Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
The forecast was questionable. Would it be big enough? Would it even be breaking? Despite a fully loaded plate of work before me, I realised I could still get a taste of this swell if I left early enough. And so I began my journey at 3:45am to a far corner of the country that may (or may not) have waves at dawn. It was very borderline, but I knew if I did not go I was going to be tortured by the fear of missing out.
A wise man once told me, "it is never too far if you really want to be there". Sage advice. And so in the darkness I found myself stumbling in and out of streams, tripping over storm surge debris and grovelling in the pre-dawn darkness to a spot where I might be able to capture an image that I have had in my head for a few years ... providing the swell is big enough.
It wasn't.
But the biggest sets were turning the lineup into a surfable wall and so I waited for the teams of tow surfers to arrive. And they did – five teams in total scrapping over the few waves on offer. But for one of the surfers their morning barrel session would end with a broken leg ...
You can check out the full story from this adventure surf right here on NZ Surf Journal.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS We've just relaunched our commercial and editorial photography website. You can check it out right here. We're still testing so if you see anything strange then please let us know. Have fun ...
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: