Our Story.

My first memory of Nelson is at some dingy yacht club in Newport. We were three or four, sitting and eating hot chips on the steaming outdoor pool tiles. Chlorine wafted the air and Nelson was waiting at the edge of the chemical blue water, impatiently nagging my mum to untie his floats. After some convincing, and looking over to the laughing parents, she did. Next thing I knew he’d splashed into the pool, and was underwater, frantically kicking to the edge. He struggled, but made it, clinging to the side, shiny hair slicked down on his forehead with a huge grin. I couldn’t let him do it alone, so I tore my floats off, and went in after, quickly joining him at the edge laughing. It was the first time we’d swam by ourselves.

Growing up respectively on Mona Vale and Bilgola Beach, our love for the water has defined much of our lives since we were kids. I remember the countless surf trips, talking shit and getting so burnt that our lips cracked. Nagging our dads to take us to Indonesia.

It’s funny how for us, this ocean passion manifested in different ways. Nelson picked up a camera in his early teens and hasn’t put it down since. I found words. Both of us in a sense, just trying to capture what we see, hoping that somehow we can communicate all the things we find meaningful. 

Unfortunately, our story isn’t all sunshine, rainbows and big tubes. Sydney’s Northern Beaches is beautiful, but carries a dark undercurrent to do with Mental Illness and teen suicide. Living and breathing in this environment for so long, we don’t have to reach very far to see the harrowing impacts it has had on our lives. 

This is in essence, why we are here, to communicate things that we feel need to be seen.

Thank you.