Wild West with Guy and Emma

From pastry runs to 40-knot downwinders, Guy and Emma chased swell, wind and wild coastline across West Oz, putting Armstrong’s new UHA foils through everything. Here's all about what went down on their trip.

We met up with Oskar in Perth at the beginning of the Perth downwind  race week, we hadn’t actually met him before but bumped into him stocking up on pastries at North Street Bakery and Emma said to me, ‘do you know that guy?’, I looked round to see Oskar representing, fully Armstrong kitted out. I of course had seen plenty of Oskar before, so we had a good catch up and chatted about plans for the trip which we were all pretty excited about. It was great to meet him, he’s such an epic, easy-going guy, so positive and frothy which goes so well in any situation and made for an epic few weeks together! 

We got news that Armstrong wanted to come and shoot the UHA in West Oz, and other than a basic brief, they kind of left it down to us to decide where to get the shots which was really cool. A few days later, Ben Taylor flew in from Byron Bay to shoot for the week – what a legend and special human he was! Ben was great guy so positive and frothy and as we know, nails the shots, his Drone work is pretty incredible. The shoot started with Oskar picking up Ben from the airport in the afternoon on Monday. Oskar and Ben shot that evening in Perth and got some epic shots of a classic summer evening in Perth – check out Armstrong’s instagram for some highlights.

At this time, Emma and I were down south in the Margaret River and the conditions had been firing. In the coming days, for the shoot, the swell was dropping and the wind was strong, this was great news to test and shoot the new UHA range, with wild, unpredictable open ocean and insane ever-changing backdrops, so we pushed to shoot there, so Oskar and Ben woke up early and headed South. It really didn’t disappoint for the couple of days of shooting we did. 

We were given a lot of freedom to shoot where we wanted, with very loose guidelines from what Armstrong wanted from the shoot. We had spent a chunk of the winter 2025 exploring this area so had a pretty reliable idea of how the forecast would translate along the coastline. This, and a combination of it turning out Ben had grown up in Dunsborough and had his finger on the pulse with all the local inlets and a good vision of what he thought could come out well for the shoot. This was pretty epic and the combo of flexibility from Armstrong, gave us so much freedom to be flexible with what the conditions dished up and really explore the whole coastline, downwinding some of the most spectacular bit of coastline we’d ever downwinded in!

We scored some epic conditions for the three days we shot the foil down south. We covered the entire cape, from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturalise.

Our first session was around the Margraet River area, we had fickle wind but great bumps and gave us our first chance to shoot and actually our first chance to ride the foils! We SUP foiled; Oskar rode the 570, Emma the 770 and I the 670. The first time we popped up on the foils we were all amazed by the low end lift off the foils, which is often a great feeling. The foil was super intuitive, easy to use and had glide like we had rarely felt before which was super exciting.

We scored an amazing, super spectacular session on a run from the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin, it was blowing 30 – 40 knots, the wind and bumps were all lining up – it was as good at it gets, the dream. The start was a bit dramatic where Ben’s drone ended up in my Parawing, he was definitely pushing it with the drone to get the most incredible shots, so having that extra obstacle (parawing) in the air was an accident waiting to happen. I managed to pick it out of the bridles of my parawing and rode it back unwind to him, he already had his spare drone up and was shooting Oskar and Emma – he’s a machine! He was pretty pleased to get the drone back, get the SD and save a few dollars on a replacement!

This run got bigger and better; the start was pretty epic catching a few bombies in the middle of the ocean while down winding is pretty unique and special. This part of the coast is so raw, remote and inaccessible between the start and end point (20km) – it’s pretty incredible being out there with rolling lush hills on the top of huge dramatic cliffs with the most pristine white sandy beach at the bottom.

Naturally, the loyal Armstrong local crew were all super keen to get involved, which made it extra special. They helped out with jet skis for some of the downwind shoots and took us surf foiling at sunrise, all of which was really kind and super helpful. We managed to chat local legend and wing lord Luke into doing a downwinder with us with his Jetski, this meant Ben could get on the back and get some epic shots with his water housing. It was actually really special to take someone on a downwinder who sees us come and go but has never actually seen the sport in the ocean. Luke was blown away by the sport and the ease of riding the energy of the bumps in open ocean and in combination with Ben joking around, they were both in fits of laughs the entire run. Luke was sold. This particular downwinder from Margaret River started at a very iconic surfing spot (Surfers Point) to North Point, Gracetown – another iconic right hander. This made for another super exposed, special stretch of coastline with incredible deep emerald blue bumps and good sized cross swells.

This run was super special, all 3 of us rode the same bump together for so many KM’s which was super special and brings so much stoke to share an experience like this. In the last 1/4 of the run, Emma was pretty shit up by a fat 4m shark cruising along, which to be fair,  in this area the big ones aren’t always friendly! She still loved the run but was pretty committed to not come down for too many underwater shots by the end, oh and whale also cruised past at the end which didn’t help the shakes haha. Comforting to have a ski with you sometimes.

The last run we scored an epic run up North, close to Cape Naturalise from the iconic canal rocks to Sugar loaf rocks. Two iconic and beautiful land masses. Sugarloaf rock is 2 iconic rocks with a small lagoon inside (the end point). This run we scored some of the bigger more drawn out bumps we’d rode over the few days. 

The foils really came into their own here keeping up with the bumps seamlessly and leaving us to enjoy the ride, each other’s company and the incredible surroundings. Oskar was on the CHAT and we were loving it! He loved riding with others and he was an absolute shredder, it was pretty special and fun riding together. This downwind run was a real highlight of the week and the three of us shooting the gap at Sugarloaf Rock will always be fixed in my memory.

Honestly, sometimes no fixed plan is the best plan. And the week with Emma, Ben and Oskar was so much fun and such a laugh. With surf foil at sunrise and down winding until sunset, we found some insane runs, it was a dream, just days full days of foiling the new UHA’s!