Gangbusters Digital Surfing Magazine Issue 3

Pat Flanagan Photo Feature

Pat Flanagan has been shooting surf photographs for 45 years. His work has been published in numerous international surf magazines and books. A fifteen-year stint with Surfer Magazine and a forty-five-year association with Zigzag is part of a long list of achievements.

“I started in 75 with a Practica SLR, and in a few days, I was hooked on photography,” says Pat, then a surfer who worked on the docks in Durban to save up to do surf travel.

Ricky Basnett dances to his own tune. You’ll see all kinds of rock and roll through Darren Simes’ magic water shots of Ricky/Bobby at Cave Rock. But occasionally, when its primo, he’ll venture into town to show off his footwork.

©Pat Flanagan

By the end of the seventies, he had photos in all the international surfing magazines. In ‘81, with the help of Paul Naude and Paul Maartens, he took on the whole South African portfolio for the now-defunct Surfer Magazine, where he worked as a senior contributing photographer.

In 2015 he had a gallery published by Surfer Magazine. “That closed a circle of almost five decades of pictures published by what I still consider the ultimate surf publication.” This gallery is some of his favourite work.

Bruces Beauties, St. Francis. The ultimate wet dream since the mid-sixties when Bruce Brown, Mike Hynson, and Robert August lucked out and switched the world on to the prime asset of the region. A rare beast that needs a complex set of green lights to get it pumping, I finally lucked out in 2014 after numerous long trips that came up dry.

Pat Flanagan

By pure luck, we found this little break we called the Crack. The waves were so friendly and that little shack was always part of the conversation around the campfire.

Pat Flanagan

Tom Carroll the Goblin or Gobbo as he was known, pulling G's at The Spot.

Pat Flanagan

I remember this perfect morning at North Beach in the mid to late seventies. Jack Wilson the main lifeguard at North regarded it as his private break and who was ever going to argue with the man. Johnny Paarman was up from the Cape and he and Shaun Tomson somehow managed to paddle out or over from the Bay.

Pat Flanagan

The yard stick for stoke worldwide is the Mentawais. For surf pictures its the berries in every way. Perfect light, you can shoot off a photo boat and be right there and not even get your hair wet. Carl Roux at HT’s.

Pat Flanagan

When I started this caper behind the lens, Michael Tomson gave me a big hand up. Entrusting me with one of the earliest shoots for his then fledgling brand, Gotcha in his back yard in Ridge Road...

Pat Flanagan

Diminutive Davey Van Zyl is an absolute giant when it’s pumping in Town.

Pat Flanagan

Thunders

Pat Flanagan

Julian Wilson at full tilt during the Balllito Pro.

Pat Flanagan