It's easy to forget how digital cameras have changed the nature of surf photography. With their simplicity of use almost anyone can record a surf session. Testament to that is how many surf photos we see these days.

However, before digital cameras came along it was only the very keen or talented that bothered to shoot photos of the surf. Many classic sessions went unrecorded and exist only in the memories of those involved. Those sessions that were recorded are in old photo albums stored away in basements and bookshelves. Charlie Straumietis went down to the basement recently and blew the dust of one of his old albums. He scanned a few to give them a new digital life.

A mid-north coast headland firing before the digital age.// STUART NETTLE