HE’S simply the best surfing photographer in the world and last Tuesday Ted Grambeau was back where it all began, where he snapped some of his first published works, at Phillip Island.
Pictures of local legends, back in the day, including Neil Luke and Steve Demos, deep in the tube at Express Point, which ultimately graced the pages of Surfing Life, Tracks and other top-selling magazines, got him his start and the rest, as they say, is a fully illustrated history.
It was something of a victory lap for Grambeau, who spent his formative years at Wonthaggi, when he was invited back to the Phillip Island Boardriders’ Club to stage a retrospective of his work, an incredible collection of surfing, travel, nature, portrait and commercial photography across more than five decades.
But it would be a mistake to say he’s some washed-up old guy who’s long since hung up his Hasselblad.
In fact, as Ted told an enthralled audience of surfers and their friends, who ooh’d and ahh’d quietly to themselves as one amazing image after another hit the screen, he’s still searching for that perfect wave to photograph.
“It’s always offshore somewhere in the world,” he said while noting that he’s constantly scanning the wind, waves and swell direction at his favourite surfing locations across the globe from Tahiti to South Africa, Easter Island, Liberia, Indonesia, and even Iceland in the hope of catching the conditions at their all-time best.
“Of course, you’re going to miss it sometimes but I’m always watching it and getting myself ready.
“It helps that I love to travel,” said Ted, claiming it was a gateway to understanding life.
“Actually, there’s some good swell coming up for Iceland in the next few days but it’s onshore at the moment.”
The stunning photos of surfing action and reflection included all of the big waves, all of the stars of the sport and all of the events including the first Olympic surfing comp at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, in July-August, 2024 and the most recent edition of the annual Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay on the famed north shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
The locals weren’t missed with shots of the Island’s own Sandy Ryan at Shipstern Bluff in Tasmania and Ocean Reach surfer Ross Clarke-Jones conquering some crazy conditions in the Eddie.
Incidentally, Clarke-Jones was the one getting shredded at the Christmas-New Year event this year, severely cutting his hand on the jagged fibreglass of his broken board after a nasty wipeout.
You can go on to Ted Grambeau’s website HERE and see them for yourself.
There’s hundreds of incredibly beautiful scenes of nature and locations across the world, many of them surfing shots of course but dozens of other subjects and scenery from the Antarctica to Iceland and everywhere in between, many that are available for sale.
But it was quite something else again to get a personal commentary on the catalogue from the man who experienced the conditions, including “going over the falls” in a photographers’ boat at Teahupo'o one year and losing $30,000 worth of camera equipment in the process.
There’s also an array of photos of everything from unique perspectives of African animals, the desert sands and people from all over the world, not forgetting to capture the grassroots of surfing including kids and locals having fun at little known, even secret surfing locations.
Ted was only a 1-year-old when he moved to Wonthaggi from Melbourne with his family in the mid-1950s so his father Russell, a talented footballer, could take up a role as a professional coach at the Wonthaggi Blues football club.
Ted attended St Joseph’s Primary School locally and the Wonthaggi High School before the family moved to Foster after Russell got a shift with the SEC.
And it was here, while recovering from a football injury, when he couldn’t play footy or go surfing for months, that he picked up a camera and started taking photos of his mates at the beach and from the sidelines at the footy, joining a camera club at Port Franklin to improve his skills.
He attended Latrobe University to study economics, however while perusing the dry tomes by Lipsey, Shapiro or Samuelson he had a “what am I doing here moment?”
“I looked at what I was doing and thought about what I’d rather be doing – taking photos, surfing and travelling. I enrolled in the Commercial Photography course at RMIT and started sending my pictures to the surfing magazines.”
He was off on an amazing journey that shows no sign of reaching its ultimate destination.
Check out Ted Grambeau’s incredible catalogue at https://www.tedgrambeauphotography.com/