NBL Basketball - Sydney Spirit v Adelaide 36ers

I went out to shoot my second game of NBL basketball on Friday night.
The league is struggling in Australia at the moment, the stadiums are pretty much empty, and that is at the weekend games! Sydney lost one of it's teams last year due to a financial backing collapse and is now left with one team, who in my opinion, have possibly the worst name ever for a professional mens sporting team - The Sydney Spirit!
regardless of name choices, there is no question that the league is full of talented players and both games I have been on the baseline shooting have been super entertaining, with lots of great plays and down to the wire finishes!
I've been to a couple of great NBA games during my snow shooting trips in the USA, and the only thing these games had that the Aussie games lack is the spectacle. NBA is pure entertainment, almost a bit too over the top. Fans pack the stadiums to the rafters and cheer loudly. Here, however there is no spectacle, just the game. I do presume that would be enough for most of us, that is if the stadiums were close to being full with other fans loudly cheering the home team on.
I don't know what the solution is, maybe it's time to give away lot's of free tickets, get people there, get the seats filled, and hopefully that will lead to people wanting to come back for more.
More photos after the cut.

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Rip Curl "Girls go surfing day"

It's been a while since updates but I have been doing a few random shoots lately so I'm going to post a few today.

Last week I was asked by Rip Curl to shoot their annual "Girls go surfing day" at Manly beach in Sydney. It's basically a program set up by Rip Curl to get women involved in surfing and the day is subsidised by a bunch of sponsors, which means girls get a couple of hours surf lessons, all the gear and food for something like $40, which is pretty rad!
Junior women's surfing sensation Tyler Wright was there to help the girls out on the day. For those that don't know who Tyler is, she's the 14 year old that beat pro veteran Layne Beachley in her own competition, the Beachley Classic, a few weeks ago. It was quite the upset as this was the contest that Layne announced her retirement from professional surfing at. I'm sure she would have much preferred to have gone out with a win, rather than being flogged by a 14 year old!
More shots after the cut.

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