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I think I'm gonna
die.
It must be like a thousand degrees. But he won't stop.
It's all I can do to keep my head up off the handle of the shovel...and
I got the easy job.
Dig a six-inch deep trench, six foot long, but I can't. Damn Southern
Californian heat. Glance up through my sore, blistered fingers and he's
still going, digging, planting, digging, planting. Relentless.
"Dude I’m broken."
"Yeah it’s hot hey. Still keen for tomorrow morning?"
"Um..yeah. Keen for a beer now though."
"For sure. Bail."
Sweet. The greatest words I've heard all day.
After the heat of trying to dig holes in the rock-riddled ground, the
beer in front of me is starting to play with my head. In each story
Sam's accent keeps changing, from English, to Australian now it's
American, I just can’t keep up.
"I moved from England to Singapore with my parents when I was 5 years
old…it was kinda weird with the culture difference and all…started
wakeboarding a fair bit. The rivers are so calm most of the time, it’s
perfect."
Now he's in San Diego, trying to fit in a few early mornings a week on
the rivers before his nine to fiver landscaping.
The next morning I'm running late, the sun's almost up and I'm lugging
15 kilo's of camera gear on my back, but I make the boat…and he looks
angry.
"Sorry bro..."
"Nah it’s cool, I'm kinda hung over"
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I'm not gonna lie, I was a
little unmotivated. When he roped me in for the shoot, I wasn't
expecting much. Maybe a few little airs, some carves, maybe a few
sunrise silhouettes.
First thing as a "warm-up" he flips out big as I watch sleepy eyed
unprepared with the camera on my lap.
Dang it.
For the next hour and a half I'm blown away by the smoothness of his
moves, watching through the lens as the shutter runs rampant, pausing
only once as he readjusts the metal brace on his knee.
As is standard for sou-cal the sea breeze picks up at 9am chopping up
the bay, just in time for him to start work.
"Works out sweet Marko," he says with a smile.
At the end of another rough day, (for me it means trying to catch up
sleep on a leather couch in 35 degree heat, I can only imagine what his
day involved - more digging I bet) we catch up to go through the photos.
"Oh sweet Marko, thanks bro. Still got some work for ya tomorrow if ya
want it …?"
"Um...nah, I'm good."
That’s the last time I saw the big guy, rumour has it he’s still on the
scene down there, even picked up a sponsor so he can stop digging holes
for a living.
"But I still got calluses all over my hands from the shovel...never
again (laughs."
View Sam's Gallery here |