Two day's "in Paradise"

Two day's "in Paradise"

I was invited to Klitmøller, to cover the DM Wave event, but it turned out to be something completely different I was going to shoot!!

I left CPH sunday at noon arriving in Klitmøller in the evening, picked up the keys for the house my friend Mikkel Asmussen had rented for the week. I was expecting Mikkel to show up thursday, the day before the DM event went off. 

So I just wanted to chill for a couple of days alone in the beautiful and very rustic nature up there in the Northern part of Jylland - at that time I had absolutely no clue that it was about to change "big time"!!

The weather forecast had been really tricky up to this event, so naturally I didn't expect any wind and waves at all, but then Monday evening I was hosting a little dinner for my good friends Lars Petersen, Andreas and his brother. 
When Lars arrived he was wearing a BIG smile all over his face - in other words Lars was extremely stoked, I instantly felt that he knew something I didn't. Two sec's after he told me that something very interesting was building up further out in the North Sea - apparently it looked like a really powerful "storm low" were on it's way and would hit Klitmøller Tuesday night, with wind speed up to 25-30 m.sec. 

Could this really be happening, it's all about timing when it comes to shooting surfing and windsurfing. Two weeks earlier the same thing happened to me at the Dark Blue Open event, where we also hit it right on.

When Lars Petersen say's something like this, I listen, because Lars is really tuned in to every weather forecast there is and he is probably one of the most serious and competent surfers I have ever meet.

Mikkel of course also heard about this very interesting weather forecast. So he packed his car within minutes and left CPH, this was just one of those low's he wouldn't miss. Mikkel is also really tuned in to all the weather channels, it's pure souls surfing as always with him as well. It looked like all the "usual suspects" were gathering in Klitmøller - again!!

 "Screen dump" from DMI Tuesday - but it developed much deeper, I just didn't have any internet connection so I could watch it develop on the DMI maps.

Lars and I stayed in close contact these two day's and I'm really grateful for all the valuable "weather insights" he supplied me with, which made it possible for me to get some very interesting "shoots in the box". Thank's a lot Lars!!!!

We ended up having some of the best windsurfing conditions I have ever seen in this part of Jylland. And thanks to Lars' weather predictions the timing was just 100% perfect. 

We had one afternoon south of Klitmøller on the front side of this low, with really nice size waves and cross-off winds - super clean - but shitty weather, which never really gives me the best conditions for shooting. Never the less I got some nice shots of most of the guy's, before the weather went totally crazy and I had to run for shelter - I love it when Mother Earth shows Her power, makes me feel so small and insignificant.

We drove home, made a nice dinner and filled up with great images from a good surf session, we went to bed "catching some zzzzz". 

But I woke up 4 hours later, the noise outside sounded like an earthquake and several times it felt like the roof would be teared of the house. I couldn't wait to see the ocean next morning.

Lars, Mikkel and I - plus a bunch of the "local surfers" like Kenneth Danielsen, Finn Noer, Robert Sand etc. - meet up north of Klitmøller at 7:00 (still dark outside). At first, the conditions didn't look that big, but nice sets were rolling in - extremely clean, again with cross-off winds, and this time with clear sunshine. Absolutely perfect shooting conditions for a photographer - this is exactly what I'm looking for and in the future I'll really try to focus on such weather situations, it's simply what it's all about for me.

As usual here is some of the shoots I got from these two day's - the rest of these pic's will be published in the next edition of Rip'n Snap, won't share all the goodies here!!

Aholoa & lot's of smiles!!

(click on pictures or larger view)