Australian photo The Right choice for gong

The notorious Walpole surf break known as The Right has featured in a World Surf League award-winning photograph for best barrel.

The prize-winning photograph, taken by Jamie Scott, features Esperance surfer Shanan Worrall appearing through a the barrel of a 10m-12m wave on a day he said had the biggest swell in a long time.

“That day in particular the swell was as big as it had been predicted in a long time,” he said.

“It was just exceptionally big and everyone that day ended up getting some massive barrels but everyone had a few massive wipe-outs as well.”

Worrall said he was taking painkillers for a sore and sorry body for a week after taking on the giant swell. “We weren’t even out there to get photos, we just chase swell around so we weren’t out there to compete or anything, we were just there for a surf,” he said.

“And somehow we ended up in LA at the big wave awards.”

Worrall said there was more media in the water than surfers that day, taking videos and still shots of the massive waves.

As well as travelling and surfing some of the planet’s biggest swells, Worrall is also behind a company producing visual shark deterrent devices for surfers and divers.

Worrall said he started the business Shark Eyes in collaboration with abalone divers and scientists at the University of WA after an incident involving a shark while abalone diving.

“I used to be an abalone diver but gave up just a couple of years ago due to an incident I was involved in with Greg Pickering,” he said.

“Meanwhile, we’ve got our heads together with a load of abalone divers and some marine scientists and we’ve formulated a safety package and visual shark deterrent that is affordable for everyone.”