Often the first time you realise Lachie Rombouts is around, is the first sight of a 10-foot board being knifed into a set wave, half a mile out to sea, on the biggest day of the year. He kinda ghosts in and ghosts out, away from the car park scene. Over the past year, filmer James Kates has been quietly keeping one eye – and a lens – on Lach as he’s diced with a favourite south coast bommie. “Lachie seemed to be synchronised with my attempts at a ‘sneaky’ session out this wave,” said James. “I’d generally swim out there at crackers to film other surfers and rarely bank a clip, while Lachie would be having a field day, cutting laps around the reef and manoeuvring those giant boards down the meatiest lumps of the day. It’s sick to shoot someone with such little self-regard and who doesn’t seem to give two shits if you button on or not.”
The result is Moments… a quiet epic, featuring a quietly epic surfer.