58 FEATURE CHOOK JOURNAL
The trip started a few weeks before we left the UK when
we travelled down to South Wales and collected some
brand new kit from Jim at Puravida. He hooked us up
with 2017 Simmer gear and O’Shea wetsuits. Steve
from K4 also sent us some fins so we were all set.
Travelling to Oz always feels like going home for us as our
parents still own the house we grew up in as kids. We
were lucky enough to be out there from mid-December
until mid-January at which point we sadly had to return
for school/uni. Whilst we were in Margies we wanted to
make a little video about the trip and ‘WA6285: Home of
the Chook’ is the finished result!
The logo and name of The Chook Journal, which is what
we call ourselves, was inspired by the ‘chook’ (Australian
slang for chicken) that is silhouetted in the sand dune
opposite Rivermouth Beach, inside the main break,
Margaret River. Rivermouth is the beach that we
basically grew up on learning to take a pounding from
the waves and is where we really first learned to surf as
kids. Our Dad meanwhile would be sailing the main
break and as we have gotten older naturally we
progressed into sailing it with him! This trip was Ollie’s
first time out there and it’s fair to say he was nervous
while rigging up and navigating the keyhole. But he
enjoyed it once he had a few waves under his belt.
We both learned to wave sail on the south coast of the
UK when we moved there six years ago. I guess it’s fair
to say we sail with a slightly strange style. It is a little
more old school with drawn out, wide arc bottom turns
with flowing top turns. As a result our videos are never
the typical montage of epic moves. We try to capture
the true essence of our trips. Not just the windsurfing
either, the travel and time spent doing non-windsurf
related activities finds its way into our edits because this
is the full the story, which we want to represent.
Meaningful
We believe strongly in filming only what is really
happening, we don’t enjoy fabricating clips to make our
trips or windsurfing look more impressive. We like to try
and find different camera angles, film from different
spots and then bring the footage home and turn it into a
meaningful video. Each edit we try to up the level and
with this latest one we felt we managed it. Neither of us
have any cinematography nor editing qualifications.
Everything we have learned is self-taught through trial
and error. We are already looking forward to the next trip
and trying to up the quality again.
When filming we don’t exactly have the latest and
greatest equipment. Instead we use budget video gear
that we have purchased second hand over the last few
uk
WIND
SURFING