Keahi De Aboitiz punting here there & everywhere...

Cabrinha kitesurfing team riders,  Keahi De Aboitiz, Jamie Barrow & Geoffrey “Chuck” Waterson, stopped by Wellington yesterday on their 2011 Cabrinha TOUR of DUTY road trip from Christchurch to Auckland in New Zealand.

First stop was the new WildWinds store in the city for a meet & greet before heading out to check out some of the beaches in the Wellington area. After checking out Plimmerton, the Cabrinha crew settled on Titahi Bay just over the hill. They we greeted with 20-25 knot wind & an increasing 2-3 foot surf. The boys rigged up the latest Cabrinha kites & hit the surf, swapping between twin tips & surfboards throughout the session.

Jamie Barrow getting some height & grabbing the nose.

Keahi & Jamie were getting some major height boosting off the waves on their twin tips & Geoffrey “Chuck” Waterson was seriously throwing water, slashing any faces he came across with his board. Keahi then came in & grabbed the surfboard and was punting off any lip he found, pulling off a heap of strapless airs and a few air reverses too. The boys are back on the road again now heading north to Auckland – I hope they score a heap more wind & waves along the way.

You can check out the photos from the session below, or go directly to the gallery here to see them higher res.

Cabrinha Tour of Duty 2011 | Wellington | New Zealand – Images by Mark Gee

Shane Anderson from Kitesurf Nelson getting some major air at Lyall Bay in Wellington, New Zealand

A few months ago I was in the market for a new housing for my canon 7d. I did my research & settled on a CMT water housing from the US. They were fantastic, & kept me informed all the way through the building process of my housing. Finally it was finished & shipped arriving on my door step just in time for the weekend. The housing exceeded my expectations & my 7d fitted into the carbon fiber body like a glove. I was very keen to take it out & get some shots with it that weekend.

Unfortunately the surf wasn’t playing nicely & the forecast was for pretty much no waves & a strong cold southerly wind. All was not lost though, because a strong cold southerly in Wellington, New Zealand means that the kiteboarders will be out in force. I headed down to the beach & there were already a dozen or so kiteboarders out playing amongst the pretty much non-existent surf. I loaded the camera into the housing, doing all the pre-seal housing checks, suited up in my wetsuit & booties & was out there. I went with the canon 50mm/f1.4 lens instead of the canon 15mm fisheye, & the 50mm fits snugly into the same dome port as the fisheye does. I choose this lens because in the kind of conditions that there were that day, you usually don’t get close enough to the kiteboarders to warrant the use of a fisheye. Sure I would have gotten a few photos where they would have been close enough, but not as many as I did get with the 50mm.

The day was overcast & grey so there wasn’t much colour around. I walked out to chest deep water & started shooting as the kiteboarders buzzed around me. I was pleasantly surprised as to how light the housing was how comfortable it felt when holding it by the pistol grip. I missed a few good shots while I was sorting out my camera settings, but once I had them I pretty much just shot away for an hour or so. I exposed for the kiters & let the sky blow out a bit. As it was fairly overcast, the sun was filtering through the clouds & was just like a big soft box in the sky.

When it came to processing the images, I played with a few colour options, but decided to do the whole set of images in black & white, as the softer lighting & lack of colour suited them more so than if they were in colour. I was happy with the final result, & the kiteboarders were pretty happy too – some of those pics would look fantastic as a large print…

Check out the slideshow below of the 32 images, & if you want to see a larger version of them, then either click on the image itself, or click here for the whole gallery.

Kiteboarding | Wellington | 01 May 10 – Images by Mark Gee

Courtesy of New Zealand Kiteboarder Magazine - Strapless kitesurfing article I wrote & contributed photos to.

As a few of you would know as well as being passionate about photography, I’m also a mad keen kitesurfer & occasionally I will write articles & contribute to various magazines. I wrote this article for the November edition of New Zealand Kiteboarder late last year & also contributed a few photos to the article.

Strapless kitesurfing (or waveriding) is where you basically pull yourself onto a wave with the power of a kite whilst riding a surfboard & then surf the wave on the surfboard without any straps binding you to the board – it sure beats paddling for a wave & its a great alternative to surfing when the waves are totally blown out by the wind.

Unfortunately I can’t claim the main photo of Ben Wilson charging at P-Pass in the Caroline Islands. That is courtesy of Ben Wilson Surf, but the top two insert photos are mine & credit also goes to Willie Davenport of Marvel Media for the one of me at the bottom.

To shoot these kinds of photos you need a relatively long lens & a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. The photos I shot were with a 400mm lens & a shutter speed of around 1/1000 of a second.

You can download the pdf of the article for a read here. The quality of the photos in the pdf aren’t that great because of the scan, but in the magazine they looked fantastic!

Pedro Barros on the podium at Wellington Bowl-A-Rama 2010

Well I’ve finally gone through, sorted & processed the photos I shot at the Wellington Bowl-A-Rama. It was certainly a fun & action packed shoot. Congratulations must also go to Brazilian Pedro Barros, who not only took out the Wellington event, but backed up this weekend to take out the Bondi event too – see I told you he was a freak!

You can check out the Wellington Bowl-A-Rama photos that I shot (all 96 of them) here, or just click on the photo of Pedro about to receive his winners check in Wellington above.

I’ve also included a slideshow of the photos below, and if you want to see a higher resolution version of any photo in the slideshow, you can just click on that image to see it.

Don’t forget to check out the previous days blogs: Day 1 & Final Day

Skateboarding | Wellington Bowl-A-Rama 2010 – Images by Mark Gee

Brazilian Pedro Barros mid rotation during a 540 at Wellington's Bowl-A-Rama

As a photographer, you get to see & photograph lots of great events, this year’s Bowl-A-Rama was no exception. But the highlight for me was definitely seeing & photographing 14 year old Brazilian, Pedro Barros tear it up in the bowl. Pedro ended up taking out the pro division at the 2010 Wellington Bowl-A-Rama event & it was a title he certainly earned.

The kid is a freak…He started riding a skateboard at 2 years old & turned pro the middle of 2009 going on to win the Rock the Cradle contest in Texas in October of that year. I’m sure he has a big future ahead of him. In the pro final jam, Pedro went up against seven other skaters, all of them pushing the limits, but the standout was certainly Pedro. He has a smooth yet aggressive style, & was pulling off huge airs & 540′s wowing the crowd with every move. Brazil dominated the competition with fellow Brazilian, Otavio Neto placing second in the pro final & American Josh Borden taking out third.

I decided to shoot the final jam with a longer lens to get a little closer to the action. The edge of the bowl was pretty crowded with other photographers, so I tried to go for a few different angles rather than the normal wide lens bowl side type shots. I shot with a canon 70-200mm/f2.8 lens using a ND filter on it so I could open the aperture wide open to try to separate the skaters from the crowd. Following the action in a bowl was a little tricky with the longer lens, but I managed to get a few decent shots in.

I ended up with over 400 shots as well HD video footage shot with the canon 7D & fisheye lens, so I’ve got a fair bit of sorting & editing to do. I’ll post the rest of the photos once I get through the lot! But in the meantime make sure you scroll down to see a few photos from the finals jam.

You can also check out some of the action from day 1 here.

A complete set of photos can now be seen here, or check out the photo blog here.

Red Bull gives you wings...Pedro Barros backside air at the Wellington Bowl-A-Rama

Pedro Barros frontside air off the bowl

Brazilian Otavio Neto took out second place in the Wellington Bowl-A-Rama pro final

First round action at Bowl-A-Rama - Wellington's Argentinean import, Diego Casal with a frontside grab

Day 1 of Bowl-A-Rama 2010 kicked off at the Waitangi Park skate bowl in Wellington today. Rain threatened earlier on, but held off for just enough time to run a few rounds.

I went bowl side with the 15mm fisheye lens & off camera flash to shoot the action of some of the best skaters in the world. The guys were really pushing out there today & livening it up for all of us shooting photos & videos bowl side. And believe me you have to get within a meter & less of the guys to get a good shot with the fisheye, but the results are certainly worth it.

The above photo was shot with the canon 70-200mm/f2.8 so I was at a reasonable distance away from the action for that one, but the two photos below were shot with the fisheye.

I’ll be back for the finals action tomorrow – lets hope the weather holds!

You can now check out some of the finals day action here.

A complete set of photos can now be seen here, or check out the photo blog here.

I was asking for a skateboard in the head with this shot...Brazillian rider Otavio Neto getting height with a frontside air

There was some great light in the bowl late afternoon - the off camera flash added to it. Otavio Neto with a 5-0 grind

Ethan Burge getting air & throwing the tail around at Lyall Bay, Wellington, New Zealand

A sneaky ground swell off the south eastern coast of New Zealand pushed into Lyall Bay in Wellington for one day of pumping surf. It was a great start for waves in Wellington & hopefully this year will be much better than last.

Unfortunately I got there a little late that day to get the best of it – they tell me it was barreling off its nut on the incoming tide that morning, but this is what I managed to shoot that day.

Click here or the image above to go to the galleries. There are 47 images in total.

Two Lyall Bay Surf Life Saving Club board paddlers head out for a late afternoon training session.

It was a late afternoon, a light southerly breeze blowing & salt haze blanketed Lyall Bay. I headed onto the beach to see what I could capture – initially it was surfing – but the Lyall Bay Surf Life Saving Club was out in force on their training afternoon with swimmers, board paddlers, boaties & even the IRB. The light was fantastic & wasn’t going to last much longer, so I headed up the beach to the East of the surf club & shot away. Click on the above image to view the images.

Brandon Kingi lining the lip up in the mens open final.

It was the final comp of the year for the Wellington Boardriders, & the day was looking like it was going to provide some decent waves. The location was set for the corner at Lyall Bay & on arrival the waves were a little onshore & chunky. I thought about heading out into the water to shoot some of the action, but it was cloudy & overcast to start with & the conditions weren’t that great. So I set up on the beach with the 500mm & the 1.4 teleconverter to get a little closer to the action. I was also shooting with the new canon 7D which was a dream to shoot with.

By mid morning, the wind had started to drop & the swell was cleaning up. I had to rush back to work to do a few hours on the Avatar deadline, but once I got back later that afternoon I was greeted with clean 3 foot plus waves on an incoming tide that were lining up nicely off the wall. The finals were just about to start, so I found a spot further down the beach where I could shoot at a nice angle & started to shoot away. The day had cleared up nicely & by the time of the mens final, the light was fantastic! I managed to get some great shots during the finals & that was also thanks to the great surfing of the guys & gals.

Charlie Denniston narrowly took out the open mens final with a impressive display of fast & powerful surfing, however the highlight for me was Brandon Kingi’s smooth surfing style & how he put it all on the line in the final with a series of radical vertical snaps where he absolutely destroyed the lip of the wave.

The day finished off with the presentation in the carpark. There were certainly some nice photo opportunities with the backdrop of the surf & surrounding hills around Lyall Bay & the fantastic light of the magic hour…Click on the image of Brandon Kingi above to see the full gallery of photos.

Greg McKinley flying high above Lyall Bay.

Wellington, New Zealand is known worldwide as the windy city. This also makes it the perfect place for wind sports such as kitesurfing. I am a little biased with the subject of kitesurfing as this too is one of my passions. So that is probably why I don’t have a large collection of kitesurfing photos that I have taken myself, as I’m usually out there amongst it all.

However, his particular day I had already been out at Lyall Bay & two of the other Wellington local guys were setting up & about to head out themselves. So I headed home, grabbed my camera & headed back to the beach to shoot some of the action. Click on the image above to go to the rest of the gallery.