Dark Blue - f--king - Open

Dark Blue - f--king - Open

When I heard about the first Dark Blue Open surf event, I was really stoked. A little group of super committed surfers stood behind the first really serious surfing event in Denmark for a long time - and that is always a very good beginning.

These guy’s (Chris, Henrik, Ron and Kjeld) took a chance arranging this event based on a very time limited period, only 3 days - a weekend. 
Knowing how unstable the weather forecast can be in Denmark this time of the year, made it a really difficult call for these guy’s - but after a couple of nerve racking day’s before the event, with a really tricky weather forecast, they gave it a "GO"!!!

They made an opening for 30 surfers, but they probably had hoped for at least 15 guy's showing up, not having any really former experience with this aspect of the contest, since this was the first time in a very long time a surfing contest was held in Denmark. 

But much more that 30 persons showed up in Vorupør to test their skills, so they sadly had to say no to a bunch of guy's, which meant instant success. 
So far so good - Then the big issue was the weather forecast - would the prediction hold?? 

Sunday morning was the call, heavy winds from North West would - according to the DMI -  hit Denmark the night between Saturday and Sunday, which could mean really challenging conditions for these guy’s.

I woke up early Sunday morning to meet the rest of these guy's at the skipper meeting, and it was howling outside  - it seemed like the weather Gods were "smiling" at this event!!

But what about waves?? - Luckily Ron Halasi was a part of this epic surf event and he knows this raw and very powerful coast line like the back of his hand. So while the rest of us meet at "Klochs" (with the best burgers on this planet, by the way - called a "RON Burger"!! - don't ever miss it if you are in Vorupør one day!!) for the skipper meeting, Ron had been doing a fantastic job scouting the local coast since 5 o’clock in the morning. 

Everything really came together in a “symphony of pure soul surfing”!! at the Dark Blue Open. 

When we arrived at the beach Ron had chosen around 9 o’clock, things looked pretty promising. It wasn’t big - YET!! - but decent sets were rolling in already. 
It was really windy and challeging weather conditions - I can only say "welcome to the North Coast of Denmark" guy's!!. This is a place where boys become men very fast!!

With an average of 20 meters per second this contest could change into a really gnarly and very epic event - and IT DID!!! - after probably two hours the whole situation changed into an amazingly powerful surfing scene - only for the few really skilled and experienced surfers.

And that is what I really like to shoot - though weather conditions, difficult surfing and excellent surfers - it doesn’t get much better for a photographer. So after a long day of shooting this group of really brilliant surfers from several countries, in these very difficult conditions - this is the result which came out of my camera afterwards - hope you like some of these shots.

PS. the winner was Tim Latte from Sweden who surfed really well all day - but somehow all of these guy’s were winners somehow - at least of my deepest RESPECT!!! 

All of you concurred the North Coast, when it was really gnarly and that takes not only some excellent surfing skills - but also some really BIG balls!! - Well done and lot's of f--king RESPECT !!! 

(Click on pic's for a larger view)

Saturday evening the Dark Blue team held a little rep-surf-event-party at "Klochs" - that's a first one for me, first we party, then we get serious afterwards - love it - pure soul surfing!!!! 

Here is a couple og shoots from "Klochs" Saturday evening with all crew of stoked surfers showing up for this fantastic little surf event.