Posted on

Delicious Diving – Alive in New Zealand – Ep 19

March is a beautiful time of year. The weather is usually somewhat settled, the holiday crowds are gone and the water warm. Do I really need to say more? Peep the latest episode below!

What a month it was. As I rebuild this series I will be dropping the regular episodes as per normal. Find out more about the new series here.

As always, I will see you at the beach!

-Sam

Posted on

Round 6 2018 Thundercat Nationals – Little Barrier

Ahh yes a new Long Haul! Would someone get lost? Would everyone have enough fuel? How many birds would get run over? This course had never been run before and with a creative approach to the coverage I feel we did the race justice! Find it all in the video below

How’s that weather though!

Pics

You all know where we’re going?

Target

McReddy was strong

Just like round 5 I was stoked to have an event at home with perfect weather and smiles all round.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

Posted on

What’s Been Happening?

Whenever I ask this question it usually gets one of two responses. The first and by far the most common, painfully boring, mundane and uninspiring is “not much, just work”, or very similar. Then add how busy you are. Choice bro.

The less common and considerably more interesting goes more like this. So much man, been shooting Thundercats, diving (been getting some good fish too), skimming, the boat’s running again, clocked up a fair few km’s in the van, Been up north a few times, had an epic dive out West, swam with a Great White, ticked over two years without an alcoholic drink, ate some fantastic food (incl a BBQ on 90 mile), there’s been waves and I’m off down White Island again this weekend.

Here in New Zealand we don’t like that sort of response. We don’t like people who talk about themselves.  Sorry but it’s been bloody hectic to be honest. There’s a Winter chill in the air so we have to cram as much into the next wee while before it gets cold. Then the same thing happens, it’s just colder ha.

Seeing I haven’t done an update blog post in a little while, here’s a clip from last week that you will enjoy if you’re into free range food

I will touch on the weather now. Shit it’s been difficult to get. Seems to be really nice… Or really not nice. Saturday was more of the latter but we were out there

On another note I’ve been trying to sell some of my merch. Not only do I want to sell it, I want to expand the product line and get really stuck in so if you’re on the hunt to rock some branded goodies then get to my online shop!

Lastly all the things I mentioned up top have happened lately incl the Great White part so if you need to catch up then get along to my main YouTube channel as well and my vlog channel!

As always, I will see you at the beach!

-Sam

 

 

Posted on

Round 4 2018 Thudercat Nationals 2018 – Matarangi

When Round 4 of this years Nationals came around everyone was still in a little bit of shock from the day before. We were greeted with windy and much flatter conditions than the previous day at Whangamata.

What would happen to the points table in this round? Would someone get run over and pop their boat? Watch the video to find out!

And some pictures for your viewing pleasure

Party time

Think Ladder 3rd on the day and adding to their Bronze medal collection

Waikato Sandblasting took out second place.

And Protech Design for the Round 4 win!

What a round it as with some casualties making for a tight points table.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

 

Posted on

Round 2 2018 Thundercat Nationals – Matakana Island

Thundercat Long Hauls are a different beast to Surf Cross events. They are long (duh) and they are fast (yeahh).

They are also quite hard to film due to the speed and the distance they cover. This year at Matakana Island the weather behaved and the race was quick. It was also what I feel the best coverage of a Long Haul. Check out the video below

I am a little behind with the blog posts so if you want to jump ahead and be current then check the videos on my YouTube channel.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

Posted on

Assembling A Team Of Rad People

My little business/brand/company turns 10 very shortly! There’s been several “revisions” of what that consists of during this time but one thing that has stayed true and that is that it has always been fairly visual.

2018 is the year I work out exactly what this brand means and give it some real direction and purpose. This means a team. A team of cool people doing epic things! Sounds achievable, watch the video below for the general idea

So what does a team mean exactly for a brand? Well it should work both ways so I’m going to keep this as simple as possible.

For the brand it means increased exposure in the chosen areas in which it has chosen to promote itself. Pretty simple.

For the sponsored person or people it means help with their chosen sport (or whatever), increased exposure and of course…. Free stuff!

As I push a lot more brand focus this year with a small team of guys (which i will detail more shortly) I of course want to expand this so if you feel you have something to offer then get in touch. I’m sure you can work out how!

See you at the beach!

-Sam

Posted on

How Good is NZ – Alive in New Zealand – Ep 15

Run the poo over. Quote of November and included in the video, as it should.

The “little hole in the boat” quote is also worth noting. The food runs and some of the weather in November was bloody epic!

As for what’s coming up, if you’re subscribed to OXS TV you probably already know!

See you at the beach.

-Sam

Posted on

Surfing & Big Snapper – Alive in New Zealand – Ep 14

Producing a series about living is ironically hard to do when you’re so busy out and about living.

I remember Winter vividly as it feels about twenty minutes ago. It was fun, long and I chose to start the move into a van. In this episode there’s a couple of months crammed into one episodea s a lot of my time was ties up with a van build. Heeeeere you go

As for what’s coming well I can assure you the weather and action turned on from November which is where I’m up to.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

Posted on

Best Bits Thundercat Nationals 2017

With round 1 & 2 now completed over the weekend at Tauranga and the editing well underway (I’m writing this for a bit of a break), I start to compare everything to last season.

2017 was the the first year of covering the Nationals and I didn’t know what to expect. Overall I was super stoked on the series and smashed plenty of buttons to keep the content flowing in a timely fashion. Are these clips the absolute best from the series? I’m not going to say yes but that are damn near good enough! Click the video below

Some photo highlights which you can dig through the full galleries on my Facebook page

The start of what may have been my favourite event of the series.

Winners

$5 Thundercat rides were meant to be taken easy. These two got to experience a flip and a free shirt for their troubles.

Sponsors.

Preparation is key.

This crew is pretty important to the whole operation.

As for 2018 the first videos aren’t far away so stay tuned!

See you at the beach.

-Sam

Posted on

How To Launch & Land A Drone In a Boat By Yourself

Boat launching your drone can be a wonderful or horrifying experience depending on your results. Having had more than my fair share of launch and lands I thought it was time to put something together about how I do it, by myself.

 

Now obviously with someone helping this process is quite a bit more simple but all of the tips can be simplified if you have a “catcher”. The full video is here

Here’s my most important things to consider.

  1. Battery. Battery. Battery. Take your time and do your normal checks.
  2. Consider the compass if you have plenty of steel around.
  3. Work out which way you’re drifting.
  4. Give yourself time to launch and land.
  5. I prefer to drift into the drone on landing rather than steer the drone into the boat.

Would like to do a few more of these so will see how we go!

See you at the beach!

-Sam