Surf's Up

Do you remember those times, either when you were a child or more recently as a parent, when the box was more interesting than the present that came in it? That's what it was like this afternoon at Boscombe Pier. The much criticised (by local council tax payers) artificial reef found itself on the leeward side of the pier, whilst the wind, the waves and the action were on the windward (Bournemouth) side. I couldn't help smiling it was one of those great British weather moments.

Anyway I tried my hand at photographing the surfer dudes and caught this action shot of one young lad which I have presented in suitably arty-farty format. How did I take this sequence I hear you cry (come on it's nearly pantomime season). Well I'd like to say I was dangling from a rope ladder held beneath a helicopter with my camera in one hand and a can of shark repellent in the other, truth is I was stood on the pier. You knew that anyway but it was just a lame excuse to show this, one of my all-time favourite clips of how to deal with big fish.