As everyone in the surfing world knows the latest in a series of pretty big storms has hit the Northern Atlantic today with more big swell and strong winds forecast for tomorrow too.
I’ve been out and about most days trying to find some good waves amongst the chaos, I’ve had good luck and been thwarted by the winds in equal measure so far.
The nature of the swell means that most of the spots I’ve been checking out break rarely and need some local knowledge to score, so they’re considered sensitive or secret. The secret spot is a strange idea for non surfers, there aren’t many other sports where it’s so much in the participants interest to keep their favourite places to themselves, or at least share them only amongst their close friends.
Here are some basic rules for taking and sharing photo’s of sensitive spots that I’d recommend following, some I’ve learnt through mistakes in the past and some should be common sense.
- If there is anyone else there, ask them if it’s OK to take photo’s – I always try and say hello to anyone who’s surfing or watching the surf, have a chat, then ask if it’s OK to take some pictures before getting the camera out. I’ve never been told no, but I have discussed how photo’s should be used or shared and what information should be given with them, being shy or trying to sneak around under the radar shouldn’t be an option
- Don’t name the spot, if your camera has GPS built in – disable it. If you use a code name, make sure it’s not obvious.
- Don’t put the name of the spot in the file name, and don’t tag the image with the actual name of the spot, tags in Lightroom are often uploaded to Flickr and Facebook for instance, and you can find them using an Exif data reader
- Don’t put the photo’s up straight away – if it’s a secret spot there’s a good chance it needs specific conditions to work, so if you put it up that night on Facebook everyone will know what conditions it works in, (you can use this to your advantage by holding back shots of a spot then putting them up when the conditions were good for a different coast)
- Don’t show any easily identifiable landmarks in the shots, that includes car parks, the local pub, or the path to the spot
- Consider mirroring the photo – this doesn’t work with well known stand up surfers (unless they’re really good at riding switch), or shots with obvious logo’s visible.
- Try a new angle – walk a bit further, climb a bit higher, lie a little lower, don’t take a photo from the most obvious angle
- Less is more, the fewer possible clues the better, if you must publish a shot of a secret spot on line just use the best one or two.
- Disable comments (if possible), there’s always someone who wants to show off and name the spot
Sometimes I get teased for being so secretive about the spots I surf, but I end up surfing (and photographing) good waves on my own or with just close friends an awful lot.
Naturally the vast majority of spots you’ll see photo’s of are well known and don’t require any special treatment, in which case, ignore all of the above rules, you want people to see the photo and they will most likely be searching by the spot name, it’s fairly obvious when a spot is considered fair game, the car park full of surfers is usually the first give away, but if you’re in any doubt play it safe and don’t name it.