I’ve been lucky enough to know Duggy for nearly a decade and in that time we’ve shared many special experiences and become good friends.
We met in a flooded quarry just outside of Falmouth, where Duggy was trying his hand at the hot new craze sweeping the UK, cable wakeboarding. I’d already caught the bug a couple of years beforehand after coming from a snowboarding background. Duggy was a quick learner and it was great fun sharing a few sessions, whilst also chatting about his other life’s passions of surfing, travel and skydiving.
He immediately struck me as a go getter, who liked to grab life by the horns and fill his days with fun. A decade and many trips later his adventurous spirit is still as strong as ever.
A few years back I bust my shoulder snowboarding, which led to a sideways step from being amongst the action, to behind the lens documenting it. As a passionate but very average surfer I was keen to train my camera on a good surfer to hopefully make my pictures better. Luckily Duggy is not only a talented surfer but also more than willing to help if it meant getting a pic or two for his social media.
We started documenting a few sessions locally around Cornwall, which soon morphed into more adventurous locales, such as Madeira and Iceland. Below I’ve chosen a few favourites from over the years which bring back memories of good times and a snapshot our friendship, built around a love for fun on water. My time around him has shown me how addicted to surfing he is really is, his love for the sport goes deep and he isn’t afraid to make all sorts of sacrifices to pursue his goals. His most recent being challenging himself amongst the giant ocean peaks found at Nazaré. I can’t wait to see what he achieves over this next winter, it’s going to be an exciting one.
Back to where it began, both of us enjoying the vision of a Penwith drainer many summers back.
Ever the optimist, his ability to be smiling even on the verge of hypothermia always amazes me. He’s a tough cookie, on this trip to Iceland it wasn’t unusual for him to surf alone for hours a day in freezing, dark and eerie waters. As long as he had an infamous Icelandic hot dog to warm his belly afterwards, then pulling back on that cold and damp wetsuit for another session was never a chore.
Duggy is a man of more passions then most. He throws himself into all sorts of action-packed pursuits, never happier then when traversing rocky spines up in the clouds or hurtling towards terraferma after chucking himself out of a perfectly good aeroplane.
Duggy is always willing to gamble to pursue his absolute life’s obsession of surfing. This has led to many missions over the years and lots of long drives, however more often than not he is right and the gamble pays off. This was one of those drives, when midway through an 18-hour half island circumnavigation we were treated to the most insane aurora I could have ever dreamed of. It was so staggering, we quickly pulled the car over to the side of the road jumped out and enjoyed nature’s show whilst sharing a cold one. See next photo for the empty point which greeted us and what we’d driven the best part of a day for, I think you would call it an absolute SCORE!
I’ve been lucky enough to shoot surf in some pretty special places. However, the combination of backdrop, soft morning light and totally empty line up meant this session will be forever etched in my mind. Throw in that iconic Duggy frontside spray chuck and all you have the ingredients for a special photo. It was that good I couldn’t resist jumping in myself to join him for a few waves.
Duggy isn’t Cornish, although he might as well be. It’s where he calls home, and looks forward to coming back to after his many adventures overseas. He’s a well-known figure in the Aggie line-up, always sat furthest out waiting to try and wrangle the bomb of the day. I would describe him as a powerful, committed charger and I think this photo sums him tackling a bleak winters wave at the break where he has not only honed his talent but owes his love of surfing to.