Waterwalls

Rob, a good friend from New Zealand, is a real life example of how stoked a surfer can be.

Some of you might remember him from his  visit to Greece last year, or from a post we uploaded, “Friends Overseas” of him sharing his thoughts about Greek surfing.

To make a long story short, Rob became a dad some days ago. The day after his beautiful daughter Chloe was born, the best swell of the year reached his home break. While in the hospital, as his wife and new daughter were asleep, he managed to steal 30min to hit the beach,  scored 4 perfect waves and got back in time to take care of his family. That’s the definition of stokeness!

Congratulations Rob on your help in the labour room and your time in the green room! W²

Here is one of the waves..

I’m sure lots of you dream of visiting a tropical place, surfing your ass off and fooling around with pros…

Well thats pretty much what those guys did. Two Greeks, Konst. Kourkoulis and Katastrofeas, who visited Bali during the mid August for two weeks, instead of hunting the beach breaks in Greece during the “meltemia” season. They surfed waves from 3 to 9ft  (1 to 3mtr), in spots like Impossibles, Middle reef and Canggu, got the chance to meet Jamie O’Brien and had a pose shot taken to brag about.

Here are some photos of their trip..   W²

Agi Kolyvas, was lucky enough to be at the right place and time, to capture some great shots of Othonas Mentis, in Crete. Here is what he wrote and shot:

Agis Kolyvas, many of you might already know, is a surfer and a pretty good photographer. But we are not gonna blabber about it. We gonna let his pictures do the talking as well as a mini interview we prepared.

W²: Being a surfer and all, how come you managed to put photography above surfing?  I mean we all like surfing photos but none of us is willing to shoot when the conditions are good.

A.K.: I surf badly for quite some time now and i always liked surf photography. I used to look at Patrick Trefz’s, Tim Mc Kenna and Craig Peterson’s photos for hours, i guess i have the “bug” to capture the moment. I love the sea, love to travel and i love the traditional greek villages of this country. Now i have the luxury to choose when to go shoot on the water, i like cooperating with surfers and i guess this needs to be done if you want to have good pictures. Most surfers in Greece, they dont grasp the idea of surf photography very well, i dont blame them, but most of our favorite pictures are being totally directed rather than spontaneous. When i first got on the water with a camera surfers were like “oh whats that?”, or even trying to avoid me. There is no such frame of mind because we dont have any pros. But its cool. I prefer watching everyday people progressing and developing style rather than watching people trying to turn pro.

W²: What did you start doing first, surfing or photography? How did you end up combining them?

A.K.: I watched surf live for the first time on Padang-Padang actually on a holiday as i graduated from university! I was blown away for life! When i came back to Scotland where i was living at the time i got my self a board and started traveling around the North Shore of Scotland, places like Machrahanish, Pease Bay, Gravyards, Thurso and Tiree island. Scotland is ridiculous with waves! Cold, thick, gasping barells at its best. I wasnt shooting pictures at the time. Then i was out of the water for 2 years living in Germany and when i got back to Greece i started geting on the water again. I did a trip to Portugal with Tsitsi, Loukas, Carlo, Xroni and Danae and did my first water shots on a custom made soft housing. After that im trying to be in the water as much as my time alows me, which is not enough because i hate cars and i rely on other people’s lifts. Hopefully with the help of WaterWalls ill be in the water more.

W²:  Did you ever had any problems in the water? A photographer in the line up is not something you see everyday in Greece.

A.K.: I’ve never had any serious problem in the water. Usually people go straight at me and i dive! Had  fins + boards hitting me a couple of times but thats about it.

W²: Agi’s everyday life?

A.K.: Im an urban cyclist, riding my fixed gear pista bike, bombing hills with Fixed Gear Athens crew (http://athensfixedgear.com/) and mashing through traffic. I was involved in a cycle movie called “ATH: Commuting in Athens”, a movie which i produced and was directed by Harris Skaftouros. I help out riding for Bondex Courriers (http://bondexcouriers.com/) whenever I can and I am setting up a bicycle project space called “48X17″, that would specialize in fixed gear, cyclocross, urban racers and all sorts of urban bikes. It will be ready in September/October stocking FGA’s prototype frames built by Yorgos Vogiatzis including Christian Manousarides “Stanley” prototype frame. So I will be expecting you all!

W²: Where can we see you photos?

A.K.: You can see my photos at http://grsurfphotos.tumblr.com/ , its not a real blog, I update only when i have new shots.

W²: Anything else you’d like to add?

A.K.: There is only one rule in surf photography: WHEN ITS GOOD YOU SHOOT, WHEN ITS CRAP YOU SURF. W²

Perhaps things are not getting along between Greece and Germany, financially speaking.
But we are glad to know that there are still German people who really enjoy being on Greek ground and share beautiful moments with us. This is a story of a German guy named Maik,  a photographer, who visits Greece every year with his family.
Maik’s son, Finn was introduced to surfing two years back here in Greece and we are stoked to have him among us in the line up.

Finn, fooling around during a flat day

Here is a “short story” from photographer Maik Scharfscheer through some of his own pictures.   W²

Visit www.maik-scharfscheer.com for more of Maike’s work.