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High-performance acrobatics. Candy-colored sled shows. Slabs in 35mm. A collection of work from 14 of today’s best surf photographers.
Portfolio
Light / Dark
Pattern recognition: an observant student can learn volumes watching a master hunter select, track, and kill a quarry. Mike Stewart, Pipeline. Photograph by Ryan Craig.The two ends of the modern surf block on display during a winter run through the South Coast of New South Wales. Harry Bryant skips for a mid-tube hurry-up. Photograph by John Respondek. Benny Howard hits the apex of a high-hang-time punt. Photograph by John Respondek. Dane Reynolds, down carve at Rocky Point—classical theory of on-rail speed management updated with his own through-the-lip application. Frame grab by Jimmy Wilson.Mike Siordia, figure study in Manhattan Beach, California. Photograph by Jon Way.
Torrey Meister, Maverick’s. “A group of us were focused on the other side of the peak,” he says. “It was my first trip there and I learned quickly how difficult the left can actually be. I had a couple of bad wipeouts throughout the week and I was really ambitious to make one. This was my opening wave of the morning. It was the biggest backside barrel I’ve ever been in. I got pounded at the end of it.” Photograph by Audrey Lambidakis.
Night-session cosmos. Adam Lambert, Santa Barbara Harbor. Photograph by Seth de Roulet.
Somewhere between a ruined cobblestone dream and a heavily restricted sandspit, this roadside bend occasionally comes out of neutral with proper fueling. Dana Meaney, California. Photograph by Steve Bissell.Bryce Young, pre-surf psych-up ahead of a 45-minute paddle. Photograph by Corban Campbell.
Candy-colored sled show, Burleigh Heads. Photograph by Simon Williams.
Derrick Disney, taking the low road in Baja. Photograph by Kenny Hurtado.
Creed McTaggart, North Point. “His style walks a perfect line between control, finesse, and calculated aggression,” says photographer Kim Feast. “The end bowl always seems to bend in at you at North Point. He has everything needed to slice it to pieces.”
“The swell angles created by the underwater canyons surrounding Nazaré are a phenomenon,” says photographer Josh Tabone. “This particular afternoon was the first proper swell of the season. The sand had banked up and become steep over the long, hot, flat summer. We wandered down to watch it get ripped off the beach.”Noah Lane, County Clare, Ireland. “This angle,” says photographer Al Mackinnon, “from the other side of the bay takes a bit of reaching and is particularly precarious, the worst of all being the rocks that fall hundreds of feet from above. I saw a cascade fall almost exactly on this spot not long ago. I won’t be shooting from there again. Glad to have this photo in the bag of Noah’s matador stance.”Benji Brand, over the gunwale and in at daybreak, Tahiti. Photograph by Seth de Roulet.Teahupoo via 135mm. Photograph by Ray Collins.
[Feature image: Cliff Kapono, pier-jump as shortcut to outer waters. Central California. Photograph by Corban Campbell]
