realsurf reporting. we did it for noodles.
‘ Here, you can have this camera, ‘
Don hands over a scarred DC50 Kodak digital and half a dozen Nickcad batteries .
OK says Larry*, arms folded, and whose last camera was a Box Brownie.
‘ Plus all this Photoshop software, Adobe stuff, A1, dead easy to use. ‘
Don hands over a box of CD’s and manuals, plenty of manuals. Extras just in case. Plus there’s a Grateful Dead CD in there.
Great says Larry, farewelling Ned Ludd with great reluctance.
‘ Plus this recharger, the batteries fade after about five days and will need about three hours on this.’
Terrific says Larry, I’ll make a note.
‘ Just take a couple of shots every day, put ‘em through the software on your computer then stick ‘em up on the site, easy. Link in, download, edit and punch go.‘
‘ Every day? asks Larry, ‘ that mean Sundays as well? ‘
Don nods agreeably, breaks out a BIG smile, starts talking about linked URL’s, site statistics, daily page visits, weekly page visits, monthly …. yearly. Pyramid stats, world domination.
Go Don. He’s a Californian.
‘ Of course the best time to take a surf photo is in the morning, get it at its best, try to get a little elevation and side on aspect. That gets a little more bulk into the shot, looks better, try for the lineup everytime. ‘
Larry is seeing himself halfway up the cliff at South Avalon at 5am on a Sunday morning, with a blood count of about 10.00 – because Saturday night is always a big one – trying to take a photo of the set of the day at LA, and hoping that the smell of burning plastic is not his car burning in the carpark. There were a few moments there with the LA lads, all pals now.
‘ – and of course there is a spot on the web-site where you can give a bit of a description of what the surf’s like on the day. Stick a few words in, anything reasonable. Be yourself.‘
I nearly kissed the old geezer.
‘ – imagine, you get your words up on the web every day. We’ll be gettin’ five thousand site visits a day in no time, – you’ll be bloody famous! I’ll stick you email address on so’s they can talk to you direct. ‘
This was about 1996 and web log wasn’t blog yet.
‘ Whaddya say Lazzer? – this is groundbreaking stuff, we’ll be in the top ten sport sites by December 1999, there’s nothing out there like it.’
‘ Hey, ‘ says Don, with the big smile back on the bearded dial, ‘ I’ll buy you dinner every once in a while, at Manly, I got a discount at the noodle shop. You don’t mind driving? ’
* pseudonym, not my his real name
petebowes.com 
P. Bowie,
Noodles.
You being paid in noodles further proves point that the old dude are and will always be completely out of touch with today’s mod con..
as the boyos now-a-days command and demand to be paid in straight cash, homie.
http://www.fantasticsnacks.com.au/html/newsMedia5.html
That was a great time. All the surf reports these days seem to deal with surfing conditions and weather and never annoy anyone. Is this part of a series Pete?
back in the day anyone who wanted to pick a blue used to email me the challenge – I was getting them from everywhere – plenty of solid attitude
.. I have them all. Coming up.
Heh … I remember those times well.
The amount of emails I use to collect from disgruntled office employees, feminists and on one occasion Gordon Merchant all baying for my blood. Gordon was upset because my report didn’t come up ’til 10 am one Saturday morning. Feminists hated the ol’ ‘There’s more swell in my pants,’ or ‘Slap the missus’ leg and catch a wave in, that’s the only surfing you’ll be doing this week’ …
The Goat, you and Don. That excited fella who use to do a report from Japan. They were good times. I remember them fondly.
… Trawling the internet I saw a link to this blog and followed it. The places we find ourselves, huh?
Hope all is good Larry.
Braithy – Gold Coast Realsurf Reporter ’96– 2003.
all good mate – still taking the piss, nothing has changed