the best year of my life and shit

this year has been the most positive one of my life to date, attributable to many fucking glorious minutes, trips and friends!

beware: this is a solid rant of the past year

this time last year i was in a pretty bad rut and wasn't really going anywere fast so i decided to enroll in a pointless tafe course mainly just to give me something to do/get the parents into a more relaxed state of parenting and hopefully help me find out what i really wanted to do down the road.. fortunately 6 weeks in a realized i'd be more productive sweeping streets than sticking to this course and with that i was back doing what i seemed to do best- work in between trying to find waves.

And the waves were flowing thick and fast as this years autumn was glorious! almost every week we had a decent ground swell coming through. Heading up to clown-town twice/thrice a week was commonplace and i was back on careless-joy street. Around this stage i'd lucked onto a certain ledge that rarely breaks and until i saw visions 1 a few months ago- wasn't sure wether it had been surfed properly. I named it clegs, although it's most likely got a proper name this name (for those privvy) is a pun with more levels than a $250'000 lasagne.

This wave isn't really a wave nor is it 'surfable'.. but i tried, and scored and over the next 2 months surfed it whenever the tide was proper full. Then one morning (1.5 heads)- my insanely long run of luck got pushed to the point of breaking and i hit the bottom pretty bad- lots of blood and stitches later we were driving back to Brisbane when i realised that i'd lose my shit without the temporary use of my leg..

thankyou sam for getting me to the hosp and buying me a burger

trying to outlast a solid stint of disability-induced boredom i decided to go down the coast to mindsurf myself to malevolent madness.. I called up a good friend on the goldy and to see if he wanted a lift down to the superbank to which his response was 'i like the smell of mangroves, i think it's the musty-ness.. my grandma's house smells like must, i like must' and with that i dropped past his house and headed down the coast. In an effort to stave my boredom he let me use his dSLR while he surfed.. 2 and a half hours of over exposing half of the shots, struggling with motion blur and focus i somehow got hooked harder than that time i was pretending to be a fish.

from that first day, thankyou jordan :)

3 days later i went down to ted's camera warehouse and bought my camera- nikon d60 with twin lens kit (non-vr) this was in mid april and since then nothing has been the same.. my camera has been beside me for everything and captured some, in my opinion, pretty sweet stuff that, had i never almost lost my mobility, would never have been able to capture (u see all of those commas!?). i've bought a flash, borrowed a fisheye, dropped my lens in the river, borrowed a lens and dabbled in film (35mm and disposables) and i love the fact that i've got SOO much more to learn and use.. i don't think i've ever loved anything like i have my camera. for the past 7-8 months i feel i've not only developed as a person that pushes a button but also a person that doesn't push a button.

my very first photo- _DSC0001.. i'm up to11'000 now

i've got so much to bring away from this year, i wish i'd kept a journal....

i want to thank all of the people that have made this year so amazing! these are the spooks that help make my life so fun and strange.. i don't know if they'll read this but to lewy, steve, kane, sam, mitch and pyle- you guys are too good at life, it sucks.. the gt crew- you peeps are all fucking creeps but it's sweet that we are all losing our sanity together. big lewy, jimmy! and richie- you guys are rediculous and too much fun. the chac kids! red, jack, josh, seb, ross and everyone. everyone at splendour and straddie.. i definitely forgot names but not to worry, as most of you would know- i forgot your name when you finished telling me, i wish i could remember names and where i met people better.. and of course, all of the people i've met, forgot, hurt, let down and taught to do something differently and lasty- most importantly, anyone that got a smile/laugh/feeling out of me, my photos or my creepyness. i wish you everything i can- stay safe and don't stop smiling

the first of many shoots i'd do with kane, i'll never forget these

this is a shot from the first time i ever had the urge to go somewhere and do nothing but walk around a shoot..

sam best at some dub
(taken by Megan Cullen the best photographer i've met
she pretty much single handedly got me into photography, just by being at a show)

kane henderson- you're too suave

left to right: jimmy, richie and tom at splendour

mitch, those of you who know him will understand

pyle and khradams: epi-glory-tome

steve- *noise


LEWY!



chac kiddies!!



7-11 day


ruby you fat peice of shit, lose some weight you pig


and thanks to all of you people that looked at my photos or creeped my rants!
have a glorious night and a more gloryer year
take care <3


oops! i forgot to wave..