WAY OF THE OCEAN

A fun right sandbar that formed and hung around for a bit and kept us busy.  Speaking of busy, new website and trailer are almost done! On top of that, we’ll be on the road for the next seven weeks to wrap up production so there is plenty coming your way . . .

We apologize for the technical difficulties with the blog and site. The server was hacked and it took some time to clean up and make things right. We have taken all necessary precautions to ensure it wont happen again. Sorry for the delay and thanks for returning. We have a lot of new stuff headed your way in the coming weeks. The long awaited official trailer is set to drop in less than 2 weeks and there has plenty of other news happening.

Kirra time-line

• Prior to 1840 — Kirra is not known by its current name and is rarely visited by white settlers.
• 1840-1910 — The first white holiday-makers start to visit.
• 1910-1920 — Holiday-makers increase, making Kirra a popular recreational beach area.
• 1930s — The opening of the South coast road increases the popularity of the southern Gold Coast as a holiday destination. Camping was very popular for families because Kirra had a long beach and a low-lying dune system.
• 1960-early 1974 — The Tweed River breakwaters combine with a series of low-pressure weather systems to result in serious sand erosion. This brings the high-water level to just below the coastal road.
• 1970s — Big Groyne built at Kirra’s south end.
• 1995 — 30 metres taken off Big Groyne to help fight erosion at Greenmount Beach.
• 2001 — Start of Tweed River sand bypass project.
• 2003 — Little Groyne completely buried in sand.
• 2006 — Project launched by Griffith University Coastal Management Center to restore the beach
• 2010 — Kirra remains a mere sliver of its former self but can still provide a perfect racing barrel on its day.

Some waves are perfect, others are flawed and this wave is somewhere in between.  No takers this day so Asher Pacey jumped at the chance for a few empty caves.

We’re one day closer to the long awaited release of the official trailer for WAY OF THE OCEAN : Australia, which is set to drop in September. While were gone for the weekend, have a poke around the site at some of the older posts and videos to pass the time.  New desktop wall papers, art and video on the way next week. stay tuned . . .

A few shots of Josh Kerr getting loose on a small right-hander.

Surfing and Art have long been tied together and are often spoken as one in the same. The act of riding waves and simply waves themselves are such a special thing, so it is no wonder that people have been drawing painting and photographing them for ages. Surf related art can be found dating back as far as 3,000 years ago in Peru, where engravings were found depicting ancient surfers riding waves. Now days surf art comes in all sorts of forms from simplistic line drawings to intricate oil paintings and beyond. Below are a few simple sketches done to pass the time in the morning as the swell fills in. . .

6am Northern NSW, Australia

There have been plenty of late nights and early mornings during the production of this movie. Heres one of the many sunrises that make getting up early well worth it even when you are tired.  Its true , the early bird gets the worm.

SURFING VICTORIA / ROBBO’S HOME MOVIES from CIRCULATE on Vimeo.

Adam Robertson gave us some home video footage and we threw it together for your enjoyment. Seeing the long rippable point waves Robbo grew up surfing shows where he got his smooth style and power. This first clip focuses on just the rights, up next we’ll be posting some incredible lefts.

A Humpback whale in South Australia splashes around for the lucky few on the beach below.

Its pretty amazing to see such a big “fish” up close and personal. Humpback whales generally reach between 40 and 50 ft and although harmless they can make you feel pretty insignificant. The humpbacks were almost hunted to extinction in the past but with the help of a whaling moratorium there are now almost 80,000 around the world.

CYCLES is a collection of time lapse imagery shot by director Matt Kleiner on a down day during the making of WAY OF THE OCEAN. Filmed over the course of twenty-four hours in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast of Australia. Music by Trentemøller.

CYCLES from CIRCULATE on Vimeo.

The earliest evidence of human occupation yet found in Australia is in two rock-shelters in Arnhem Land. In the lowest layer of material at these sites there are used pieces of ochre ( a form of pigment) , evidence for paint used by artists 60,000 years ago. Ochre was the most important painting material used traditionally by Aboriginal people. It is mined from particular sites and is a crumbly to hard rock heavily coloured by iron oxide. The source material was traded extensively across Australia in the past, with some material traveling many hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from where it was mined to where it was used. It comes in a variety of colours from pale yellow to dark reddish-brown.

Aboriginal Australians traditionally used art as a means of communication or expression in different forms such as rock engravings, cave paintings and designs cut into trees, wooden articles such as boomerangs and on their bodies. The symbols of their artwork were expressions of their beliefs, the Dreamtime and Dreaming stories or in some cases were records of specific events. Whatever they drew, engraved or painted onto such surfaces as sand, earth, rock, trees or wood had significant meanings to them.

Today the tradition holds strong and the style of art has been passed on through countless generations. Below are some images of modern day Aboriginal art as seen in the Australian Center for Contemporary Arts.

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Some mornings the beach breaks can yield almost perfect conditions. This particular morning was one of those days, with relatively minimal crowds and pumping sets, the early bird gets the worm.

Click one of the links below to download this desktop wallpaper. enjoy-

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Click one of the links below to download this desktop wallpaper. enjoy-

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Every surfer dreams of finding a new spot or a secret wave they didn’t know existed. The thought of such a thing is what keeps us searching in spite of the recent technology that has made it easier for everyone to search from the comfort of their home computer. Sometimes its doesn’t take an epic wave to satisfy this notion, just a good old wedging beach break with a few friends. That’s exactly what we found when we set off for a hike down a long path none of us had been down before.

The great thing about Australia is that there are so many headlands and little nooks all along the coast to explore. Being from Southern California, where any bend in the coast is likely to have 44 friendly faces bickering over who had the last set wave, this option to explore untouched places is extremely refreshing.  As we headed down the long slippery, rocky, winding trail, we encountered lots of big hairy spiders and a few snakes. We knew something good had to be at the end of the road with all the hazards involved. There wasn’t a whole lot of swell at first light and the headland we were scoping appeared to stick out a bit like a catchers mitt, hopefully acting as a swell magnet.

After a good 45 minutes of ducking under webs, we got a glimpse of the ocean and to our surprise there was actually some whitewater down in the small cove.  As we got closer we could tell that there was a pretty good right bouncing off the rocks and dumping on the shallow beach. Its hard to tell how big a wave is when you see it from a distance and there is no one out, so we could only guess that it was surfable.  Down on the beach the delightful sight of spitting tubes came time and time again in the same spot and we had a session on our hands.  Exploring can be fun.

In case you missed it, here’s another look at WAVE CLOUD SAND. A short film that was made on the off days while filming for WAY OF THE OCEAN. There are lots of updates coming this week and the count down to the official trailer begins. . .

Waves are not only in the ocean. Looking out towards the front of a thunderstorm where different temperatures and winds meet, a perfect cylindrical wave is formed in the sky.

Click one of the links below to download this desktop wallpaper. enjoy-

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Although we have seen thousands of perfect waves peel off during the last year of filming, it never gets old admiring the different forms of unique perfection the ocean can create.