Better Late Than Never

here is a video that has been a while in the making. my computer got a nasty virus and well now I am setup with a new system and will me back on track with posting photos and video. Sorry it took so long Rob.

Surf fall 2011 from John Marchant on Vimeo.

Beauty Day for Surf

Saturday proved to be an awesome day. Sun shining, temps in the 20's and the wind making waves. Stoke all around. We surfed the shit out of terrace bay.

Weekend fun

So this weekend we had a getaway for work in Sioux Lookout. A little palace on Osprey Island. This luxurious cabin was built by Riss trucking back in the prohibition days. It has a rich history behind it and has had guests stay there to the tune of John F. Kennedy, Marylin Munroe, Frank Sinatra to name a few. The cabin was amazing and an awesome time was had by all.

by the way the cabin was huge and the last photo is only about 1/10 of it!

Surfrider Cleanup

Over the past few months, we have been working hard (especially our President, Laura Loan), to start a chapter of the Surfrider Foundation in Thunder Bay. Surfrider’s mission is: the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network. We hope to bring together diverse groups of people that enjoy the lake, (especially young people), and be a voice to protect what we love. To everyone who has signed up as member, THANK YOU so much! In order to gain full chapter status, we need to sign up 25 members in the next 3 months. We are still short of our goal, so if you haven’t signed up as a member, please consider supporting us. Usually a 1 year membership is $25, but we are able to sign you up for only $10. Your $10 stays here in Thunder Bay and helps us to put on events. Our first event will be a beach clean up at Mission Island Marsh, Saturday August 6th, 1-3pm. We are going to clean up trash and whatever else doesn’t belong there, followed by a Stand-up paddleboard demo. Stand-up paddleboarding is becoming really popular, it’s a great new way to enjoy being on the water, and catching waves. Come and try it out with us! If it rains, we will do the clean up the next day on Sunday. If you are planning to come, it would be great if you could RSVP. But everyone is welcome to come regardless, the more the merrier. Please pass on this info to anyone you think might be interested.
Hope to see you and your friends at the first Surfrider Thunder Bay beach clean up! Thanks for your support.

Surfrider Thunder Bay Committee

July 20, 2011 Airport Storm

I like to go out and chase storms in hopes of getting some amazing photos of lightning. Well tonight as I heard and saw the thunder and lightning come barrelling overhead of my house, i checked the weather radar to see what we were in for. A large front was moving in fast, I grabbed my cameras and took off in the car. As i approached the highway it started to rain, which sucks for taking pictures, so i considered turning around and going the opposite direction to get the lightning as it goes by. But i figured i could beat it and zip out to my cottage to watch it cross the bay, well as i approached the airport the rain started coming down in buckets. The wind was howling and i noticed bits of debris blowing across the highway. As i tried to look around to see what had caused the debris i could just make out through the rain the metal on the roof of the airport was bent back like a tin can. As i continued on the debris got thicker and i could now see that a large chunk of the roof covering was removed. So i continued on to try for some lightning shots and on my way passed a handful of police and firetrucks, I guess the damage was greater than i could see through the rain. On my way back I stopped to look closely and take some photos. Well it turns out the about a quarter of the roof had been peeled back by gust front blowing through and was thrown about the parking lot like litter. These pieces of litter are very large.

the right side of the roof, covering is gone.

Pieces of roof covering scattered about the parking lot.

a different angle of view of the missing roof.



the buckled piece where it stopped peeling back.

debris scattered about, middle of pic is a some of the roof

oh yeah here is some lightning...

Ahhh Summer...

Been a while since I have posted anything....been busy with work and life last couple months. Summer arrived at last and to our surprise a special treat... Surf. Winston scored three days of surf, whereas I only had the one session Wed night. It was awsome, totally feeling the stoke. Definately needed it to feel alive again, can't wait until the next sesh.

Winston sporting his new custom 5'10". Wicked!

Random wave from Wed night.

Hit up the Wake the Giant wakeboarding competition today. Was pretty rockin good times, Tons of people and a helicopter that was zipping around with a film crew.

new foal

Our friends horse had her baby after long waiting. Here she is her first time out in the sun. Believe it or not she is only 5 and a half days old in this video. She is going to be a big girl.

Untitled from John Marchant on Vimeo.

Midnight run

Went out to do a mindnight run for smelts Friday night. Brought Aidan with us, he was pretty excited. When we arrived at the river it was like a circus. I don't think I have ever seen that many people out for smelts at one time. It was a finely synchronized motion with both side lined with people. Dip, sweep, lift...Dip, sweep, lift. We caught around 60 or so, which was not bad considering the gauntlet they had to run just to get to where we were. Arrived home at 1:30am with two soakers, a tired boy and smiles on our faces.

Surf last week

Here is the video from last week, busy with work and family to be able to post. It was a good time totally stoked after.

Untitled from John Marchant on Vimeo.

Horsing around

Our friends horse is expecting to have a foal anytime now. We went out to set up a video camera. The camera will allow them to watch live on the computer in her bedroom to check in at night without disturbing the horse. So while I was there I took this shot of a beautiful welsh pony that we were going to buy for my daughter. (she ended up chosing a different horse)

his name is Coal.

Coffee with cream

After working 12 to 16 hours a day for the last 5 weeks and out of town, there has'nt been much time for, well, much of anything. As the forecast changed daily, upgraded and down graded, surf was enevitable. A message to Eric and we were off. Surf in the time between the end of work today and the begining of sundown. The conditions were well, not exactly epic. When we first arrived there were some sets coming in that were heavy and thick like a can of spam, and brown and frothy like the color of coffee mixed with cream. The wind was strong and undecided in which way it wanted to blow. But it did blow. The waves were heavy and everywhere, not very organized and unpredictable. Waves were had, however nothing to write home about.

Eric dropping in on one that almost got away.

surf compilation

Winston's Surf Compilation

Untitled from John Marchant on Vimeo.

Start saving

After a difficult surf session yesterday, I found this on this on the world wide web. They call it The Wavegarden. So, who wants to pool their money with me and get one of these things? They are estimating between 2 and 4 million to get it setup.

Pretty cool.

Wavegarden (Short) from wavegarden on Vimeo.

Superior Ice Caves

Checked out the shoreline the other day and went exploring into some of the ice shelf caves.

Deep inside a cave.

Outside some ice piles.

Untitled from John Marchant on Vimeo.

Surf

Surf in the forecast for Saturday, so we blasted off to get some surf. As we crossed the border the guard asked where we were surfing cause the were no waves when he came to work. As we drove up mt joshephine the bay was frozen and we started to question if there were any waves. well it turns out that there were. Some large sets coming head high most of the day. Stayed in the water surfing for about 4.5 hours left tired and stoked.

Horsing around.

A little action video of our horse. After a long ride nothing feels better than a good scratch. Here is how our horse does it.

Untitled from John Marchant on Vimeo.

Ice Racing

Its that time of year again, cold weather, frozen lakes, the ice racers come out to play. I took my son to see the races yesterday for the first time, I was impressed. We have our own little race way set up, good vantage point and cool sounds. Since my boss has been racing for years, I took my son into the pit area and checked out the car. Went up to the 'beachers' when the racing was started and took some video of the races for a couple hours. Good times.

Clear Skies

Clear skies tonight, the moon shining bright.

Photo taken through my telescope. 1600mm

Stoney Jan 8, 2011

Well some more swell down in Duluth on Saturday. Winston and I decided to go on an adventure and hit up some waves southern sytle. It was pretty cold, but by the time we got to the point it had warmed up quite a bit. The waves were going off pretty nicley steep and big. Met up with the Duluth crew and had a great time catching some waves. If i get a chance i will add some video that i took during that session, later in the week. In the meantime here are a few shots from that day.