In three days time we are officially turning nine and will enter our 10th year producing your weekly dose of stoke: Box of Light. What a ride that has been. Touch wood – we haven't missed a deadline. Every Tuesday, without fail, 12-14 images direct to your inbox for no other reason than to keep you stoking. Our goal is simple: to break the monotony of your working day. To unashamedly interrupt productivity and take you somewhere you'd rather be. Maybe even inspire your weekend plans.
In that first nine years we have produced 473 reports. That's pretty close to 6149 photos that would have come from a number in the millions. I hate to think how much time I've spent at the computer, at the beach, swimming, underwater or getting the reports horribly wrong and coming home empty handed.
I wouldn't exchange a second of it. Every moment has been pretty incredible and the ocean just never ceases to amaze me. I don't think I will ever bore of it.
Then there is you: our reader and loyal subscriber. You make this journey so much more rewarding. I love your comments and emails. Keep them coming. I really don't know where we are headed with it all. But I do know that tomorrow the ocean will have another surprise waiting for me and I can't wait to learn what that is.
This week we have a few headshots of eight members of the 11-member 2020 Otago Scholastics Surfing Team and a bunch of cutting-room floor stragglers that missed the cut in the previous 472 editions of Box of Light. These ones represent some of my own favourite moments from the past nine years. Enjoy!
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS We're stoked with all our readers who have bought our limited edition prints of Vega and helped to support the work of the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. We still have some left – get in quick to secure yours. You can help support Vega (she's a sea lion) and her mates right here.
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