Standerd Slides

Subject: Girl with Goat, Acapulco, Mexico
Photo: Joey Meddock
TSQ Location: Book 2.1, Chronicle # 39, Page 25

While in Acapulco, Mexico, one of the photos I was persistent on capturing was a shot of an authentic Mexican reading The Standerd for the “You” page. Our good friends from Acapulco Getaways set me up with the right lead where I might be able to make this photo happen when I stumbled upon this young girl.

She didn’t really know what to think of my fancy camera. The whole “digital” concept of a camera where you can instantly see the image was a technology she had never seen before. The rest of her brothers and sisters were there as well. They were all speechless, completely baffled and probably confused why I was taking photos of them.

After I got the shot I wanted for the “You” page, she came back to me, wanting more photos. Only this time, she wanted me to take a photo of her baby goat.

Still speechless, she held it close to her as if it was her own little security blanket between her and this strange guy with a fancy camera. I pointed the camera at her and caught her stunned reaction. I showed her the pic and she lit up with excitement and amazement.

All of a sudden, she was all smiles and laughing. I went from foe to friend with a click of a button.

Chalk one up for the digi freaks out there.

- Meddock

Subject: Darin Shapiro, Team Malibu
Photo: Joey Meddock
TSQ Location: Book 2.1, Back Cover, Ad by Malibu Boats

Find this spot for yourself at Acapulco Getaways in Mexico. They have the most insane riding conditions…surf too! Me and Matt from the camp went exploring for a photo-opp when I found this tree leaning way over the water.

It caught my eye each time we zoomed by on the Sea Doo, so I figured I’d tell Darin what I was thinking for this shot. Matt and I went back in, grabbed the Malibu and chase boat, told Darin what we were up to, then posted up against the lily pads.

Darin is a bit “known” for making this shot one of the staple wakeboarding photos. He’s the originator of it, I believe. That’s kind of what I had in mind anyway. So, I told him to give me a huge spray and really try and “lay it down.” We tried it about eight times I think.

Between each attempt we waited about 10 minutes to let the water calm down. You could really see the board bounce if the water wasn’t perfectly still. It also effected the pattern of the spray that is shooting off the bottom of the board.

I didn’t want it to look to bouncy, so it was important that we waited the full 10 minutes so it was perfectly calm and the effect would look best. This shot came from the very last attempt we did.

It took us about 30-45 minutes of doing this over and over again. This is all he did the whole set…just for this shot.

It’s a good feeling when that last attempt is the best one. I was confident wh had a good one the very second he did it. I tapped my head, “Let’s go in, that was the one!”

- Meddock

Subject: Shawn Watson
Photo: Joey Meddock
TSQ Location: Book 2.1, Juice section, Pages 6-7

When we were in Abu Dhabi with the Liquid Force team, Collin Harrington pointed out this billboard to me. His explanation of size didn’t do it justice, because this thing was massive! The more I studied it based of the water conditions and framing, I figured it would be best to have the boat come directly at the camera.

When we first got there, I had the boat drive by me side to side, just pointing toward the billboard but it wasn’t quite working out. Collin and I stood on shore where they had a nice park for us to stand in over the water’s edge. The rider would pass us so fast, I knew there was no way I was going to line it up properly.

I made use of the two-way radios in my bag. Threw one to the boat driver and kept the other one with us on shore. When Watson rode, he was about 4th in line. It just took us that long to finally line this shot up. I had Watson get on shore with me where I was standing and told him to look through the camera so he had a clear idea of what I was seeing AND how far away from me he needed to do the trick. When I saw that he saw it, I knew we had a better chance of making this shot come to life.

The boat driver Marcos Moran was an earshot away from the radio in the boat. I told the guy sitting next to him to just yell out whatever I was screaming over the radio. I wanted to get the boat angle to a specific point. Because I was shooting with such a long lens, I had time for what felt like driving the boat myself. My radio was hanging just around my neck. It allowed me to look through the lens, line up the shot/framing, then still tell the boat driver, “Bow left, bow left!”

After a few laps of “my left or yours?” we finally got the hang of it. The driving was critical for this whole thing just as much as Watson doing the trick. The boat planing off after the sudden adjustments is enough to wash out the wake, so timing was key as well…and the focus, and the exposure, and…

Watson would do a trick, cutting left, then race back over and do another. By the time he was lined up for the second trick, he was just big enough in frame where he’d sit right next to the gutter (in the page layout), and the billboard on the right page. I knew we had this shot as soon as I saw his timing and edge toward the wake.

We were only two days into the trip overseas and I was completely content on coming home with nothing better than that shot right there. I didn’t think it could have gotten better than that. In fact, it didn’t.

- Meddock

Subject: Randall Harris
Photo: Josh Letchworth
TSQ Location: Book 2.1, Critique section, Page 88

Randall has been down quite a bit over the past few months filming for Kilgus’s upcoming release, DRIVE. I was lucky enough to catch up with him to shoot a Quiksilver ad one afternoon.

We had some boat issues and ended up with a very small window of time to get him on the water. There were a lot of people that needed to ride that day, so we had to wait patiently.

Well, sometimes things happen for a reason. We were all bummed about the sun going down when we turned around to notice the moon rising from the east. It was full and B-U-tiful.

Randall went back out for one more set. That was awesome, because I knew he was beat. It was a bitch to keep the moon framed in the shot. I was on PWC chasing him.

I could not seem to find the best place to get to see it well. Not to mention, the fact that Randall goes big was not helping for composition.

But, you can’t complain about that. It was great night.

- Josh Letchworth

Subject: Orlando Yo-Yo World Record
Photo: Joey Meddock
TSQ Location: Book 2.1, Chronicle section, Page 26

My good friend Danny Amir called me up to come get some shots of this “World Record Setting” Yo-Yo contest that he heard about in downtown Orlando. I didn’t really know what to think, say, or react to such a rare opportunity (if you could call it that) but I just went with it.

It was the morning after another great night downtown, when we pulled back up the parking garage…a full parking garage at that. It was only 11 in the morning when the crowd began to grow and spread into what looked like world-record conditions.

The Yo-Yos were passed out when you registered your email and street address or something like that. The deal was, every person there (a few thousand) had to consecutively yo-yo for a minute straight in order to set the new record. The whole damn city rallied behind this “event.” The mayor was there, “Stuff” the Orlando Magic mascot, and a slew of others, including ESPN!

3-2-1…start yo-yo-ing…

Tough task indeed, but the ego boost and sense of accomplishment after setting a new world record is enough to last weeks, or even months.

What? When’s the last time you set a world record?

- Meddock