WadeDoak
- Camera
Described by New Zealand Geographic as the "doyen of New Zealand diving", Wade Doak was an author, marine ecologist and conservationist. Along with Kelly Tarlton he was a pioneer of underwater exploration and filming in Aotearoa. Behind and in front of the camera, he contributed to documentaries for Wild South and production company NHNZ, and showcased Aotearoa’s undersea world to wide audiences.
Screenography
Biography
In his teens Wade Doak made his own diving helmet from an ice cream tin, garden hose and a bicycle pump. At the Canterbury Underwater Club he met fellow diving enthusiast Kelly Tarlton. The pair would become leading figures in the young New Zealand diving scene. Their generation pioneered underwater exploration: discovering, photographing and naming aquatic species new to science. “We were like the first guys on the moon,” Doak told New Zealand Geographic in 2006, “except this moon had life.”
Awards
2012 Queen's Service Medal
For Services to Marine Conservation
“...that day the dolphins seemed to be running the whole film show themselves. While Jan wriggled into the dolphin suit the film crew were surrounded by dolphins. I’ve never seen them behaving in such an intimate manner, really hamming it up: cruising straight towards the camera on the surface, several fins converging on the lens like a Jaws fantasy, making delicate arching leaps right alongside the inflatable...”