Self-confessed ‘photographer mug’ and Sydney resident Peter Tids ventured south last week and said he was ‘blown away’.  

“I’m over 50, I surf and my whole life we’ve always gone north to Byron, Foster and the northern suburbs,” he said. 

“I’d never ventured past Wollongong until we visited Bendalong last November and I saw what we’d been missing.

“What was I thinking?”

Mr Tids said the wildlife and surf conditions drew him back for a second time last week. 

He spent two weeks surfing and photographing local hot spots including Cormorant Beach, Bawley Point and Racecourse Beach.

“All the locals were saying the surf hadn’t been producing for a long time and it was the first time the swell had been up, up and down the coast,” Mr Tids said.

While he said Racecourse Beach proved a bit rough, Mr Tids captured some stunning photographs of dolphins playing and catching their own waves there. 

“I knew there would be dolphins and it was amazing to catch them jumping out of the water,” he said. 

A chance meeting with Ulladulla local Russell Bierke provided the ‘icing on the cake’ for Mr Tids. 

”He’s just returned from a stint in Hawaii making video clips of him surfing Pipeline and he turned up at Shell Point last Friday and Saturday with his crew of video and cameramen to film some clips.

“To watch this guy and his mates in person put the icing on the cake for this trip.”

While he’s now returned to Sydney, it won’t be long before the South Coast’s biggest fan is back again. 

“We just got home and I already texted my wife and said ‘I want to go back’,” Mr Tids said.