Riding the Santa Cruz Swell

A surfer in a black wetsuit carves along the face of a large green wave in Santa Cruz, California, leaving a spray of water behind.

More than a decade ago, I spent some time in Santa Cruz along with the rest of Automattic for the Grand Meetup that year. I’ve already posted a few sunrise photos on the beach, but these photos of surfers riding the waves have been in my TODO folder for a long time.


Apertureƒ/4
CameraCanon EOS 6D
Focal length105mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/2000s

Wild Atlantic Waves

Waves crash onto the beach and rocks of Couminole Beach, Co Kerry near full tide. A dangerous beach for swimming at the best of times, it would be foolhardy to go swimming there in conditions like this!


Apertureƒ/8
CameraCanon EOS 20D
Focal length20mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/640s

Braving the water at Garrettstown

The weather for the first 3 and a bit months of this year have been miserable. It’s been raining, and cold and windy and miserable. The sun has poked through the clouds for a few days at a time, or more usually in between rain showers it would brighten slightly before the clouds gathered for another onslaught.

So, even though there was a good possibility of rain and the forecast said there were 54km/h winds yesterday I decided we should go to the beach! Luckily it wasn’t freezing but the wind was almost enough to blow us off our feet and it whipped the sea up into a churning mess of white flecking waves and foam on the rocks. Sometimes I couldn’t even take a photo before the wind blew against my zoom lens so much it was hard to hold steady!

It didn’t stop others either. There were well over 20 cars down there, most people sitting in their vehicles watching and listening to the wind howl. Some braved the waves.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 162mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1600s

Waves Crash

Waves crash into the sea wall at Garrettstown Beach, Co Cork a few weeks ago. Beautiful day for a trip down there and the wind blew the sea into violent waves pounding the man made obstructions on shore.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/400s

Tipping Over

I thought I had posted this photo of waves crashing down at Couminole Beach before but no, I have posted several shots of waves at that exposed Atlantic beach but not this one!

I rarely mention WordPress stuff here but if you haven’t upgraded your site to 2.8.4, read this post by Matt. Please upgrade, you’ll be hacked otherwise!

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/400s