About Me

I grew up in the 70’s “Animal” Surfing era where long hair, Morning of the Earth, stubby single fins, Panel Vans and MP ruled. Back then Pro –Surfing didn’t exist. You surfed for fun and when you weren’t riding waves you hanged all day at North Cronulla beach causing mayhem. I first got into photography in ’73 when my job straight out of school was in a photo laboratory called Group Colour at Potts Point developing Ektachrome film. I used to regularly see the work of other photographers like Frank Pithers who worked for Tracks and got inspired. My first camera was a Nikkormat with a 300mm lens and a short time later a Nikonos 2. From the very beginning I wanted to be a surf photographer. At my local breaks I began shooting Shark Island and Cronulla Point two of the heaviest tubing barrels in Australia. After photographing the Island from the water for the first time I was mesmerised by the raw power and warping beauty and well and truly hooked. The wave was insane and still is today.

Throughout the rest of the 70’s I shot for fun and treated it more like a hobby as I was still a keen surfer myself. It wasn’t till the 80’s that I decided to take it further. My first photo was published in Tracks in ’81 an Island barrel of the late Geoff Solness and they even credited it wrong. I didn’t care I was stoked and became super keen for more. In the coming years I became a contributing photographer for Tracks, Surfing Life, Waves, Lineup, Surfing Magazine, Westside, Deep, Underground Surf and numerous other mags around the world. In the mid 80’s I was senior photographer for the skateboard magazine called Slam. I’ve always been attracted to the darker side of the sport, the anti heroes and outrageous characters which makes surfing so unique. That’s why the site is called Animals, Outcasts and Freaks.

It was also in the early 80’s that I worked as a beach marshal on all the pro comps in Sydney at the time like the Coke, Beaurepaires, Straight Talk, IMB and got an inside view of Pro Surfing. My first influences were Cronulla photographers Dave Shaw, Greg Button and Steve Core. I also admired the early water angles of Peter Crawford and Hawaii’s Don King. Along with my son Craig whose work will also feature on the site together we produced a bunch of surf videos in the 90’s that we will show clips from. Surf photography allowed me to see and film parts of the world I would not have normally seen.In the mid 90s I suffered a broken back then I was diagnosed with a bad case of diabetes which has played havoc with my health and slowed me down in the water.

After 4 decades of shooting I have a sizable collection of images in my portfolio to show and share. Surfing and photography have given me a great life over the years  searching for waves and making friends along the way. I hope you enjoy the flashbacks and walk down memory lane as much as I do.

Strohy