Daily Image - December - Wade Howard

I bet new Pier and North Beach were super crowded while a kilometre away there is nobody in sight. It's worth the walk never mind the 1 minute drive.

Brad is a friend of mine from my local neighbourhood and I love his style and chilled out nature in and out of the water. He is one of those that you can watch in any conditions.

Check the sign that says no surfing while a perfect little left goes running into the shorebreak. For once everyone obeyed the sign.

Casey is one of those guys that just seem to have that natural ability and make things look so easy. Here he is at his favorite break. Often Casey will be surfing some obscure break down the road that is not as good as his local break but he would prefer to avoid the crowds and the hassle that comes with them.

Chris just blowing up in the perfect position for Luke Patterson who is shooting from the water. Luke must have got an insane shot.

This was a case of being in the right place at the right time. I saw the Queen Mary coming and thought how cool it would be to have someone surfing in the foreground. The next thing Angus is on a bomb left and there we go, a once in a lifetime shot.

Dave gives it everything in the water and here he is digging the rail in a powerful cutty.

When New Pier is pumping and everyone is fighting for the rights you will often see some perfect lefts at Dairy going unridden.

Sometimes everything just comes together with the ideal light and a surfer who rips. Davey giving his knees a good workout in the morning glow.

I can imagine the shaping bay being a pretty lonely place as nobody but the shaper wants to get full of dust. But this is the moment that makes it all worth while, adding your signature to your master piece.

One of my favourite photographs as I grew up in the same neighbourhood as Frankie and have known him since then. He is one of the best free surfers around and has been forever and just blows me away each time I see him surf.

Plenty of style on a small wave at Snake Park. They surf some pretty interesting looking surfboards.

Anyone who surfs in town will know JJ for his unique style and his desire to charge any type of condition. He is one of those quiet characters with some interesting surf travel stories so stop him one day and have a chat.

I have better images of John but this is one of my favorite as it shows him going through his all important warm up routine with a perfect wave as the backdrop.

On this day the east had started and everyone disappeared from the crowded line up to the cameramen on the beach. For some reason I stayed a few more minutes and that is when Jordy and Travis started using the onshore to boost some huge airs. This just shows the difference between Jordy and most aerialists as you can see how far he projects his board. He was doing this on 5-6 foot close outs and of course making them.

Returning from a wedding up the north coast I saw the lines pouring in so I raced down for a glimpse of what I had missed out on and saw these waves breaking so cleanly on this reef. I have dived here a lot but have never surfed it or seen anyone surf it. Just one of many setups on our amazing coast.

I am not sure how I got this lighting but I love the contrast of the bright spray against the stormy background.

I have surfed here once and it is extremely creepy although it is often one of the best breaks on our coast. I have spearfished here once as well but got chased out by a big Zambezi so those stories you here are real. Actually my dad surfed here when he was young and used to get chased out by the local police because of the danger of a shark attack. Do you still want to know where it is?

My home town on a good day. Doesn't look like anyone is out yet? Not unusual for this to happen on the south coast.

This was on an assignment where I took a few groms on the train down the coast. Slade met us down there and as usual just went bananas in his local backyard.

I was commissioned to go photograph a dive resort at Sodwana and by chance I took my board with as I had never surfed there or heard any stories about it. I scored some unbelievable sessions for a few days mostly on mu own and with such crystal clean, warm water it was like being in paradise.

Slade is out at his local break no matter how big it gets in fact he is often the only one out. I am backing him to be the next best from our local shores as he has the talent, the guts and passion to go all the way. On top of this he is still humble and a pleasure to have in the lineup.

There is just something so captivating about an empty lineup and a perfect wave rolling through. This place is empty for a reason and will never get crowded.

This was just after I had interviewed Shane and heard his amazing story about his fight with drug addiction and how he turned to God for help. Shane has always been such a friendly guy to me even when I was a new face in the crowded New Pier lineup which is quite a contradiction to all the mucho stories you hear.

My friend Stuart about to face every surfer’s nightmare of squeaking over the first one only to find a bigger one about to break on your head. One of those moments where you can laugh only because you are so relieved that it is not you.

This has been tweaked a little in editing but there is something quite mesmerizing about watching waves wash up and down the beach, especially at sunrise when the colours are so vivid.

This was a bizarre project of theBombSurf and it was funny at first but when we saw how well Mickey Venter and a few others actually surfed the waves on the table and door it blew our minds.

For once I had the patience to stop at all the breaks that I usually just drive past but wish I had photographed. This day the coast was pumping and I stopped and photographed so many empty lineups that I had to eventually get in myself. You can only photograph perfect waves for so long and then you just have to get in.

This is where I grew up but I have hardly ever taken any photographs of the incredible lineup that happens every winter when the offshores are howling and a groundswell is running.

This was a project for the magazine where I spent some time with the street kids of Uthombo and got to know them a little bit better. There are so many of them now who are ripping and just recently 3 of them qualified as lifeguards on Durban beaches. The work being done there is inspiring as they have changed so many lives and given a purpose to so many.

That moment when you are standing at the end of the pier waiting for a perfect break to avoid the fringe parting cyclone swell that is pounding the Durban Beachfront makes your heart rate go up just a few beats.