Manu Roberts on dawn patrol by tail v2.0 The surf was super fun last night at Piha, I surfed, didn't shoot. El Nino is not kind to Piha surfers, persistent onshores and just that little bit too big and junky for anything other than a high tide despo' . The evening's chats in the water were thematic about a good surf 2 weeks ago, then only one more ok one the fortnight prior. That it's been the worst summer ever for waves at Piha. It wasn't, but it sure sits in that bracket. Good surf last night, hyped for the dawnie then right? Yep. 7am revealed the usual, the promised offshore was over-ridde ..read more

Piha Layers in all it's golden glory So many hats worn over the last week, I got to be a surf-photographer [see last week's post about the Aotearoa School Surf Fest HERE] surfed [badly], shot a beautiful Piha home for THE local architect, wrangled print commissions and even started the End of Year Tax reccy, shit, so grown up.  This guy. Rolling off the Epson on canvas at 2400mm long x 800mm high. Going to need a bigger cutter! This one is for an Albany client with deep westie roots. Of course this fella is no stranger to going big... Arguably the most prestigious install, i ..read more

This week, Maori Bay Boardriders hosted the inaugural New Zealand School Surfing Festival. It's a great concept, and the first one held Tuesday and Wednesday was a huge success. Briefly, SNZ reached out to the High Schools of Aotearoa last year and invited them to enter teams into the event, under 18 boys and girls. The format for the two days is Tag Team. Tag Team has been around since the 80's [maybe longer] and it's a really effective way to move surfing events away from the individualism of competition. The team of five surfers have to work together in the 50 minute heat to win, waves are ..read more

Yess! The latest issue of Submachine Magazine  ..and there's a 8 page feature of PhotoCPL images in it!  Love the extra leg in this shot!  The future is bright The Champs! Pia and Maya And deeennn, virtually on Pacific Longboarder; a nice wrap up of the 10th Annual Loggerheads  Sadly there is no surf magazine in New Zealand anymore. We have a rich history of surf publications dating back to the 1960's. At the height of print we had two bi-monthly glossy titles, New Zealand Surfing Magazine and Kiwi Surf Magazine both successfully vying for readership and lucrative ad ..read more

I remember talking to Pete Morse [RIP] about swells off the back of a High Pressure System. I never got it, still don't, but accepted it was a thing. For fourteen glorious days the east coast's glorious swell run. The best possible version of ground hog days, 2-3 foot glassy walls every dawny, the sea breeze signalling time for second breakfast. Repeat. 20 years a part! Both are available for print, just click on the image to check out the options.  There was work done too, the best sort. You can check out the Billabong/Oceanbridge Whangamata Grom Comp photos on Facebook HERE And then ..read more

oooossh somebody [me] has been getting their pano game back on It has been a minute aye! And unapologetically so, January is holiday month in Aotearoa. I love that you can't get anything done in January, plan for it, roll with it, celebrate it. The gorgeous Ange and I did. After recovering from hosting family Christmas we spent 12 glorious days in the camper, in the Far Far North. Ironically it's with half of Piha, again something to celebrate, far from home but with your mates and neighbours. Normally it's a hard out surf camp, there's always waves in the FFN. Not so much this time ..read more

Here we are firmly in the tail end of 2023, pretty sure we are all starting to focus on the work wrap up, the Christmas organising and then the light at the end of the tunnel... HOLIDAYS!!!!  But before the hol's, you have to get through gift giving and getting, food comas and probably an accidental hangover or 3. I can't help with comas and toxic poisoning, but I can with that gifting and giving bit. You may not know this but PhotoCPL makes books. There's been a few made since 2008, 11 plus reprints and side projects like Notecard Sets and Print Sets  The books are sold nationwide ..read more

Lines stretching and bending under friction  Expectations were high for last week's swell, with a period starting at 22 seconds, later degrading to 18 seconds, it was looking like the Point swell of the season. It didn't pan out like that, but it sure got hyped. It was a beautiful swell, of course there were moments of pumpingness. That's a new word by the way, working on getting it added to the Oxford. But it was fleeting, and the stinger; probably around 10pm-midnight would have the perfect combination of swell peak and tide. cleaning up and pushing through Surfers aye; if we've ..read more

What a bunch of fine specimens, NZ's best surfers assembled for the Integrated Training workshop, spearheaded by Surfing New Zealand with funding from the Olympic Committee This shouldn't be a tough post to write, there's so many positive angles to take: SNZ's championing and execution of elite athlete development. The fact that the Olympic Committee funded the workshop. That the workshop was conducted by one of my close mates Woody [and Emma of course] - That their business and their vision is thriving. Oh, that another close mate Jemarl Paerata's business, Te Kaiarahi was also inv ..read more

A bunch of good bastards L to R, Daniel Kereopa, Chrissy Malone, Deano Morrison, Tama, John John Florence, Eric Knuston, Tai, Tana Clapham and in the foreground Ikey Morrison, Koro; Miha Graham and Kahu Graham.    It's not too often that a surf trip is a fail. More to the point, the fails aren't talked about. The worst kept secret in the country was that John John Florence was in town. He wasn't here to do a promo trip or a photoshoot. Any surfing was a bonus. I did have an inside track, an invite to join, but knowing it wasn't s'possed to be a photoshoot put me at odds. I didn't wa ..read more