'Ma' Nature dishes out the Bitch Slaps!

Not sure about you guys n gals but I had a great weekend. A friend of mine had been on at me about a particular little spot he knows in Bali where when the correct conditions allow it gives rise to some incredible wave and rolling wave photo ops. I got the nod on Friday, things were looking good for Saturday morning, so with cameras prepped and ready I crashed out to images of nice big wave sets with cool barrel shots, I never realized just how much pain a 2ft wave could inflict!

I arrived at 'Spot X' on Saturday morning at around 7am, great light and a beautiful Ocean. This allowed me to get a good look at the subject for my imagery. OK, so it's a shore break, and I mean a shore break. These thick lipped little gems were literally barreling onto the sand at times, an incredible opportunity to get some different aspect shots of waves. Now there's no way these waves could truly be called surf waves, they form and then just roll over and close out with such rapidity meant that I spent most of the morning on my arse getting slapped repeatedly by such beautiful waves, I never knew I was into S&M until now!

We were happy with the wave shots from Saturday but on my return to the house and halfway through sorting out the imagery I got a call from my buddy to say that Sunday's prediction should be even better, and he wasn't wrong. Whilst the swell height had dropped a little and the tidal range had increased the lack of small onshore breezes meant that the Ocean was just flat like a mirror with the waves just rolling in perfectly. With the added issue of backwash, previous waves in the sets sliding back down the beach and into the Ocean to collide with the oncoming waves, gave rise to some pretty spectacular wave formations. It was all going perfectly, until mother nature decided to just let me know who was in charge here.

For all of this imagery I was standing in waist high water, reading the waves to know when to duck, when to dive through or when to crouch and wait for the impact. Well the image above was taken just a millisecond before that nice thick lip made contact with my, Gath helmet wearing, head. She knocked the crap out of me. I was literally picked up and taken over the top of the wave, almost like an aquatic body slam and placed firmly and squarely onto the beach, an involuntary sand blasting by the rushing water and it was over. The sweet lady left me as she receded back into the Ocean, taking with her a sizeable chunk of flesh from my right hip.

Check out the photo albums of both these days encounters over at my facebook page. Check here for Saturday's encounters and then here for Sunday's belters.

The image was taken using a Canon EOS 500D fitted with a Canon 15mm f2.8 fisheye and housed in a Liquid Eye surf housing.

Cheers and check back tomorrow for another Ocean Photo of the day.
Mark
liquidmocean