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Dear Omaha & Your Holiday Crowds

Omaha, much like every small coastal town has been swelling slowly in population for a month or so now. With Christmas in a couple of days and the holiday season upon us, this is my open letter to Omaha.

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Dear Omaha,

First and foremost I’m hoping the weather treats you right this holiday season. The year has been far too moist (yes moissst) and now it looks like the tap is firmly turned off. Prickles aplenty and sweaty beach towels are in order.

The roads, ahhh yes the roads. Think of Matakana like a mini Auckland. Infrastructure built for twenty years ago with no planning for growth. How you all plan to get around the area over the next wee while is testing to say the least. I would imagine if people used indicators, at least attempted to drive up near the speed limit and had general courtesy for other road users it would flow better. Silly idea, so lets not do that.

The beach. Don’t leave your bloody rubbish on it. Just don’t! Respect other people in and around the water and if you have a brand new SUP for Christmas then learn some surf etiquette and stop being a prick.

The locals. Welcome the holiday makers to the area, be friendly and happy. They will be gone soon ha. We don’t have to put up with it for too long and if you’re onto it like I try to be, then you’re probably doing a runner from the area anyway.

The holiday makers. I would have said Aucklanders but there are people from further away. Have some respect for the area and the people. You may be on holiday but a lot of us aren’t so keep that in mind. Be friendly. I know in the city no one really says hi to strangers but up here we do. I find it really rude when you just stare at me with a ‘what was that about’ look on your face. Lastly enjoy the area. Go catch the fish, swim in the sea and swing those golf clubs while you can. It’s a pretty beaut area.

As for myself I guess this is my sign off for the year. It’s been a big ole weird but thoroughly enjoyable one. 2017 will see a bit of rebranding for what I’m doing here and possibly a move. I have enjoyed so many hours spent doing the things I love and I only want to turn it up some more. Finding those that can keep up is proving to be the hardest part.

Enjoy the Christmas buffet and all it brings. If you came here for videos then you can check last weekends action below

I’m coming in hot to 2017 and I’m feeling more motivated than ever. Take note local youth, some of you are getting a stir up in the new year.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Physical Boundaries

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I remember turning 30 quite well. I dreaded it for a few years actually. 30! As far as I’m concerned as you’re growing up 30 seems really old.

Speaking to older people they insist, I’m still young. I do feel young and this is where I’m going with this little post. When I talk about physical activity with people I hold myself to a very high standard. In our culture of tall poppy cutting down it is quite difficult to market and express your desire to be fitter, stronger and better than everyone.

That is my approach. Not only do I want to be able to do everything, be fitter than you and do it for longer but I neeeeeed to be able to. I don’t stop and I pride myself in doing this. Last weekend really highlighted that. Saturday we had the absolute hammer down for about 12 hours straight. Two skim, a surf, two steep and longish bush walks in bare feet. My body has felt is this week but that could be down to the skim and winch sessions since ha. Check the day below

Sunday after waking up and checking the conditions which we decided to flag on the skim we set about the day. Cloud cover and a bit of wind meant options were endless but not overly great. A fairly event free dive followed by several traffic jams on the way home and that was a wrap for the weekend

31 is coming up in about 5 months and with almost 8 months with no alcohol I’m very keen to see what sort of physical boundary I can keep pushing. I’m definitely the most fit I’ve ever been but it’s not going to stop. My only personal beef with myself is that I can’t quite get excited about working on mobility exercises. I’m hoping to meet someone that can inspire me in this department at some stage.

Another cracker of a weekend is planned for the first weekend of Summer!

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Alive In New Zealand – Ep 4

Boy oh boy was October productive!

You’ll be please to know I spent plenty of time in the water, some fish were harmed in the making of this and most importantly…… It was a bloody good time!

On a final note this year is almost over which quite frankly disturbing.

You know where to find me (hint it’s the beach).

-Sam

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Aggressive Dominance

I’ve always been attracted to people who are dominate in their field. Think Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Michael Schumacher when they were prime. Please ignore the fact that they’ve all fallen a long way from that now.

I like the idea of someone being that much better than everyone else. There’s a few examples of this in the tech world and one of them is DJI, the drone company.

Over the last couple of years they have simply blown their competitors out of the water. They have a little bit of competition with their heavy lifters but after yesterdays announcement with the most advanced aerial platforms the world has seen, they’ve become even more attractive to me. This isn’t fanboyism talking, this is fact.

I’ve been flying a Phantom 2 and 3 Pro for about two years now. I’ve had a couple of little hiccups but overall what a fantastic product and most of all, learning curve.

Yesterday they released a couple of much anticipated products that more than likely sent every other aerial company back to the drawing board. A fine display of dominance and at a rate that has lead to quite a few people questioning if DJI even sleeps?

This is something I would love to do with my style of work and I believe there’s a couple of small genres that I feel I am. I’m not going to say what because here in NZ you will get chopped down if you somewhat indicate that you may be good at something. Much like the tallest poppy in the field.

Last Saturday was a fairly high pressure morning, trying to learn a potentially very dangerous task with the lads. Something that over time I would love to really blow people out of the water with

Sunday was a day spent pondering really and a few words about what I won’t be doing with part of my business anymore

As for what I was talking about DJI earlier then you can find out more by clicking here. I’m just going to work out how to afford all this new tech seeing my Lotto ticket buying scheme hasn’t been paying much.

See you at the beach!

Sam

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Vote For Omaha

The brief was to create a 90 second video highlighting why Omaha should be the next predator free community in New Zealand. Myself and Peter Hooper from the OBC got together and scribbled some notes.

Pest control had been an ongoing issue for as long as I can remember in Omaha. Having spent enough time working on the golf course literally pouring buckets of rabbit bait down some of the burrows and now mowing a few lawns, I am all for this initiative. It doesn’t take long to realise what sort of numbers the rabbits are existing in with rats the seemingly more evil and discrete target as well.

Anyway here is the video we put together

You can vote for Omaha here http://predatorfreenz.org/get-involved/video-competition/

Omaha is almost a complete island with water bordering almost the entire circumference so this initiative is definitely plausible! If we win we get a fairly substantial grant for pest control. Feel free to share it to your friends.

Thank you!

See you at the beach.

Sam

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A Simple Life

Ahhh yes the joys of living a simple life. Not sitting in traffic for a hour to get to work, not having to do it again in the evening, spending time with people you enjoy, spending time doing the things you enjoy.

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That’s what last weekend and the first long weekend of the “Summer” season was all about. If you didn’t know, over the course over Labour weekend, that little stretch of road between Warkworth and Omaha is an absolute joke. A tent pitched on the sand sounded like a bit of me.

Friday arvo rolled around and my enthusiasm led me to the beach where I spent the night. Saturday was nothing but laughs and good times. Find it here

Sunday the sun was out and the water was calling. Almost too much of a good time

Monday and after a few rough nights sleep I was off home to recover (I feel I still am)

As far as simple living, this was a great example as long as you ignore the handful of camera batteries that I have to keep charging. Now here’s where I discuss a little bit of what we’ve been discussing lately. We live in a world where mental and physical health issues are on the rise. So is divorce, bullying and basically all the bullshit that is bad.

What is it that makes our way of life seemingly flawed? Is this endless pursuit for financial wealth at the expense of time, the reason it’s turning pear? When was the last time you took some time off to just do something you enjoyed?

Overall and what seems like the excuse everyone has, is that we don’t have the time.

My suggestion is go make some, while you have some.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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Toes On The Nose – A Little Surfing Clip

Surfing and I have had a relatively checkered past. I started doing it a lot around my early teens (or possibly before) and that’s all I did for a few year. My late teens was my golfing phase of my life and I hasn’t really been until the last five or so years that I’ve really picked it up again.

To me, it’s one of the “Big 4” in my life. The other three being skimboarding, spearfishing and of course documenting it all.

Documenting it all is the hard part. You need reasonable surfers and I’m not a huge fan of just taking snaps of random people. Reasonable waves which sometimes we can wait a really long time for locally. Also out of all the content I create for different genres, I get the most negativity from “surfers” which is a shame and possibly a topic for another day.

There is however plenty of people who are there to enjoy it and I have managed to shoot a little bit lately with said people. This clip is all about the aerial shots and trying to get in a little bit closer. Overall I’m very happy with my operating and I really want to improve on shot composition in the future. Enjoy

Here’s some of the better stills from the day both in the air and on the ground

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Hustle Hard

It’s always nice coming home. I’m not even sure if it’s nicer to go away, or nicer to come home.

One thing I do know is that the grind never stops and after coming home from an incredibly exhausting weekend away, that’s when the real work starts! Firstly it’s the vlogs which I always push to get them out in a fast but realistic time frame. Realistic is the keyword here so I’ll kick it off with the Friday arvo trip up and ripper of a Friday evening dive

Saturday was pretty much the reason I went away with a perfect forecast (after months of the opposite) and loads of enthusiasm. The best water viz, warmest day and best beach vibe I’ve experienced in some time

Sunday I awoke feeling like I’d been hit by a bus as is usually the case after a full on week. I haven’t shot waterfalls with a drone before but it’s something I’m going to do again

After the vlogs are done it’s time to actually rummage through the pictures and work out how they’re going to be displayed. I shot a lot over the weekend, haven’t uploaded much or worked out exactly how I will display them yet. There’s actually more nice ones than what I thought so I will add a couple now and save some for later.

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So arty!

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Matapouri just looking horrible

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Whangarei Falls

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Tutukaka in the morning

That’s a wrap for this weekly wrap. It’s titled Hustle Hard because no one hustles softly, do they? My 15 hour nonstop day is almost at a close and I need some sleep.

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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September You Soggy Thing

The rain started on Christmas eve 2015. Since then it’s either been really nice (briefly) or it has rained. This was basically the story for September. One weekend was a real beauty with the odd day scattered mid week but overall it has been wet.

It isn’t raining underwater however so as usual that has been the focus. Check the monthly wrap up below

Vlog of the month

Pic of the month

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October is well underway. Lets go!

See you at the beach!

-Sam

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The Art Of The Solo Adventure

I don’t recall my first trip away solo. If I go wayyy back to my mid teens it would be a golf trip somewhere for a tournament. In more recent years I have been all over the place.

The Far North, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Great Barrier Island, Whangarei Coast, Australia, America and Canada are all on the ever growing list.

I love it. I love the freedom that comes with it and the ability to just vanish for a few days. It’s even more enjoyable now with multiple cameras in tow. That is the plan for this weekend as it’s time to hit the road with an almost really nice weather forecast.

I’m going to the Tutukaka Coast with a plan to hit a couple of dives and skims all around there. Having stayed there a few times now I almost feel like I know where I’m going so it suits a couple of days just wandering around. Plus I’m going to get some really nice photos!

Last weekend was another weather affected weekend based from home. Saturday we had a rather enjoyable surf out west then a skim at Wenderholm which leads me to believ I have to do both more!

Sunday after another storm front went through we hit up a few waves

Here’s my top 3 tips for a solo trip.

  1. Triple check you have all your essentials like keys, wallet, phone, sunblock and water bottles. Basically I feel you can usually scrape together the other things but ending up in the middle of nowhere thirsty, sunburned, and no way out isn’t ideal.
  2. Talk to people. You’d be surprised at the accommodations people will make for just one person.
  3. Just go, you know you want to.

That’s it for me, I have to start getting ready.

See you at the beach!

-Sam