JC
Midway through the shoot Foxy gave us the nod to head over to Green Island for the second phase of his plan. For fun, he wanted to share some heli time with the event guys too. As the crow flies, Green Island was around 6 miles to the south and in the helicopter we were treated to awesome views of Arlington Reef before heading across deep blue water before reaching the reefs around Green Island.
Due to strict laws that protect the National Park, we were only allowed to hover 500m outside the reef at Green Island, but even from this distance, we could see many of the competitors warming up in the surrounding lagoons.
By the time I was back at Vlasoff the tide was pretty much bang on the lowest possible and as we circled above the dark patches of reef contrasting amongst the crystal clear water while our crew raced through pit stops re-rigging and switching boards sails for some individual product shots for their sponsors.
We scored a few clear runs chasing patches of brilliant sunlight up and down that luminous blue lagoon before the next surprise – it actually started to rain. At that stage, with some magic in the bag and long hours on the heli, the time had come to call it a day.
Gladly, rather than land and switch back to the boat, I enjoyed the heli ride back to Cairns airport, while the boys packed up and ploughed back upwind against a heavy swell in Cam’s boat. Safely back at base, but now locked out of my hotel room I realized my keys – along with the rest of my kit – were somewhere out there, a speck of white in that endless sea of blue, bashing their way home through that chop.