One of our favorite photogs, Steve Gourlay, was at the Dew Battle Rematch the week before last and he had a few out-takes for us to run for you guys. I dropped him a couple of quick questions about the day and shooting contests. Read on to hear about the day and check out a bunch of great shots!
Hey Steve, thanks for doing this! First up, how was the day overall? The course and the riders list looked amazing.
No probs Dave! Yeah, it was great day. It was fun as – a bunch of us flew up early that morning had a quick bite to eat then headed down to the site. We gave the guys a hand to help set up the extra lighting as it was pretty dark in there seeing its all painted black inside these days. The course was great in the fact that crew could easily hit two to four obstacles depending on what line you took before cruising back around to the take off area again. It’s always a pretty difficult challenge designing a fair comp design and I think the guys from Revolution ASC did a great job of combining the last course (which was washed out due to rain) then altering it to fit into Horden.
What were the stand out tricks for the day for you?
Dave ‘BottleTop” Harris’s frontside crooks came out of nowhere which was cool I spoke to him afterward about it and he said he didn’t really even know he was going to do it till he was 4 foot from the ledge! Pat Dandy’s gap to frontside noseblunt down the eight was amazing and every switch trick Bjorn did was mind blowing, His switch front feeble was nuts. Beardo ripped hard all day into a well deserved third place. Scotty Standley, Luke Croker and Tommy Fynn ripped also.
Was there any controversy over judging or did Dave Harris clearly deserve the win?
No, I think the judging for the finals was pretty tight. I did have a concern that Tommy Fynn didn’t make the final but that’s just personal preference. I raised this with head judge Andrew Currie who justified things by saying there was few guys including Tommy that only just missed out by a point or so. I think they did a great job – I hate even thinking about judging.
You’ve been to all three battles this summer, what’s your take on the contest format and organization? My feeling is that they’re building into something great for Australia – good money for the skaters, well organized and getting good guys like you along to shoot it.
The format that Renton has come up with is really good, comps are renown for being long and drawn out, as we all know, but I think they’ve done well to keep the pace going. By maintaining this it keeps everyone amped and the excitement up. The crew that back Rentos at Tango Communications are absolute rulers – always open to and ideas and changes that might help things work smoother. I’m not sure what Renton’s planning for the future but I know it will be really fucking cool.
How does taking shots at these events compare to your average day out shooting?
It’s vastly different, if you miss important tricks you cant just ask the skater to go back and do it again during a run. You kind of need to be spatially aware of what’s going on all over the course and pre-empting skaters tricks. One of the key requirements is to farm out images to the right media outlets during the event which is all pretty basic stuff but adds to the hecticness of the day. It was definitely a challenge shooting in there, as I mentioned before the gizzards of Horden Pavillion are all black but I do remember Horden being bright and white back in the old SDS comp days of the mid to late 90’s. I could be wrong though as I think that at the last one I hadn’t slept for a few days… Ooops! So in saying that you need to be prepared for any lighting situation which is tough when your’re trying to travel light. Generally on most normal day to day shoots you tend to plan and be able to pack accordingly which makes it a little easier.
Is the time-pressure a good or bad thing?
Yeah. Look, the pressure makes it more fun as you know you have to come up with the right shots otherwise you’ve blown it.
Do you have a preference for shooting one or the other?
They both have their good and bad points but comps are good when you get to work with people like Renton and Penny who make it happen with minimal stress and fun. Also, it’s just damn fun to be able to catch up with skaters that you might not normally see that often, so it’s a good little social occasion also. Lots of plans and trips usually come out of these events.
Do you have a favorite image from the day?
Man, it’s always really hard as you don’t have time to muck around and try to different things. I’d have to say the gap to nose blunt of Pat Dandy (first photo above) is okay. Its got a bit of balance, he’s an absolute animal on board who skates really fast and doesn’t fuck around. You can kind of tell by the way the filmers are all a bit tentative and standing back a lot. No one was willing to get taken out by the beast!
What else did you get up to in Sydney while you were up there?
I was just up for the day so I was dragged away from the event by our crew cramming us all into a taxi so we would make our flight home to Melbourne. Once we made the airport we smashed a few, what we called, well deserved beers at the bar. Then we where on our way home.
Sounds like a pretty epic day – thanks again for your time Steve!
