My journey didn’t begin in Africa. That was just where I started. The truth is I have been on and will remain on this journey for all of my life.

Recollections as a child are about time at the coast. Holidays on the mighty Clarence River. Hours wasted around the bay and ocean beaches of Port Stephens. Walking the foreboding beaches of the Western Australia’s southern ocean. Scrambling around in the shore breaks of Point Leo to my first wave on a surfboard at Burleigh Heads. My die was cast.

Childhood became youth. 1980 found me on the North Coast of NSW.  I lived for the local point break. It was never out of my head. Time spent away working was time spent planning to get back. Being there was perfect. My soul was in its place. I was a surfer and that was all I wanted to be.

Time passed and I moved away.

I am standing on an African coastline.

To the surfer this place is very special. The angle that the winter swells collide with the rocky shoreline delivers waves that can only be described as idealic. It is “the iconic point break”.

On this afternoon the first real swell of the winter has delivered a lush bounty of waves ridden by the crowds drawn by weather and swell predictions. This bay, this arena, is a scene of magnificence. I am quite emotional. I can’t speak.

I stand on the shoreline with a borrowed camera in my hand. Throughout the afternoon I gather a series of images taken from this ocean scape. I have begun on the path that I have been on forever. My soul is home again.

My travels are now based on the interaction of ocean forces represented through the photographic process. Swell and wind give texture and line. Colour and light dance and divide through the form of a building wave. My recreation has become my creative profession.

This is my journey.

Tony Warrilow