I warned everyone in the last post. It's finals week and I would actually like to graduate CofC preferably this May so apologies for the hiatus.

The conditions of the last swell were bittersweet. Waves were running in about the head high range but the drift was ripping hard. 4/26, we saw some better conditions but still a tad drifty/messy. Nonetheless I whipped out the camera and took some shots.

My final project in my graphic design elective was to design from scratch a fully functional website. I completed it late last night and uploaded it this morning. Once it is graded I am going to tailor it more towards surfing and the blog. It's pretty crazy, I always wanted to know how to write html and now I feel like a geek cause I'm dissecting Surfline.com's codes to get some greater insight.



Photos below taken on 4/26


Yes this was taken at the Washout. Barrels like this only lasted about 15 min early that AM.


(forgot to resize this one)


Summer is around the corner.













Photos below taken on 4/25

Couple people and myself drifted from the Washout to the end of Folly in about 30 minutes. Although the drift was hauling down the beach there were some size to the waves.

That's right, I got some of my first photos ever published in Local-Sessions Surf Magazine. The April/May issue can be found at McKevlins or pretty much any other surf shop. Go check it out. It's FREE. I am pretty sure those are some of the first pics of Folly Beach in LSM. Just look in the top right corner of each of the photos and it will have my last name up there (Cassidy).

Another depressing flat spell looks like it is going to hang around all week. Maybe a slight bump will arrive in a few days but nothing worth skipping work or school over. And I'm graduating CofC in a couple weeks so apologies in advance if the posts get a little slack. Once all the graduation stuff is over I'll have plenty of time to add pictures and editorial to the blog especially since I am jobless :(

Mike C.

www.local-sessions.com






There are tons of Angels pictures out there of last weekends show so here are a couple different shots you may not see on other sites.

This morning may have been the cleanest surf of this past swell. But it was running in the not so spectacular thigh high range with occasional bigger sets. I got to the beach a little before 7AM. I almost didn't get out of bed cause the forecast was iffy for this morning. With no morning classes though, I said might as well go down and get some beach pics; the blog hasn't seen the beach in a while.


Occasional bigger wave

After shooting a few photos I got in the water. Nothing special if you weren't out there you didn't miss much.







I tried out some new angles because the waves weren't the best








Were you downtown sitting in your office, classroom, or car feeling like you were about to get bombed yesterday? You weren't downtown? Well you can catch the show I caught, this weekend as The Blue Angels will be doing their loops and dives over Patriots Point. Here are a few shots of their rehearsal yesterday directly over my house downtown. I guess the only advertising they have to do is fly around as low as possible all day. It works, just about everyone was talking about the jets they saw or just heard yesterday.








This one set off a few car alarms.


***And as I was just finishing putting up the pictures, rehearsal started again today. So I hopped on my bike and sped down to the Waterfront and snapped these photos today, just minutes ago.


(Editing them now. Be up shortly.)


Also went to a Riverdogs game this week. This lens isn't the best for night photography but a few came out okay. I've been playing baseball my whole life but this was the first time I've ever photographed the game.










Called safe on this steal


Barely made the catch in foul territory


Dogs take the win


That was one big post. I felt like I had something to make up to you readers though. The past week or so has been slack. Hope you enjoyed it all!

Local news stations reported a few days ago that the pollen hasn't been this bad in 5 years. Two thoughts. Maybe that's a sign El Nino is over... (yeah) And two: the mosquitos (or whatever they are) have been gobbling up the extra pollen and have multiplied to locust type swarms. (yeah again) Okay maybe not the best hypothesis for the end of El Nino or the bug swarms but the bugs really were absolutely terrible this morning. After getting out of the car bugs imediatley flew into my face. Then my legs, arms, and any other exposed skin surface.

With no bug spray on hand and I doubt it would have done anything, I decided to leave the camera in the car and take out the new board. The surf was fun and the water is nice and warm. Next time I'll bring some bug spray so I can get some surf shots up here finally.

I may go out later today and shoot some photos but I just looked at the cam and it looked like it got pretty windy so conditions may be iffy for the afternoon/early evening. But the surf is expected to linger throughout the day.

If I'm bored and don't want to start the million presentations and papers I have due next week, I'll head to the beach later this afternoon to take some shots.

Mike C.


you should get one. UPS man just dropped a bunch off at McKevlins

If you've been asking yourself, "Why hasn't Mike been posting anything cool lately?"

My excuse is school. Teachers are realizing we have two weeks left and have started dumping loads of tests and projects on all of us. To make things worse, it's super nice out. I bet if I took a survey at CofC the average GPA drops off every spring semester because of the weather and the fact that Folly is 15 min away (that's what google says but we all know it takes half a day to get there with the traffic.)

"Why didn't Mike post cool pictures with his rental lens?"

Again school. I heard the surf was really good that Friday morning I had to ship the lens back but I was taking a wonderful Spanish test. The surf had dropped off by the time I got out of class.

The upcoming surf along with good weather will bring cool pictures and posts for all of you to look at.

Mike C.

Cooper River Bridge

I hope everyone has enjoyed their couple weeks of flatness. The swell charts are looking promising for the near future. Thursday into Friday morning we could get some waist chop. Early next week we could see some bigger peaks so lets be hopeful. Fortunately I still have that pro lens. Unfortunately I need to ship it back by Friday, so I'll be really happy if the weather and waves cooperate.

It is so hard to explain in words the difference between a "consumer grade" lens and a "pro grade" lens. The only way you can explain the difference is to just see the pictures. What I want to do, either Thursday or Friday, is take pictures with the consumer lens which I own and then take pictures with the pro lens I'm renting. I think you'll be blown away.

These past few weeks have been really busy for me. Photo shoots(non surf related), preparing for graduation, and classes have slowed down the activity on the blog. The good thing is I am getting pretty good at writing HTML. This computer design class has really got me into thinking about making my own website for all my photos. In the near future I may have a small website up and running.

That's a lot of stuff to look forward to. Some high quality pictures and maybe a website in the near future. But for now lets just hope there's something to surf in the coming days. I'm sick of the flatness.



If you were wondering both of those pictures were taken with the "consumer" lens.