I took this picture on the morning of 11 September 2001.

I had gone up to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides a few days earlier to cover a new surfing event which attracted some of the best surfers from around the world.

I’d had some reasonable shows in the broadsheets the day before despite the tricky weather conditions and a few picture editors had said they would continue to be interested as the competition progressed through the week.

The morning of September 11th saw beautiful blue skies over the Outer Hebrides and I was rubbing my hands together at the prospect of being the only photographer at this unique event. Coupled with this, the competition had moved to a beach with dramatic rock formations as a backdrop and beautiful clean surf.

Through the morning I shot a set of pictures that I was really happy with including this shot of Greg Owen taking a tumble, but at lunchtime global events became apparent which, of course ended any hopes of more shows in the papers.

Ashley Coombes went from the NCTJ photojournalism course in 1992 to work for News Team, Birmingham, The Times, London, and then to Scotland where he set up Epicscotland Ltd, which represents around 20 photographers and supplies images of Scotland and Scotish life for immediate download from the epicscotland.com website. Clients include The Times, The Times Educational Supplement and The Guardian, as well as various design agencies. Photographer since 1993 EPUK member since 2002.

See more work by Ashley Coombes