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This rip bowl formed at a beach that never gets good waves. But during one swell this spot was just firing for three days straight and then it just disappeared. That's what I love about shooting the ocean: it's forever changing, so when you get a rare spot doing it's thing out of the blue it's all the more sweeter. 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.