugios
Uge, with 6ft out of the Sth and Sth winds on Saturday morning, can you hint where might have a nice setup? If you want to be cryptic to keep crowds away, all good, I’m a whiz on the crossword.. Cheers!!
B_ n _ i
maybe a slight bit optimistic with that forecast
Uge. Swimmer cam is offensive and I’m a 24 year old heterosexual male. If I’m not into it who is? Your a great photographer and stuff like swimmer cam shouldn’t have a home on aquabumps. Its the business seedy old dudes hiding in the bushes. Get aquabumps out of the gutter and back into the surf where it belongs.
Thanks for the feedback Harry.
Swimmercam has been with Aquabumps updates since its first day – 14 years ago. The recipe hasn’t changed.
I document the beach…surfing, waves, men, women, sunrises, seagulls…all of it. In our readers survey 2 years ago swimmercam was one of the most popular categories of images. So I am not sure if the majority of the readers share your opinion…but we will do another survey this year, watch out for it, and we will assess again.
Really appreciate you taking the time to comment. thanks, uge
So there were no girls surfing? Just in bikinis on the beach? Again?
Correct, didn’t see a girl surfing this morning.
“Swimmer cam is offensive and I’m a 24 year old heterosexual male”
if you want to fight those type of battles, dont come bother happy readers on aquabumps, go face the clothing and food industry and capitalism in general making use of woman bodies for the sole purpose of making a buck. that will show us how courageous and committed to your talk you are.
here we are seeing a report that is actually as close as empirical sociology and anthropology as possible.. in hundreds of years from now, historians will be basing their books on observations of Uge’s daily photoshoot about how people lived in coastal areas of Australia in the 21st century.
And you, you will be no more, because after falling so deep in your equalitarian ideology, you will have refused to have children because it is “offensive” to penetrate a woman..
I’m with yas Harry – keep it real, keep it about the surf, beach, clouds, skies, sand, waves…. if the boys need a porno fix, there are other sites… and lets get some more photos of the women who surf Bondi doing their thing…
Harry, a girl went for a swim at the beach. End of story. Happens every day. You don’t have to be “into it”, and you don’t have to object to it. God forbid you ever set foot on the beach and see it happen in real life. Might tell the missus to tune out during the warmer months, just so she doesn’t get a chance to look at all of the boys surfing with nothing but a pair of trunks on. Golly gosh.
Good banter.
get a life Harry…
What??? Swimmercam offensive? You must not ever head here to Bondi you will be mortified!!! I see more action at the IGA. I’m voting MORE swimmer cam next time haha.
All jokes aside Uge, keep up the hard work and remember you can’t keep everyone happy. Cough *more swimmercam* cough.
🙂
Ha! thanks Steve. Yeah, I get around 5 emails a day asking for MORE swimmer cam. I try and keep the updates appealing for everyone though…we’re a family show.
Hi Uge…As a yoga teacher I totally appreciate the human form. If you could balance up the male/female ration on swimmercam I think the issue would resolve itself. Its not as if Bondi is lacking in gorgeous male bathers.
I’ll back Harry on this one Uge, I love your shots of surfers and beech goers male and female but swimmer cam definitely adds a seediness to aquabumps. I’d like to be able to admire your work without feeling like someone will walk in and catch me checking out photos of women that unwittingly became centerfold-girls. It might be the case that some people get into swimmer cam but you’re a cultural icon these days Uge, maybe you could take some responsibility for the trends you set or perpetuate.
Still a big fan, but would be keen to check the waves in the morning sans swimmercam.
Thanks
“take some responsibility for the trends you set or perpetuate”
Like doing what, purposedly avoid shooting woman at the beach? that is the type of censorship they would do in saudi arabia
Uge, I back your comments 100%. Your photos are an absolute delight whether its a working day or not. You have a great formula, stick to it. dom
Guys lighten up – swimmercam is hardly offensive at all!!Beautiful beach goers be it male or female are all part of the beach environment and should by no means be taboo. Hey if you find it offensive log off-
Uge love the daily pics(swimmercam included) – dont get censorered by the minority
james
Seriously – what has this great country come too – when one cannot appreciate swimmercam ?! The beach is about waves, sun, sand and dare I say it both men and women in swimmers . Get over yourselves . I vote for it to continue .
Bring on swimmer cam hunks edition!
I agree with Harry, more waves……less sleaze
Model releases can be done on a touch screen phone in less than a minute these days. Maybe let the girl decide?
Uge, dare you to put a half-naked, male-stretching swimmercam for the next 7 days and see the reaction.
I imagine it wont be too popular with ‘the lads’, and that you’ll quickly come to terms with the fact that its a mildly chauvinist, albeit didn’t-mean-no-harm-guys-I’m-not-that-kinda-guy, FHM-esk display of women. I love your work, and you seem like such a good guy too, but its a bit too zoo-weekly for me.
Keep it classy San Diego. And you too Uge.
Cheers
Swimmercam is forever Uge, if some cats can’t appreciate a beautiful moment I’m sure there’s lots of hep tumblr sites that cater to those that dig froth shots and no bikini kill. Keep Bondi – Bondi!
I’d say that out of 100 pictures maybe 5 are swimmercam ones (Uge correct me if I am wrong) So are they really worth going on about them? Just asking…
chill bros. There is no sleaze feel on your site Uge. You cant make a differnexe in this world wothout offending some. The beach lifestyle at bondi is what it is and there is lot more flesh flaunted and on display then on your site. The early morning people are a pretty pure bunch and ur great shots capture the beauty and style of it all. There are heaps of girls surfing on aquabumps. Keep up the good work.
There’s a line between sleaze and art – it’s just determination of where that line is that some have a problem with, which is influenced by their cultural/family background and their beliefs/morals.
For me, swimmercam is nothing other than an artistic representation of one of the things going on down at Bondi each morning. There’s nothing at all sleazy about it. Sure, some folks might be offended by the sight of attractive girls in bikinis enjoying their morning as nature intended, but most will appreciate it for the beautiful thing that it is. Self-sensor if you are one of those offended (i.e. don’t tune in to Aquabumps each day if you don’t like it). Stick with the winning formula, Uge – it’s long proven now to work. You’re a welcome interruption to my dreary days in the office.
Why are they at the beach anyway, they should be in the kitchen making breakfast for the breadwinner
No problem with photos of swimmers male and female, I prefer photos of waves but I can see that it’s part of the rich tapestry. I haven’t seen many pictures of ‘hunk’ swimmer cam though. Maybe that should be a new addition. I’ll be down there tomorrow morning showing off the guns. Take my picture for the ladies out there.
And for the guys sending “ 5 emails a day asking for MORE swimmer cam” – it’s 2012. Everything you want (and more) is just a Google search away. You can delete your history in the ‘history’ part of most web browsers.
It’s actually 2013 at the moment
Hey Harry, there is a shot of Beau Walker in today’s report…showing flesh, half in a wettie, blue steel,…waving at me…isn’t that the same? (ha! – said with cheeky tone)
How come no one mentions that?
An update with just waves bores a lot of people. My mum complains too much surfing some days and wants more people (she loves swimmercam) – bless her.
Aquabumps is all about fun…the beach…and whatever goes on down at Bondi. Cheers, uge
Don’t forget Lee in the last shot Uge – what a dream boat!
Grow a set harry
Harsh but somehow true. He is the product of feminisation of society, refusing to understand differences from men and women.
The fact is (and it’s not Uge’s fault) men are turned on by what they see and women are turned on by what they hear, feel and so on. So in our human creature subconscious, being the result of thousand of years of history, for man women is always a visual object before anything, and for women other parameters apply subconsiously.
Women (in general) do not fantazise on body parts like man do. Nothing you can do about it. So calling for the equalitarian answer of having male models to solve the problem is ridiculous.
Yes men are attracted by women bodies more than the opposite. Yes there are differences between men and women. Nature (god, whatever) made them different. The law made them equal and that’s great. But the society trying to make them identical is ridiculous. And since women are down there at the beach in bikini and for the most part (and thanks to feminism actually) they are shamelessly showing their beautiful bodies, there is nothing wrong looking at them if it pleases the eye.
If it tortures a man to see this, either grow a set, or go live in Afghanistan. But fighting against man that enjoy looking at a woman is a lost cause. And trying to make men not react to bodies or avoid looking at them is actually dangerous and uncalled for.
Nice try Yuri 😉
…and there is the ‘almost naked ” shot of Lee the legend….how come there is no mention of the being offensive Harry??? sure you are hetro??
good point, his message actually starts with a justification “and i’m heterosexual” like he’s trying to convince himself : D maybe should reassess that. but it could be that he is a feminised man.
@yuri, James, Gazza …. Guys guys guys…. gay bashing not the way to win any argument. its about as cool as racism or child molesting.
Question at yas- what would you do to stop a women from getting raped?
in a world where 1 in 4 women get raped, abused or beaten (offficial UN Stats) I think its fair for us all to look at what can be changed in how women are viewed by men. This might mean changing what we do now, things we take for granted as acceptable, but if we can reduces those stats to 1 in 5, 1 in 10, 1 in 10,000, what would you give up?
Uge’s work has a place in that discussion.
tom wharf
drawing a line between a swimmercam photo and rape is disgusting. have a good look at yourself and your ideology.
and so you know, it is not by depriving men from being the leading masculine creature nature made that any problem will be resolved. you can be masculine, enjoy looking at women and respect them!
it is actually when you start trying to contain and police men’s intention that you create psycho issues within them. Respect gender and their differences and understand working against them is not the solution but rather the problem.
I love swimmer cam. More please 🙂
What Bondi needs is an artificial reef.
I also have to agree with Harry, Uge.
You’re setting yourself a hard task in justifying gender equality in the photos you choose to take. I’ll be the first to say that they are all technically beautiful photos, and you are obviously extremely talented i.e. people respect you and your work. But it’d be great and super admirable if you realised, and took responsibility for, the image of Bondi you choose to represent, rather than eschewing away from it in deference to what you see as the majority of opinion (which is realistically just the majority of opinion on this site, a surfer’s site, and therefore maybe not the most robust representation of Bondi’s public sentiment in general).
I’d hazard to say that those claiming people like Harry need to ‘get a life’, might actually be the ones who need to realise they are coming to a surf report to get their fare share of female objectification without the guilt and potential embarrassment of buying/downloading porn.
I’d also say that clotheslessness isn’t the defining factor of what Harry and the others seems to be taking issue with. Why are the half naked men either old, slightly overweight, weather-beaten, lifesavers and/or normal-looking surfers, while the women are bikini-clad babes, doing stretches that emphasise their lady lumps? Masculinity = legends and personality but femininity = sexualised, faceless bodies? Something doesn’t really add up.
It probably doesn’t matter that I’ve been coming to Bondi my entire life and that I’m also a heterosexual man, because I’ll undoubtedly be lambasted as being latently gay, ignorant, unaustralian or some other kind of outsider anyway. Maybe the fact that’s true, as it has been for Harry, is an indication of the kind of attention Swimmercam attracts. I’d really like to keep using this site for my surf reports, but also find it increasingly tedious trying to overlook an image of Bondi you choose to represent from the many different ones you could pick from. A more sceptical man might say the little ‘buy’ link on the bottom right of each photo has something to do with it, but I won’t go that far!
Hope you appreciate the feedback as much as I appreciate your surfing photos.
P.S. Mum’s always like what their kids do!
Thanks Jasper, I’ve taken your comments on board.
Unfortunately for you and Harry and the collection of douchebags that would present such a petty argument, you are a minority.
But it appears you enjoy being the minority, screaming for attention on a website where this ‘swimmercam’ has been integrated into the culture of this BLOG. Yes – a blog, something you should be extremely familiar with, being the trendy hipster anti-conformist pussy that you are, where I’m sure following your visit to aquabumps your next step is the newest skinny jeans from cheap monday on your bookmarked pages.
It’s sad that you come here – someone elses personal blog that has achieved thousands of subscribers – to express your opinion on this ‘tragic, sexist society’ that ‘objectifies women’ through a surfing blog.
This is not the place, nerd, to share your opinions most likely developed sitting around a bon-fire with your similarly rejected morons, uniting together to form your unique opinions about this Oh So hyprocritical, sexist, racist, demoralising society we live in.
Should you feel the need to express your concerns on the above, call your friends and set up another bon-fire, because nobody wants to hear it here.
Petty
I like that aquabumps is also somehow a social political forum.
“Masculinity = legends and personality but femininity = sexualised, faceless bodies? Something doesn’t really add up.”
Mate, as explained in another comment all this has to do with country and family culture, background etc. The fact is that in Australia, there is a growing “equalitarism” between men and women that is going in the general western world trend of gender.
This actually opens a deeper debate about gender, masculinity and femininity and capitalism. The trend in the western world is to stop differentiating masculine from feminine and refuse to acknowledge this is a product of nature, but rather it is a product of culture. In some countries the word mum and dad are not taught at school anymore and “parent” is preferred, in order to also fit for “homosexual” unions.
I wont dwell on this but the fact is that moving forces of consumption society actually benefit from a genderless, traditionless, sexless, countryless person as long as in the end it is a good consumer with no references or barriers to transact. That is why for example business turned gay-friendly when they realized the potential for business and the interesting consumer profile and habits in the gay community (sociologically proven).
In your ideologized perspective of the world – you have been taught the whole speech about identical men and women – it is actually wrong for a man to show masculinity and for a woman to show femininity. Or even wrong acknowledging that man enjoy looking at bodies . And in all my years in Australia I have actually seen a lot of women suffering from not finding masculine leading men. The “identicalism” ideology is causing more problems than ever before. And paradoxically, the use of woman image for advertising (way different than swimmercam) contributes to make the woman body a product, which is wrong for men desire in a larger perspective -seeing so many naked body killing the desire to unveil- but it is mostly wrong when it is a vehicle for the sole purpose of making more bucks.
Here we are just looking at an appealing report of a morning at the beach, and woman there are certainly a part of it. The audience enjoys what seems to be a photo way within the moral boundaries of our world. No reason to be shocked. End of the story.
meant “trend of gender amalgamation”, forgot the last word above
This is the trrouble with society these days – everyone wants to break things down to make everything PC! Yuri yiou have way too much time and your hands and your debate does have its merits however this is by far the wrong place for it. Why are you pulling back with your last paragraph when to gain some middle your stance is clear..you would make a good politician.
I have been on swimmercam twice in my bikinis and i love it. I’m down the beach almost every morning. I love wathcing the surf, the surfers and then looking at the Aquabumps pics when i get to work. We are all part of the landscape that Uge caputres. Keep up the excellent work!! Amanda.
Thanks Amanda.
[harry mode on] you are down at the beach just looking at the surfers. that is so retro, you should be a feminist woman asking for gender quotas on each waves and advocating that men wear bikinis and woman get to be more represented on the line up, by law if need be! [harry mode off]
thanks for being a feminin normal (not demeaning word at all) woman that lives and enjoys her life. great comment
A point might be to ask Uge if he asks the subject whether they mind being on the site and whether they knopw there picture is being taken.
Do you Uge?
Hey Mick, good question. In 14 years I haven’t had any one complain they don’t want to be on the site (girls, guys, bikinis, old whatevs). Most of the time I know the girls in the shots…sometimes girls approach me to take their foto – in fact, that happens quite a bit! uge
You’ve done well Uge…I’ve lost count of the number of complaints I’ve had from women in 14 years. And I’m not even a photographer…..
That’s good. I’m sure that some, though, have had no idea their picture has been emailed to thousands of people. Not everyone knows there is an Aquabumps.
I like your website and I like looking at swimmercam. But it does raise some interesting ethical debate about privacy. Considering you make a living from unpaid and at times unaware subjects.
HEY uge. Why dont many kids read this blog. It says hardly anyone under 18 reads it well last time I checked. Im like 12 and ive been reading your blog everyday for like 2 years!! Your like my role model beacuse i have really been into taking photos for like three years. I was like your 130th follower on instagram but now you have like 16k. Anyway keep up the good work dont worry what anyone says when your doing this to thousands of people everyday it would actually be really weird if someone didnt like it.
P.s Why are you photos water marked 2011 aquabumps.
Hey Jesse, thanks mate. Love that you’re tuning in at such a young age. Will fix the 2011 watermark – just being slack. Cheers, uge
Yuri you have too much spare time
thanks for reading me Ed. do not hesitate to read everything again till you’re sure you grasp the concepts.
If we’re talking equality, shouldn’t I be allowed to mow down backpackers, old women and kids on my 10ft log without a leggy, in the shore dump, between the flags, in the middle of summer, just like the clubbies do on their paddle ski’s! I am a heterosexual kook, and I demand rights too. Why should the clubbies get to be the only kooks with a clubhouse at Bondi.
Ps: I was surfing switch stance, just in case you missed that
perhaps the photo should be assessed on its ‘artistic’ merit? if so – it’s not going to win any awards because like most of Uge’s photo there is a problem with composition. However, is it sexy? yes..will it sell? yes…will anyone at telstra or landrover be offended? no. Will he keep shooting these photo’s yes? yes..is my comment annoying you??? yes. Do I care? no. Am i procrastinating at work? yes? would I be sad if aquabumps stopped existing? hell yes!!!!
most comments ever? must be a record surely. its like smh.com.au on here
What is happening to Australia? I go away for 10 years and apart from the policical landscape turning into a childs play ground, the place now reflects a police state more than ever before.
Get a grip people – its swimmercam for crying out loud
Another great update Uge
The world is made up of all kinds of bodies… this post has a balanced representation of that. You see all ages and shapes at Bondi… that’s part of what makes it so great! (Such a ‘mum’ thing to say… yours sounds lovely!)
I agree with Ed…. Yuri get a life and get off the soapbox. For the record, I love looking at mens bodies and totally disagree that women don’t and are only ‘turned on by what they hear, feel etc’ What a lot of old nonsense (I’m being polite here)!!! That’s a sexist statement if ever I heard one.
Yes I tune in for my daily fix of Aquabumps mostly due to Uge’s awesome photography skills and wonderful shots but hey I’m a woman and I also like a shot of daily eye candy too. We may be more discrete about it but don’t ever think that women don’t like looking at the male form!
I realise you probably don’t take photo’s of gorgeous guys on the beach Uge as you don’t want to be considered a perv but if you take them real fast, I’m sure they won’t notice and the girls will be mighty happy 🙂 Keep up the great work Uge and I vote keep swimmercam and thank my lucky stars I don’t live in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia etc.
Cheers
Louise
Dear Louise,
I dont doubt for a second you like to look at men’s body. However it is not sexist to say that the way men and women are turned on is different. In men’s brain there is mostly one button to push “visual” to turn them on instantly. For women, there is typically more buttons to push.
My point was just to say, stop bashing men who enjoy looking at women. It is in their nature to be more attracted by looks and swimmercams will be popular photos among the gender. No one gets hurt with it so let’s move on and not tell Uge it is offensive or demeaning or whatever some have said assimilating this to porn.
Blah…blah…blah!!!
Tell me about Lee. He looks a character.
Hmmm Yuri once again absolute twaddle. Not prepared to get into a silly debate with you, you are entitled to your opinion but it is yours only and you can’t foist your ideas on others.
One thing I will say in hindsight, (and this isn’t a comment for you Yuri so don’t respond), it took a lot of guts for Harry to say what he did and I’m glad there are young men out there that care and speak out when they feel women are being objectified. All up very cool indeed and very proud to be an Aussie!
Now lets get back to the photos shall we 🙂
Well done everyone, we have demonstrated yet again that even on a Photo Blog designed to do nothing more than share the beauty of an early morning session at Bondi….we can turn it into a slanging match about…whatever the hell that was about.
If anyone would like to take photos of men on Bondi at dawn particularly, I suppose you need to have a coffee with Uge and find out the trick to getting up every moring pre dawn and beeing ready with a camera down at the beach in all conditions, then set up your own website. I couldnt do it, I dont get up until 7am most days and I live 40 minutes from the beach, and I am a lazy bugger.
So I’ll accept what Uge puts up on his site, the last time I checked this wasnt a public service or a Govt funded website promoting Bondi…it was a Photo Blog by a guy who has some sort of sleep disorder.
Love your photos Uge, I bought a Sony Action Cam last week, partly inspired by your underwater shots. Hope your getting enough sleep mate.