How Passion And Perseverance Got A Landscaper (Successfully) Behind A Lens

You’ve got to do something, right?

The glory days of endless degrees on government dime and bountiful social security are a distant memory, so presently, for good or ill, one must work.

There’s plenty of dismal jobs out there: relatively straightforward to obtain, easy to explain to your grandparents, and, if your heart beats with a vaguely creative flutter, universally soul-crushing.

So what you gunna do?

Well, if surfing’s your thing you’ve got a number of avenues open to you, but know this, it takes time, perseverance and nothing short of a herculean obsession with fine-tuning your craft to make your vocation a reality. But, it can be done.

Come and meet the hyper passionate folk who’ve turned passion into fruitful careers with Stab and Oakley’s ‘Obsessives’.

Jacob Wooden, known to his plentiful acquaintances as “Woody”, earns a crust travelling the world as part of the WSL entourage, pointing his camera and the world’s best surfers and cutting the footage for media houses like Red Bull. Sounds dreamy, right? Well the lead up wasn’t.

A few years ago, after an apprenticeship with surf filmmaker don Jack McCoy had fizzled to nothing, Woody was hard at work, pushing a mower under the harsh Australian sun. As sunscreen-infused sweat filled his eyes, he wondered how on earth he’d got here, and more importantly, how he was going to get out. Being willing to take a risk is the starting point for every story of passion and fulfilment, so Woody took out a loan and hit the road with camera in hand.

The rest has been anything but easy, but with persistence—and a few surfs to release the pressure valve in between—Woody’s made it work.