A Twelve Minute Seminar On Dodging Dry Rocks And Swimming Shark Riddled Lineups

Dangling your little piggies in remote Australian brine is a courageous venture.

 With at least 11 fatal attacks in the past two years and over 1000 in recorded history, Oz may well be the shark attack capital of the world.

Combine this with the fact that its 25,000 km coastline is highly concentrated with rocky slabs and heaving reefs, and you’ve created quite the gauntlet for the average cone hunter.

Often overlooked, however, is the equal degree of risk our humble water photogs subject themselves to.

Courtesy of Connor Lee’s new covert clip, we’re offered some unique vistas into the glory and damage wrought on both surfer and filmer.

“Yeah, Lucas Soarsy is my best mate, he’s got no fear,” Connor tells me, regarding his filmer. “He’s a crazy swimmer, he bought a camera a year ago to film, and he’s been swimming at all the gnarliest waves. He just jumps in and starts swimming kilometers.”

“I figured I can’t surf the waves, so I might as well film them,” Lucas humbly tells me. “It’s so fun to swim at those waves, I love it. You definitely get rolled sometimes though. I just hate when I miss clips, because they come so fast, so I just hold the camera on him for as long as I can. That particular wave with the dry rock is pretty tricky, as soon as it breaks there’s no clear water underneath, it’s just you and reef. I just hold on as tight as I can, I don’t want to break $10,000 worth of equipment, so I’m pretty much just bear hugging my camera and getting the shit beat out of me,” he laughs.

“You can get fucked up out there,” Connor explains. “I’ve gone to hospital because of that wave a couple times, one time I hit my chin and got fully knocked out. It was a small one on a really big day and I fell pumping through the pit. It just bottomed out and I fell and faceplanted into the rock. I should’ve gotten way more hurt, but a friend grabbed me on a ski. As he picked me up I came to and didn’t know what happened.”

As for sharks, neither of them seem to be too stressed. 

“I don’t really get scared about sharks,” Lucas laughs. “That one session with the rock in the back people were showing us photos of huge sharks nearby, and it was just us two in the water. The waves were too good though, we fully forgot about sharks until we came back in. Afterwards we realized how hectic it was. It just slips my mind.”

Click above to watch two underground Australians connect (and get smoked) in a handful of situations most people wouldn’t be halfway interested in.