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The Vision

mood-blog

I love talking about the topic of life with people. It’s refreshing, it gives you a bit of an idea into someones mind, what they enjoy, how they spend their time and more importantly how they would like to spend their time.

How you spend it and how you would like to spend it is usually two quite different things. Insert the Allan Watts saying “If it weren’t for money, how would you spend your time?” or words to that effect.

In this very modern and technologically advanced age we now have the opportunity to create our own opportunities. Modern marketing and advertising is/has changed so much so that almost anyone with some marketable talent has the very real opportunity to live their dream.

I’m talking about solo sport athletes, artists, photographers and creators in general. I believe this so firmly that I’ve backed myself to make it happen (can probably argue that it already has) and would love to work with younger people prepared to create their own opportunities.

The task with younger people is sadly their parents. Yes the ones who care for them are usually the biggest opportunity squasher when it comes to younger people. Their views are 30 years old and most seem terrified of failure. Failure and success is of course for 99% of people measured by a monetary figure.

For those of you who disagree with that click on this video and listen to the part very carefully about the back up plan!

For older people or should I say people of my similar age, we seem to have simply forgotten about the dream. The one day is always one day. Too hard.

The last week has been on. Full on. It’s that time of year where things start to kick off and I don’t have time for no fun. Yes no fun. I have time for fun, not no fun. Saturday was an interesting day with work and the rest of the day spent huddled under a tent shooting Thundercats

Find the video in full and blog post here

Sunday I managed to shoot a little bit of wakeboarding on the sly and after looking at the footage it makes me want to shoot it properly.

So Mr Know It All, what is your idea? Long term I would like to build a team of people who are out there doing it! I chatted to someone this week and said if you had a bunch of guys prepared to put the time in over the course of Summer, you will all end up making money and building aplatform where you can all do it all and pay the bills from it.

The bill payment part of it is key as this one small part of it brings it wayyyy up the ladder of priorities.

Feel free to leave me your thoughts. If you would like to know more about this “team” then let me know.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

 

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Orewa Thunder!

Last Saturday was fun! I spent the majority of the day huddled under a tent shooting footage of fast boats racing each other in the surf!

One flipped during practice and there was some tight racing. I am of course talking about Thundercats and the reason I was huddled under a tent was because it rained and blew the whole time, straight onshore. A good bit of fun for the boats but it made my job pretty difficult.

This meant no drone which I was the most excited for and I shot the day fully on my A6000 switching between a high speed shutter for stills and a much slower shutter for video. It performed surprisingly well so here is the video!

Some pictures from the day

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More pictures are on my Facebook Page.

Looking forward to the next one!

See you at the beach.

-Sam

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Rise & Grind

hitr-blog

Spring is here and this means it’s time to get a move on. Board prep for the season has started this week which means trying to get back in a bit of a routine as well as dust. A lot of dust!

Stock taking and working out where all my tools are is how this week has been. The boards are looking sharp but not, quite, sharp, enough. I’m going to be making a couple of small changes to a couple of the models but that will happen more behind closed doors.

Last Saturday was a day of dust and board prep, followed by a fairly average (but keen) surf.

Sunday we were off early on the hunt for some skim, surf or winch fun. We were flexible and the weather unexpectedly bad

I’m heading off to the first club meet for the Thundercat season this morning which I’m looking forward to except for the rain. It’s looking to worsen but that’s been the story of the year it seems.

Completely off topic but the picture for this blog post if at Caoe Brett last year which I’m itching to get out there to dive and shoot the place all over again so if you’re keen then let me know!

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Alive in New Zealand Ep 2

glide-blog

Did you know that New Zealand has a lot more than just mountains and hobbit holes?

I do and when a lot of people shudder at the thought of Winter, I get out there and enjoy it. The best thing about Winter is that there’s more people inside which means more room for us to do our thing.

Those things include skimboarding, surfing, spearfishing, winching and of course trying to get it all in front of people. The month of August was spent doing exactly that with the bonus of some big fish and even bigger ocean going mammals. Sit back and enjoy episode 2 of Alive in New Zealand!

Ideas are flowing and so is the content. Who wants to get involved?

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Close To Perfection

boat-point-2-blog

They say nothing is perfect. I agree.

I’m going to use this in context about talking about the perfect life. What would it be? I know what it would be for me but then I know once you get there your needs have changed.

Unlike most people I don’t place monetary objects at the top of my priority ladder. You couldn’t pay me enough to work for months or years (as seems the case) on end with no time to do the things I enjoy. Just nope.

Freedom would be at the top of the list. Being able to drop the tools and go wherever whenever is the dream for me and what I would come very close to describing as perfection. That however is a very difficult task to master as everything costs and bills need to be paid.

The last week has been about just that. The weather is showing signs of drying up and the last weekend the sun was out for the whole thing! Saturday kicked off with an early morning Golf Course shoot which I have since blogged about followed by a solid fish smoke and dive!

Sunday one of my very few female subscribers stopped by with the intent of going out and seeing what all this spearfishing was about. It did NOT disappoint!

What an absolute ripper of a time. The work is flowing and I’m just waiting for the perfect time to drop the tools again!

If you’re around and would like to join in on the fun then get in touch. That welcome has been extnnded for about 8 years now!

See you at the beach.

-Sam

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My First Taste Of A Golf Course Focused Edit

My first real memory of playing golf was standing in the grassed reserve across the road from our house. Dad told me to hit the ball back towards the house. “What if I hit the house?” A cautious Sam asked.

“Don’t worry you won’t” A foolish father replied.

A bounce off the driveway and that’s how I broke my first ranchslider window.

two-ducks-blog

The spot I hit that ball from is pretty much directly under the 1st green at Omaha Beach Golf Club which is in the video.

I spent years playing golf and working here so it seems somewhat fitting to now be shooting images of the place. I’ve actually featured the course in plenty of footage before but haven’t done anything Golf Course specific so here it is. It’s not much but I’m working on something much bigger then intend to hit a lot of the clubs up for similar content!

Looking forward to shooting more images of these highly manicured patches of grass so stay tuned.

See you at the beach!

2nd-blog

-Sam

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Creating Your Own Lifestyle Business

I spoke to someone earlier on the phone this week who summed something up for me really well! I’ve spoken to him a few times since as I’m doing some printing for him but he told me that I have “a great little lifestyle business going”.

flip-blog

It was something so small and simple but it was a light bulb moment for me. I’ve always struggled to explain what I’m really going for here with my business.

I know for a FACT, that I don’t want to be placed in my little cubicle for the next forty years and be told when I can have a day off. I also have a very similar attitude towards a relationship.

I do know I want to work really hard on my own projects and interests but also have the flexibility to take some time whenever I really want. Monetizing or at least trying to monetize most of my actions also helps a lot and I use pretty much everything as branding and marketing for the business.

For example last Saturday action started with a dive, then we went winching under the bridge

Sunday I did some work! Yes work, then some recovery

I talk to quite a few people about doing what they love and I’m a firm believer that in this day and age you can truly make a job and/or business out of anything. The catch is, it’s just not easy to do! I may highlight some points on this in the near future.

A creative lifestyle business is now how I explain what I do. It has a certain ring to it that I’ve been looking for for some time!

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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August Moisture

It is now Spring and you know what that means?!

Wind and hay fever! Awesome. It also means the days are getting longer and the weather warmer 🙂

Find out below what went down in August, she was a beaut!

Vlog of the month

Picture of the month

Park up blog

Hopefully I’ll see more of you at the beach!

-Sam

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You’ve Been Warned

I remember the very first Tsunami warning I experienced. No idea what year it was but it was probably about 2009. I was working at the Golf Course and the volunteer fire brigade came into Omaha and told us to evacuate the course. For reeeeeeal?

Nothing happened and with several warning over the next year or so it actually lessened the credibility of it all. Then in Omaha and I believe around most coastal towns they erected Tsunami sirens. Big structures that they seem to love testing on Long weekends just so everyone knows the drill.

DCIM100GOPROG0010453.

Last night they issued a Tsunami warning after a 7.1 magnitude off the East coast which brings me to my actual point here. I’m a very heavy sleeper but I certainly did not here boo from those sirens. Maybe the person who’s meant to push the button was also asleep?

The last week as usual has been spent in the water. I even manged a bonus vlog on a very wet Thursday of my first Thundercat experience

Saturday was full on action with skimboarding, podcasts and Orca!

Sunday was dive and adventure day. No fish but look at the place we live!

I have some pretty fun projects on the go, one of which is Tsunami proofing my gear. Until then I will sleep with a life jacket on.

Orca 5 blog

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Adventure NZ Podcast #3 Shaping Surfboards With Morris Surfboards

Matt Surf Hang blog

Surfing has consumed a reasonably sized portion of my life since a young age. I consider it one of the big four interests in my life.

Shaping and the industry is always a fun topic so I figured this podcast may as well be done with a fun Surfboard company. I’ll save the dribble and you can watch the video podcast below

Soundcloud audio and download

Find the webiste and social media links below

Morris website http://morris-surfboards.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Morris-Surfboards-NZ-239684996155519/?fref=ts
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/morrissurfboardsnz/

Pop along to Unit 5/28 Anvil Road Silverdale (behind Ulrich Aluminium)

Please let me know what you think of the podcast, I’m wanting to feature a travel photographer or blogger next month!

See you at the beach!

-Sam