bex-617
Australia has miles and miles of sandy beaches that noone ever goes to, let alone surfs, so it amuses me when crew complains about the crowds. Normally you only have to walk 100 meters down a beach to get a wave to yourself. Just have to shift your attention away from the break right out the front of the beach carpark. Photo: Tom Woods
A portrait of the artist: Tom Woods.
I was about 14 and living in the wave-less city of Adelaide when I found a copy of Surfing World. This chance meeting with as second hand, dog-eared magazine would change the course of my life. It was the beginning! I looked into the pages of that mag and was hypnotized. The photography was incredible, it sucked me deep into the blue/green barrels, I read this mag over and over and then I slowly began the mission of experiencing the beauty of the ocean.
It was a year or so later when I rode my first green wall at a beach called Moana in South Australia. Even before that ride came to an end I knew this was going to be the life for me. I struggled on in Adelaide with my surf addiction for the next five years, doing the necessary long road trips to get my fix until my partner Sherrin and I packed up a little campervan and traveled around Australia. On our travels we picked the mid north coast (in New South Wales) as our new home. That was 14 years ago and I love this coastline more every day.
I now run a daily surf photo website called stsurfimages.com and facebook page called ST Surf Images which you can find here.