In 2005 I was sitting with my publisher friend, David Kettle, in Sydney. We were discussing publishing and he started to tell me about this guy called Uge who took photos of "hot beach girls and waves" at Bondi Beach each day. He'd email them to his friends and advertisers jumped on board to share their messages. Could this be the future of publishing we pondered ...
I promptly signed up to Aquabumps and Uge has occupied a line in my inbox every day since. He's the inspiration behind Dunedin Light and the reason we built the reports and website the way we did.
Last week he turned up on our shores (thanks to Tourism New Zealand) and we got to help show him around along with some of the best surfers in town and Maz Quinn – one of New Zealand's most successful pro surfers.
Arguably, Uge has become one of the most successful surf photographers in the world. He's in hot demand, spending months in Indonesia, Hawaii, New Zealand and throughout Australia each year. Meeting him it was easy to see why: he has the charisma of a cheeky Ocker fused with the work ethic of a Chinese labourer ... he has both in his blood. He was recently named a Canon Master in Australia – that's a very big deal in photography circles.
He is one very excited man and instantly fell in love with Dunedin's charms, shrugging off the cold water to make the most of the quality waves and near empty line-ups. Compared with Bondi, this place is as close to heaven as you can get for a surf photographer with a decent 4/3 hooded wetsuit and booties.
New southwest swell kicking in today, clean at first then getting soupy until Friday.
Thanks Uge ...
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