Womp Off 2008!

What a huge success the Womp Off held on St. Simons Island was yesterday. Held at The Old Coast Guard Station beach, the Womp Off, or Wompzilla (as some have called it) drew more people this year than the past two combined. I shot the event and hosted a slideshow last night at the award's ceremony up at Gnat's Landing (a local restaurant/bar). Oh, and just in case you don't know what womping is... it's skim boarding. Throwing a thin surfboard-like board on the incoming waves and gliding over it. As you'll see in the pics, it can be pretty dangerous and pretty amazing. 

The first one was shot with a method called panning. I had to stop down the aperture to allow for a slower shutter speed and then pan with the moving subject, allowing for the subject to be in the same spot on the picture (making him appear motionless) and the background blurred across the frame... make sense? It's tricking to get right and I'm really happy I did get this one, and a couple of others.... I'm setting up www.wompoff.com right and I'll let you know when it's up. From here, we'll have more info on the sport, event and all the photos. Hope yall had a great weekend. (as always, click to enlarge these photos!)