You know that feeling when you wish you could’ve done something differently? Or you wish you were more experienced? Or you wish you started something sooner? Specifically, for me, it’s when I’ve been somewhere before and missed out on some great shots. That’s how I felt about Margaret River. But I was lucky to get another shot at it.
I’ve been to Western Australia before. It’s, hands down, one of my favorite parts of Australia. It’s so remote, and it’s so ethereal. But I was still in my early stages of photography when I first went. I didn’t embrace it while I was there. I was shooting with bad equipment with little knowledge on swimming and photography in general compared to what I know now. This trip was my redemption. I timed it perfectly: two days before the Championship Tour event, so I knew the pros would have their practice runs at The Box or Main Break.
This is the final Australian stop on the tour so it was my last chance. I had two years more experience of swimming heavy waves since I was last out west. I felt like I was ready to take on Margaret River, but I had no car. I had to focus on two spots that were closest to my house. The Box or Main Break. Which took a lot of sacrifice and meant I had to put my eggs in one basket, which is risky.
The Box was shockingly scary on my first day out. I woke up at the crack of dawn, and watched it and observed how other photographers and surfers were getting in and out. I remembered how far out they were, and I remembered I’ve never been two kilometers out to sea before. Every other break I’ve been to was close to land. You really feel one with the ocean when you’re that far out. I ended up following someone. But there was a certain technique to swimming out.
It’s like a maze: there’s many different pathways to follow the current out, so you kind of get lost. The swim was long, tiring and weird. There’s rocks sticking out in random places – you can basically stand in the middle of the sea. Which causes waves to break in random places and makes getting out difficult, especially on the first day I went out. I only stayed out for about two hours that session and got a sick sequence of Liam O’Brien.
The second day was cleaner and smaller, and more accessible so there were a lot more water photographers out this time. There were also boats and Jet Skis, which couldn’t make it the day before. A boat actually hit me as it was too close to the channel and sometimes there were rouge sets that ended up going into the channel.
Sometimes, when you’re swimming you randomly hit your leg on a rock, sending a shot of pain ricocheting through your body. Or when you’re trying to swim and a mysterious force paralyses your legs and traps them – it’s the rocks, I think, that create a wave inside a wave that pushes you back. When heavy water is going over shallow reef like that it boils up like crazy and the drop is so steep. I’m astonished how surfers do it.
The surf photography vibe out there was great. It’s nothing like Pipeline where it’s super competitive. Even when there was around eight guys out there was actually heaps of ways to get different shots because there’s so many spots to sit even though it’s only a right. I ended up shooting from a Jet Ski for the first time in my life, which was fun. And I ended up swimming for six hours straight. Getting in was easy this time. When you’re in Rome act like it – I asked people for help and it worked. In the end I was able to capture The Box on a pretty glorious day. This is what the beast looked like the day before the Margaret River Pro kicked off.
You can find more of Byron’s excellent work here.
