Super Series - Surfing at Sandside

Managed to process some more pics of the surfing at Sandside last Tuesday afternoon. I snapped heats 4 to 8 of Round 1 in the UK Pro Surf Tour Scottish Open, sponsored by Relentless Energy Drink. It is very rare to get a fleet of nuclear reactors in the background of a surfing shot!

Caithness RFC vs Highland

I caught the first half of the Caithness vs Highland match at a very wet Millbank. The Greens went in at half-time 10-6 up, but went onto lose 19-10.

Wick Academy vs Fraserburgh

Wick lost 3-1 to Fraserburgh today at Harmsworth Park in the pouring rain.  I missed all the goal as I arrived after 60mins was played (caught the first half of the Caithness RFC vs Highland match).  There was virtually no goal mouth action in the last 30 mins.
Caithness were leading Highland by 10-6 at half-time, but lost 19-10.  Halkirk Utd and Thurso had no games today, due to the Scotland International match.

Camera Club fashion photoshoot

Professional photographer Steven Seymour, Inverness, (http://www.seymourphoto.co.uk/) gave an excellent talk and demonstration photoshoot about fashion photography to Thurso Camera Club on Monday evening. I and ten others got the opportunity to take some pics of local professional model Naomi Farquhar-Munro using Steve's lighting set up.

Steve has just set up a photographic company called Parallel57 and is in the process of kitting out a huge studio at Dochfour Business Park, Inverness. Steve is highly regarded and will be giving talks at the prestigious SWPP Convention in London next January.

September Photo Awards



Gold - Caithness Motocross race in June




Silver - Graham Fryer, Caithness RFC vs Strathmore in September




Silver - BeBe Vox concert in St Peters & St Andrews church in September




Silver - Brent Dorrington, AUS at the O'Neill CWC in April

The results of The Societies' monthly competition for September are just out and I managed to be awarded a gold and 3 silvers for photos taken in and around Thurso this year. My pics of the motocross riders kicking up lots of dust has gone down well with the judges. June was actually very dry!

Super Series surfing final

Tom Butler



Gordon Fontaine




Sam Lamiroy





Micah Lester



Some action shots from the final of the Relentless Energy Drink Super Series held at Thurso East on Wednesday afternoon.

The weather was very dull and it rained during the last 10 minutes of the 30 min final. This meant increasing the ISO setting to 2,000 at F5.6 and focal length 400mm in order to get a fast shutter speed of around 1/2000sec. A big thank you to Karen Munro for lending me her Canon 100-400mm F4-F5.6L IS lens, which enabled me to get good close-up shots of the action.

1st - Micah Lester, Australia (yellow)
2nd - Gordon Fontaine, France (blue)
3rd - Tom Butler, Newquay (red)
4th - Sam Lamiroy, Newcastle (white)

Relentless Energy Drink Super Series Surfing Event

Winner Micah Lester, Australia and runner up Gordon Fontaine, France



Micah Lester in action in the final at Thurso East




Micah Lester in the final




Mark Boyd, Thurso, at Sandside with Dounreay in the background




Tom Butler, Newquay, was 3rd




Gordon Fontaine, France, was 2nd




Gordon Fontaine, France




Stuart Campbell




Jak Smith,




Toby Donachie




Toby Donachie



Toby Donachie



Jayce Robinson

The first ever Relentless Energy Drink Super Series surfing event in collaboration with the UK Pro Surf Tour, was held in Caithness this week. 32 surfers from the UK and around the world (Australia, France, Portugal, South Africa & Lanazarote), were invited to compete for £5,000 prize money.

Round 1 was held at Sandside harbour on Tuesday and round 2, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final were held at Thurso East today (Wednseday). I caught most of the action at Sandside and the final itself. I was told that the waves on Wed morning were huge, clean and just perfect for good surfing. The off-shore wind changed direction and the latter stages had big "messy" waves, which made it difficult for the surfers.

Australia's Micah Lester won the £2,000 first prize. Micah is a full-time professional and is currently living in Thurso! He won the UK Triple Crown Championship in 2009. The other finalists were;

2nd - Gordon Fontaine, France
3rd - Tom Butler, Newquay
4th - Sam Lamiroy, Newcastle

The surfers are now heading for Wales this weekend and then next week onto Devon for the 2nd event in the tri series and then onto Cornwall in November for the 3rd and final event. More details can be found on the link;

http://www.ukprosurf.com/the-first-ever-relentless-energy-drink-super-series-i8186.html