Sparkography

When I first moved to Sydney the last place I wanted to live was amongst the backpackers and tourists of Bondi. I wanted city living, walking distance to work, and stumbling distance from the bars and clubs of the CBD. So I moved to Pyrmont.

Big mistake.

Now Pyrmont did tick all three boxes in a big way. I had a split level apartment in a warehouse conversion, I was 5 minutes walk from work, and just the length of Pyrmont Bridge from the crowds of King Street Wharf.

But it was boring. Oh my god it was SO boring.

No surprise then that when my lease came up for renewal six months later my thoughts turned to getting away from the city and Bondi came blipping back onto my radar. Not by choice I might add; more because my mates were giving me a hard time for moving halfway round the world only to live in another city apartment when the most famous beach on the planet was just half an hour away!

However, it was something else that made me rethink Bondi. One of my mates at work forwarded me an email newsletter called Aquabumps. It was a simple looking page written by some dude called Uge, which basically relayed the Bondi surf report for that day. But it also included 5 amazing photographs that Uge had taken of the sunrise, beach and surfers from that morning. The colours were incredible and the surf shots better than any I’d seen in magazines.

I literally saw Bondi in a different light and decided I needed to give beach lifestyle serious consideration. So I signed up for the daily Aquabumps newsletters to see if Bondi looked consistently stunning, and started investigating the Bondi rental market. Well the photos didn’t get any less mind-blowing and I soon found myself anxiously checking my inbox each day for my daily fix of sunrises, surfers and spray. I was hooked, and within a couple of weeks I was inspecting the central-Bondi apartment where I’m writing this entry three years later.

From the time I moved in I absolutely loved Bondi and regretted ever thinking anything bad about the place. Yes it’s overrun by backpackers during the summer who party every night like it’s Saturday and spoil your sleep. But the off season is peaceful, it has a great community feel, and most of my friends live within walking distance. And yes the beach does fill up with tourists who don’t speak English and can’t spot a rip – but without them we wouldn’t have Bondi Rescue!

However, it’s those Aquabumps emails which still do it for me. I’ve spent many early mornings down on the beach waiting for the glow of the pre-dawn sun to light up the clouds in hues of pink and orange, in the hope that I might capture images to rival those that Uge takes on a daily basis and sells in his fantastic gallery. I’m getting there. We both use Canon 5D Mk IIs (I had mine first!) and we often pass each other, chasing the best positions to catch the sunrise, so I must be doing something right.

But I’d like to pay tribute here to Uge and point you in the direction of the Aquabumps website so you can sign up for his awesome newsletters and browse his gallery of breathtaking photos. Just like the one on this page.