By now we all know Irene wasn’t the storm everyone thought it would be in Jersey.  No 6 feet of water, no hundred mile an hour winds, no 15 inches of rain.  But for all of what Irene wasn’t, she was one thing – awesome for the people who didn’t flee Ocean City.  At 5pm, the police force seemingly closed up shop, all the cars had already gotten off the island, and aside from a few fire trucks and the rouge zombie walking around, the town was ours.  Despite the urgings from all our parents and friends to ‘stay safe’, we weren’t going to let 12 hours of lawlessness go by without a lil insanity.

In the end, the waves were fun but nothing too insane.  A few heavy barrels, a few face smashes, a broken board or two and a bunch of residual over hype.  Luckily I did get a chance to swim and get a few photos at dark.  Only two or three good ones, but plenty for the scrap heap here.   Enjoy.

Scoping the police scene - none found. Go time.

Raging Hurricanes and Raging to Judas Priest

It did come down a little bit heavy at times

Backside Street tubes galore

Staying Safe for sure

Riding a dirtbike in 60 mph rain storm, check.

Look. At. That. Jaw.

Partying with the dudes from Deadliest Catch

Dirtbike on the beach, why not?

Brad Pastrana

Chalk one up for Lurch

Princess Jia doing some interior decorating with the new plywood walls

Kev noticing Rich's insane tagging skillz

Brad still can't believe Selena Gomez is dating Bieber. He's now trying to mack Joe Jonas.

Jamie slotted despite gale force offshores

Sight that brought a tear to my eye: AC residents caught in a sand tornado.

Hurricane Hunters on the prowl

The shot before this is actually kinda sick

Zack got a million barrels but every one we connected on was an almond

Andy Carter enjoying the day off from saving lives

Ian on the bomb of the night sesh

Alex claimed he would get a shot and stuck true

Damn chandeliers

One of the real evening caves

Jesse taking advantage of the casino lights

Broken board on my first session riding it - Karma for all the debauchery.

On the flat and steamy days of summer, the Ocean City crew will often just hang on the beach, boards in hand but more there to hangout with friends than actually surf.  A Sunday afternoon wouldn’t be complete without a few cold beers, but on this particular day we were fresh out.  Andy Carter, renowned lifeguard and shredder, lives just a few blocks from where we were hanging and came through by bringing not only one, but TWO Heinikens from his parents refridgerator.

A contest was born.  While the first Heineken was destined for Andy’s own liver, the second was up for grabs.  Like a flock of hungry seagulls, everyone on the beach swarmed around reaching out for the cool green bottle, elbows flying and mouths squawking.  Andy deemed that the second beer would be the prize for the winner of a surf contest held at that very moment.  The three most thristy surfers (Jamie, Brad and Chris Kelly) all grabbed their boards and darted off for their 15 minute winner-take-all final.

Chris struck first and jumped out to an early lead with a 6.5 right hander complete with a few slashes, a floater, and an amazing kickout.  Our panel of beach-chair judges were impressed.  Jamie, steaming with anger, pushed into a small but bowly right.  His turns were a bit flatter than Chris’s and the wave ended up mushing out, netting him a 5.0.  As time dwindled, Jamie thrust into a few more crumblers but couldn’t put together a score higher than a 3.5.  With just minutes to go, Chris snapped back with a huge 7.5 ride, taking him from jetty to jetty on a peeling right filled with numerous slashes and an inside 360.  After doing a little board-throw claim, Chris hurried out the back to sit on Jamie for the rest of the heat.

As time expired Chris came in to a beach full of admiring fans, got a few hugs, and signed a baby.  As Chris was recieving his first ceremonial lay of the night, Jamie was spotted out the back having a 2006 Kelly Slater pipe masters melt down, refusing to come in and face the shame he created for himself.  Brad had the worst showing known to man – think of Yadin Nichol in the US Open but much more embarrassing and with much more at stake.

Big thanks to Andy Carter for bringing down the prizes and huge thanks to his parents for buying and chilling the beer in the first place.  Stay tuned for the announcement of the trials event which will be held this winter to secure the wildcard spot in next years Heineken Challenge contest.

The trilling awards ceremony

A well deserved congratulations from the contest promoter

A worth prize for a true American champion

Scrot sweat and grovel sessions aside, summer also means one more thing: PARTY TIME!  Problem is, where should we party?  I’ll tell you where.  Someplace excessively warm. A place where the Budweiser flows like wine. Where uber-tanned fake brested women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talking about a little place called Margate.   Thats where Waynestock Beachstock was being held this past Saturday.

Beachstock sounds rad – live bands, good food, drinks on the beach, and lots of Gucci sunglasses.  It’s an all day affair, the highlight being the 3pm tow-at demo put on by the Heritage Team mere feet from oblivious swimmers.  With waist to chest high waves, clean conditions, and open sun, this year’s demo was prepping to be an epic one too.  Unfortunately, the winds came onshore, a tow rope was run over crippling one ski, and I parked at the wrong street and had to walk 2 miles on the beach and missed half the action.

At any rate, the Heritage Team knows how to put on a good show, and although it wasn’t perfect there were still plenty of tibia thrashing theatrics for the gaudy onlookers to enjoy.  Below is “Flyin” Ian Bloch, “Sandy Andy” Gesler, Jamie “Hard J” Moran, and “Slammin” Scott Drages.

Whip it good.

Satan Spawns are common occurrence in South Jersey

Only problem is that it waist high

Forget all these grabs and rotations, the new decade is all about the straight airs

Alley-oops are back too

Couldn't tell if they're directing an airplane or doing the Macarena

Drages' patented maneuver - high speed nosedive

This is actually pretty sick.

Only in Margate can a fro like that pick up ladies

Jamie Spotting that Landing

Freestylin Feetus Air

(Come back for comment - need to look this up)

Ankle Annihilator

Kinda Babes and Sorta Waves

Brace for impact

Go Pro fo sho

After a few hours, the typical haze that plagues that spot started to form.  Somehow it knows the exact path of the sun and with no other clouds in the sky, there manages to be a strip that blocks it all day and creates flat light which is less than optimal for shooting.  Typically I would be over shooting, but a few weeks earlier I had decided to pick up a new flash and housing so I decided to give it a swim in the evening.

Man did that end up being a good idea.  I’m pretty sure that single three hour swim resulted in more coverage then I’ve ever gotten in all my years of shooting combined.  First, there was an immediate Surfline swell gallery which ran many of the non-print-worthy shots, but those galleries typically get 50,000 views and most riders now have Surfline as part of their photo incentive contracts.  Jamie, Rob, Chris and Zack all got shots run in that one and hopefully got a little bit of cash from their sponsors for it.

Since that first Surfline run, I’ve sold photos from that day for an O’neill poster of Zack, a Billabong poster of Rob, and had a full page run in the Surfers Journal.   For those who don’t know, Jeff Divine  (OG surf photographer) is the photo editor of The Surfers Journal and getting a full page shot run by him has been the pinnacle of my surf photo career without a doubt.  The latest to get run from that swim was a flash feature in ESM which netted Brad a full page shot, and Jamie the cover shot when, by the grace of allah, the sun snuck out from under a cloud and I was able to get the lighting I hoped for all afternoon.

I couldn’t be more stoked to see everyone get great coverage from this day.  These guys all shoot with me often – trusting their time, jobs, and in some cases lives knowing that I will perform on the other side of the lens.  Admittedly, I don’t have as much pull with magazines and brands as other shooters do, but this crew continues to stick with me and it’s something I remember and appreciate.  When shots do get run, not only does it make me stoked to see my work in print, but to let the guys I’m shooting with know that there is an end product to all the hustling and madness we put ourselves through.

Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way with getting these photos run, and all the people who have taken the time and initiative to give feedback on the work – we see it all.  Hopefully this recent run will build my street cred even more with the editorial and advertising worlds and enable us all to continue to expand our Jersey surf empire and bring more visual treats and stories to those who aren’t fortunate enough to live it with us firsthand.

First Jersey ESM cover in a looong time.

Full page in The Surfers Journal - I got sucked over the falls in the next frame

Brad's Full Page in ESM - He's searching for sponsors people!

Not from our Super Session, but older one of Zack in Indo - Full Page ESM this Issue

ESM is celebrating its 20th year, and in honor of that they’ve made a mega collage of all kinds of former covers.  From my calculations, its damn near every cover they’ve ever had, but of course I’m stoked to be one of the people that have contributed to the success of that mag, which in turn has lead to success in my own photo career.

Bonus treat, check out the double page spread that Ocean Minded put out featuring other SC members Jamie, KR, and Chris.  Rich McMullin and I split the visuals – I got the portraits of Jamie and Chris as well as Jamie’s action shot.  Pretty stoked on this issue!

See the whole issue here: http://www.easternsurf.com/ISSUES/ESM_ISSUE_150/index.html

January 2011 issue of ESM

Top left, Highlighted in Red

The original cover for the a 2006 issue featuring Jersey.

Luckily I got extra use out of the Sears Fall Catalog shots I did with Jamie.

Come Wednesday night, it was clear that Thursday morning was going to be hell.  At 10pm, I brushed a few inches of snow off my car and headed out to pick up some pizza.  When I peeped out the door at 11pm, the snow I brushed off was replaced by literally 5 inches of snow.  5 inches in ONE hour.  Sweet.

I love snow – it covers up the dirt and grime of the city, and temporarily alleviates the hell that is living in a concrete jungle with below freezing overcast weather.  The city turns into a circus and comical situations go down around every corner.  Just the sight of mustache wielding hipsters sketching out trying to ride their fixed gears through slush makes my heart glow.  Best part is that I have a car with all wheel drive, and I’m not a complete retard, so driving in the snow usually isn’t that bad – FYI if you turn your steering wheel all the way over or are heavy on the gas pedal, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Woke up at 5:30am on Thursday morning and started checking the models, buoys, weather reports, road cameras, and Facebook (status updates are surprisingly one of the best wave reporting services I know of).  It was a dicey call, and I admit I did take a 15 minute nap to think it over / let my brother get a head start so I wasn’t checking every beachbreak on the Jersey coast.  Like a true city dweller, I used a broom to get the snow off my car – 18 inches, and only took a half hour.  The roads weren’t too shabby, until I got into Camden County.  Camden, I know you’re bankrupt but if you’re going to plow the roads at all, you might as well lower the plow to the ground, rather than plow the top 10 inches and leave 5 inches of hard packed slush on the road.  I’m not even talking about just back roads either, it was just as bad on 295 – an interstate highway and I’m going 23mph.  Blowing it.

3 Hours, multiple middle fingers, a sore voice from screaming at people, a near 40mph T-boning, and an ultimate punk rock playlist later, I rolled up to the infamously ironic “don’t label this in photos” spot.  Overhead and clean with snow on the ground and light offshore winds, not a soul out.  Praise Allah!  I actually had plans to be back in Philly at 1pm, so I thought I would only have time to shoot for an hour and be out so I didn’t bring a board or wetsuit.  I’m an idiot.  Of course the 1pm appointment got cancelled and I was able to hang around all day, but I only had gear to shoot land.

Come evening, I remembered the other plus of having 18 inches of snow on the ground – Urban shredding!  Hopped back in the car, waved to the friendly folks of Asbury Park, and headed back to the City of Brotherly Loathe.  After a quick peek of the Volcom contest – which was an awesome event: epic waves, slippa whacks, and freakin Wiggolly Dantas! – I headed out to Museum Mountain.  Urban shredding isn’t easy; you have to dodge police and security cameras, avoid sledding groms, and really get creative about how you can stunt off usually benign buildings.  Luckily I was with motivated crew, and although we’re not the Forum team of 2001, we still manage to get pretty wild out there.  We set up a few hits, got on a rail / wall or two, and capped the night at 1am with a dicey chute run that was never meant to ever be ridden down.

All said and done, it was a super long, very tiring, and productive day.  Check below to see some of the results, and hopefully I will be able to get the better shots (not shown here) run in some form or another.  Keep an eye out for the next snow storm as I’m sure we’ll get get more work done.  Oh wait, its literally snowing again as I write this.  Outta my way awkward neighbors shoveling snow from infront of your car and dumping infront of mine – Rocky statue here I come!

Bring It On.

Beautiful day to surf

Empty Tube.

Empty Tube #2.

Jamie may not have made this one...

When its cold, spitting tubes don't feel all that good.

Hope Ocean City was good and uncrowded...

He looks confused because this is when I told him I had to poop so badly that I didn't think I could make it to the car.

Occupied Tube.

Occupied Tube #2.

Thats some nice denim too.

Brad looking like hes escaping from prison

Wall Sliding - almost as fun as Ass Sliding.

Jesse's repertoire is a bit more old school - Indy Nosebone

Terje Haakonsen

Alex's Indy / Heisman

Safety Shifty? You got it.

Who's this Bad Mofo that keeps hitting me up?

Trust me that gap is huuuuuge.

This is the real art at the museum

Shout out to reader "BUllshitt": he wanted proof of our stories. See B? Proof it actually snowed!

People tend to get sentimental around the holidays.  We look back on the past year and reflect on both the good and bad.  Its human nature to remember the good times as being better than they really were, but in reality there are plenty instances where the good times really were that good.  This was the case with a quick trip I took down to Barbados last month.

My brothers, Chris Kelly, and Zack Humphreys and myself all jumped on a flight to go catch a NW shot of swell, hoping we’d score the West Coast of the island.  Between the five of us, we thought we’d combed through every inch of that island on past trips.  Turns out we were wrong as we still managed to find a few nooks that we’d never surfed before, and it was firing.  No need to rant about it, it was good, see the lineup below.

I realized that I’d never posted these photos as they’ve been locked up in hopefully getting run in print.  Still some of them are held up in that process, but when I got all sentimental this week, and started combing through old photos, these were ones I stayed on for a bit longer than others.  It was a shorter trip than I would have liked, and far from perfect, but it was undeniably fun and I’m ready to go back.

This was also the last time I was in the ocean – good god I need to get out of town and into warm water.

The first wave we checked

Jamie was out there quickly

Yep, time to go back.

First there was the late 80′s  and early 90′s where it was typical to wait an extra 6 months for a custom board to arrive so the shaper could send it out to have a radical custom airbrush put on.  Then came the 1996 where every bad ass surfer would finish watching Wardo in a Lost movie, grab a fat black marker, and go to town on the lower half of the bottom of their board – drawing squiggly lines with no real plan or concept.  Through most of the past decade, the trend was to have plain white boards.  Maybe it was because guys were going through so many experimental board designs they didn’t have time for art, or maybe it displayed confidence in their ability that they’d get a shot run even with a visually boring board.  Perhaps even a rebellion against the flamboyantly colored boards and wetsuits of the decade prior.

Nowadays, seems like the trend of grabbing a marker and going wild is back.  Dane and Dion decorate their boards with avant garde surf art and the rest of the Modern Collective crew plaster their gear with subtle political messages and flashy splashes of color.  As the adage goes, photo editors don’t want to see plain boards.  That seems to be true now more than ever.

In order to keep with the times, many of the SC crew started coloring their boards too.  Keenan went to town with florescent spray paint and Gesler invested heavily in paint markers.  My brother Jamie first started with drawings reminiscent of Cro-Magnon cave drawings but luckily his hours of work has finally started to turn out competent designs. The abundance of art supplies has spread the drawing habit through many of the rest of the crew, even myself.  Check out some of our new work below, and heres to hoping these boards don’t receive the paint curse and break within the first 10 waves.

An old school Rob Kelly design

Brad goes with shapes

...and hearts stars and rainbows

...and sports teams

...and an attempt to get a shot run by Jimmy Wilson

Jamie goes with shameless promotions - blabberboard.com board

Jamie was inspired by Brads shapes

Jamie's Best work - I Hate Technology

My first board drawing

Ironically I saved 3 different people from drowning on this board. Evil words = good Karma

Fall is the best time of year - a Jersey cliche´

This took way longer than I planned

Are you starting to see a pattern with my board themes?

Gesler's boards never fail to impress

If Technology is his life, and he hates technology, does he hate his life?

KR turns his delaminated boards into eyecatchers