This morning at Bondi, the light was in a constant state of flux. It would flick between overcast, flat light to uber contrasty golden rays (my favourite flavour). I feel it was leftover volatility from the rain and storms that passed through before sunrise. Right now, as I write this riveting editorial in Aquabumps headquarters, […]

The surf was on so all of Bondi’s finest shredders were up for the early. It was quite a display of high-performance surfing. I was busy today, reos on the rights, airs on the shorey, carves on the lefts. It was a very active lineup with consistent waves around head-high. At dawn I began in […]

Velvety gold rays strung out across the bay this morning; the kinda light I love to shoot. Everything looks good, draped in gold. It’s even more of a treat when I was expecting a fully clouded sky and junkie ocean this morning. It’s clean and head-high, that howling southerly has passed on by. Both sandbanks were […]

I think you already know (as the beach was packed this a.m.), there were some pretty fun surf conditions. Bondi was operating on two sandbanks, and hundreds of frothers flocked to the water for their salty dose. I saw plenty of waves over head-high, some wash through sets. I wore a steamer as I find […]

Sydney is feeling semi-normal as we open up a bit more. A delightful weekend of spring weather and a thundering south swell that arrived on Sunday morning and continues today. It is fools gold out there; you probably ran down with your board thinking you’re going to score some four-footers…if you like close outs and surfing straight, […]

We’ve had another morning of sunshine, north winds and north swell. Everyone was up early, hitting the beach… it was busy. Walkers, surfers, people carry rocks, boot camps, outdoor gyms, doof doof…a hive of activity in the wee hours. The surf looks much cleaner than in previous days. The water is SUPER CHILLY after the […]

FINALLY, it’s stopped raining, and the sunshine has broken through. Nice to see everybody out and about, doing their morning rituals. Waves were breaking on two sandbanks, a left and a right, but only around waist high and very fat. You need a high volume surf vehicle today and plenty of patience. With the North […]

d a n k adjective,dank·er,dank·est.unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly:a dank cellar. Well, Sydney is having one helluva wet freedom week. It’s been raining for days. Probably best stay indoors for a while longer, nah, not in the concrete bunkers again. Wait for the storm to pass. The wind has kicked around from the dead […]

Another grey, rainy, onshore start to today. The beaches were busy earlier before the rain hit. There’s a tiny mushball waist to shoulder high wave with a handful of optimistic surfers hunting – it looked very average. Need those onshores to stop before you score anything decent to ride. Hopefully, tomorrow we will see some cleansing […]

Whilst it’s an ugly day, weatherwise in Sydney, it’s a beautiful day for Sydney-siders as the shackles come off from a 106-day lockdown. Freedom day, some call it, that day a lot of people have been hoping for. Get a haircut – that mullet ain’t looking great! We’d run out of food in our bunker, so […]

Well, after so damn long, we finally have a timeframe for opening up. Alle-freaking-luia.  From 11th October, our salubrious Bondi establishment, inside an old mechanics yard with pretty beach artworks, will swing the doors open to the public – THE AQUABUMPS GALLERY WILL BE OPEN, yes, OPEN! After 4 months of hibernation, humans will roam our […]

It’s Wednesday, time for our catchup. A pictorial pick-me-up to connect you all to the ocean, even if you live further than five clicks away from the coast. Melbourne, oh boy, Melburnians, hang in there. What a crazy wild patch of events you’re in down there; protests, delta and now a flaming earthquake! You all know we’re […]

Overnight, after a weird year on the WSL tour, we have two new world champions for 2021 – Carissa and Gabs. Both dominated the unusual tour stops in this difficult year. Running a world tour with a pandemic raging wouldn’t have been easy – well done WSL. I’ll never forget meeting Gabs at Bondi, 10 […]

Some things have boomed during Covid and the subsequent lockdowns – some expected, some bizarre. The property market has gone nuts, especially regional (and coastal) – well away from the spicy cough in the cities. We’re having a few more drinks earlier in the day – a direct byproduct of home-schooling. Many are adopting new […]

G’day! Nail, hair salons, waxing centres and tanning places are closed – how are we all looking out there? Something outta the movie Castaway? How’s the homeschooling going? Are the kids compliant? I guess not. We all have a new respect for our glorious school teachers. We are very much looking forward to the return […]

Welcome back to your weekly visual distractor, where we go to the beach and hide from all things Rona. The daily images will return, soon, real soon…so this is just a passing phase. The majority of you are reading from home, probably at a kitchen table with kids screaming in your ear as you try […]

When I started photography, it was for the dorky kids at school (i.e. me), and nobody was interested. I hijacked the empty school darkroom and taught myself black & white film photography processing (mostly when I was meant to be in other classes).⁠⁠I then set up a darkroom in my Mum’s laundry. She hated it […]

How’s your Coronacation going? Super productive WFH? Quality time with the fam? Is homeschooling the highlight of the day? (Actually, a mild form of torture is more like it). Ah-huh. I know. I hear ya. Yep. I’ve got a few distractions for you: Watch the World Surfing League Corona Open in Mexico at one of […]

August in Europe is party-time. It’s when everyone takes a month off to hit the beaches, chill, and work on their tans. This August, (now), most of Europe is back open for business. For example, Italy will let tourists land after a couple of jabs or a few tests to see if you have that […]

What is this now, a weekly photo newsletter? Unprecedented times! How are you going to get through all this! Hahaha. Everybody’s routines are messed up at the moment, I’ve started not showering in the morning, it really helps to keep people more than 1.5 metres away! (Wifie not so happy) I asked my kids where […]

Happy Friday! Downtime is a great opportunity to work on some images that have been hiding in the terabyte stack at HQ. Here’s a little picture show to distract you in your day, stuff I’ve been working on, some really random stuff…in a typical non-lockdown day I’d shoot around 200-500 images in a morning sess. […]

Extensions, protests, cases numbers, lockdowns, vaxes, home quazzis…it’s all a bit overwhelming at times, isn’t it? It feels like Delta dominates the TV, our conversations, our worries…remember, we’re all in this together…it’ll pass. Maybe not passing as fast as we’d liked, but it will pass. My Aquabumps daily routine is still not back to pre-outbreak […]

Once upon a time, every June/July we would set sail on our annual boat trip to the Mentawais Islands – 150 kilometres off the coastline of Sumatra, Indonesia.  Before the Coronapocalypse I clocked up 15 trips in as many years, surfing the best waves on the planet in some of the remotest, stunning locations imaginable. Drifting amongst […]

Hey Homies. How are we all doing at home this week? Sick of watching the news? Well, I’d thought I post some light-hearted beach shots, just to keep you all distracted from case numbers, test numbers, vax numbers, Lotto numbers and the Coronapocalypse. The photos archives have been getting a work-out whilst Sydney remains in […]

How are you all doing? It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me so I thought I’d check-in. Obviously, it’s a weird time, as the NSW outbreak creates havoc wherever it pops up. So many people and businesses doing it tough, daily routines altered and everything cancelled…hang in there. This storm will pass. Just […]

Keeping busy? Working? Bingeing on Netflix? Learning a new skill? A new language? You’re doing good, real good, hang in there. I try not to watch the news too much whilst in Iso. Too many headlines recently seem to be about Bondi. The Bondi Cluster, Bondi Beach Primary burning down, A Bondi guy tried to […]

Bummer. Here we are again, all at home. But, if it’s any consolation, it’s an ugly day outside anyway. Rain, cold, onshore. All the ingredients for a good day inside. Sydney is in a 14-day lockdown whilst attempting to put out those Delta Rona fires (for my readers outside Australia who don’t know).  In line […]

The light was impressive this morning, what a sky! A nice escape to a kinda gloomy day around Sydney. Chin up! Waves were on tune also, head high, multiple banks…lots of fun to be had. The swell is fading for the rest of the week, so I’d suggest some covidsafe exercise! Go for a paddle. […]

Congratulations, you’ve made it past 12 images to the riveting editorial that Aquabumps is famous for – typos, bad grammar and all! My high school English teacher used to read my daily rant – rolling his eyes constantly I bet. Are you still on here Mr. Whitla? I wasn’t the best student, more interested in […]

The fields are empty and rogue waves are going unridden. A storm is in town and it’s not very inviting down the beach. After a subtle sunrise colour event, it returned to greys, rain and cold. A great day to be productive at work (inside). Wait for it all to calm down a bit…I reckon. […]

I live by a simple rule – touch nature at least once a day. Feet in the sand, snooze on the grass or swim at sunrise. It’s all good. Makes you feel unreal all day, setting you up – just right. Now go do it. A brand new swell has arrived, alleluia, and it’s looking […]

We’ve woken to BONDI BONDI BONDI all over the news. Bondi outbreak, Bondi cluster, Bondi hotspot. On the tele they’re interviewing people on the beach how they feel about The Rona running rampant around our beloved beach. Hell, even my accountant cancelled his meeting with me in Bondi Beach today! So, from what I can […]

A nice and neat little morning down the beach. Clear skies are inviting the solar warmth as Bondi hosts waist-high dribblers. The beach was quiet, real quiet, and relaxing this morning. Superb colours from the sun beams. My fave. The water temp. hovers around the 19-degree mark with perfect clarity. Sound good? Dive in, and […]

We had a few whales in the bay this morning. I had my whale repellant cameras out, so I have virtually no photographic proof of the visit. I swear, every time I try and shoot images of whales or dolphins – they disappear into the deep abyss – they know I’m onto ’em. I’ll do better […]

Sydney is being blasted by polar air, oh boy it’s cold today (max 11). We’re not used to the claws of winter digging deep, so early. It’s snowing in the highlands. You’ve probably heard that Bondi Beach Primary was on fire last night at 5 pm. Thankfully it was after school hours and no one […]

Where is everyone? Bondi was a ghost town this morning. It was very tranquil. The Bergs, the line up and the beach was totally empty. It’s waveless too! Interesting skies, no, not the burning reds of yesterday – that sunrise broke the internet…just different. It’s a cold day, 12 now, feels like 9, max 13. […]

Put your sunnies on to look at this post; it’s intense! I even knocked back some of the colours as they melted my camera sensors. It’s was pretty incredible. Worth getting up early for… The colour bloom lasted longer than usual – 20 minutes, enough time for you to sip ya coffee and pull your […]

Welcome to a new week and the beginning of winter. It was a cold, clear morning down at Bondi with small, weak limping waist to chest high waves (inconsistent). We’re looking at sunny weather for today and tomorrow, rain from Wednesday. The water is still kinda warm hovering around 19.5 degrees. I’ve finally gone to […]

The shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere is June 21, a few weeks away. That means the sunrise is late at this time of year. I sit on the beach on these cold mornings, waiting for the sun to peer over Ben Buckler, illuminating my subjects and, most importantly, making it comfortable […]

I’m back in Bondi and into my morning routine – surf check at dawn, shoot a sunrise, capture some surfing and then shoot something weird going on in Bondi! Done, tick! Where has all the swell gone? I’ve been watching from Queensland, and you have had one helluva run down here (Goldie was on the […]